Staring our final day.....

.....in Madrid.

We have spent two days doing mainly family based stuff. with a little eating and/or shopping.

Nothing huge to report, Madrid is as busy and chaotic as ever: people everywhere, construction everywhere, tourists everywhere, noise and bustle everywhere. When you add the heat, it will be our coolest day today at 34C, it is a very tiring place. If you plan to visit Madrid to chill, you are making a mistake.

Madrid is always under construction and they seem to be continually tunneling: new metro lines, new underground car parks, new freeways under Plaza Mayor. But a lot of the recent construction work is due to some recent legislation about building maintenance being mandatory and state supervised. Apparently the state sends inspectors around regularly and orders maintenance be done if things are not up to scratch. This probably sounds a little interventionist to our Western ears, it also means that Hapsburg Madrid, el Madrid de los austrias, is looking rather nice, with beautifully restored facades. We are staying in that part of town and the buildings are lovely.....which does you no good, as I have been slack in the photography department here in Madrid, and you are merely relying on my words.

The less attractive part of Madrid is the litter. I am siding with Marjan on the littering issue, and want to add dog-poopers to the list. We are early birds, and have been out whilst the city has literally armies of people cleaning up the previous nights' (and into the mid AMs) debris. This part of Madrid is basically wall to wall eating/drinking places, most of those places are open late....very late......and most do a poor job at keeping their clients on the right side of hurling stuff onto the pavements that they use for their outside tables.

It is a clash between the beautiful older city and the disgusting debris on the streets for mind space in this tourists head. A few more bins, a little more care and Madrid could be as lovely a city as you could get for it's size.

The family stuff has been great. Both Mum's and  Dad's families have been amazingly warm and welcoming, as usual. It has been particularly good to have two of the girls with us during our visits. The Spanish lessons have paid off with much better levels of communication and less reliance on the English speaking members to chat.

So we all head off in different directions today, Marjan and I back to Melbourne and 'our boys'.

So bye from the blog for another little while

We checked out the Royal Family

So a break from family commitments today. The Royal Palace called. Katherine had opted for a morning of internet activity on a comfy couch under the air conditioner.

Anna had not been inside the Royal Palace so we booked for an early visit. But first we started with churros in the cafeteria with a view of the courtyard. No photos allowed in most of the detail rooms, but I am sure you can imagine what a grand palace looks like.

I managed to negotiate the main staircase without falling down them as I did twenty years ago.

The royal family no longer lives here, but it IS still used for special occasions...eg abdication of Juan Carlos and ascension of his son in 2014.

They had a collection of Italian centred art from the various collections on display. I enjoyed the Caravaggio (Beheading of St John The Baptist). Mostly I suppose because they were set up filming it for some documentary and so it was lit particularly well and basically glowed.

As always we particularly also enjoyed the Royal Armory with the amazing detailed art work on the armour and the special armour for the princes.

By the time we were done, we were also well and truly done. So we gave her a call and she joined us at San Miguel for some tapas for lunch. It is now so overpriced....but none-the less a lot of fun.

Bodega Peral

My cousin Jesus had organised an outing for us. he had tried to keep the actual location secret, but Spaniards and secrets are a little incompatible, so we knew that we ere visiting a bodega (winery).

We drove there through typical Castilian countryside, in typical Castilian summer sun, and wound our way through the narrow streets of Colmenar De Oreja. The winery is right in the middle of town and Fernando our host pointed out that they are probably going to move out as modern commerce is not truly compatible with being in a street that is less than three metres wide.

The visit was a little more than just a winery visit, Fernando is an historian and writer, trained as a teacher, as well as being a wine buff, and hence added a little tour around the town with amazingly in-depth and knowledgeable commentary. Colmenar De Oreja has a rich and long history with the Romans really getting the place on the map with stone, tile and wine production making the most of the limestone, mud and copious sunlight. Even those of us with limited Spanish were riveted by his passion and knowledge.

As we walked around he kept digging into Spanish history and how it touched Colmenar: Romans, Muslims, Christians.......Reconquista to Spanish Civil War.....he had facts and anecdotes about each part of town. Somehow this place has not got on the tourist map, probably lack of air-space from the nearby Chinchon which was made famous by the 50's movie stars. The place though was really lovely....apart from the litter....Marjan is starting to wonder if jail time is enough!

A highlight was the town square, a very typical Catilian square. It was not easy to see as they were set up for their summer festival which will include bull fighting.

 

The particularly interesting thing about this town square is that it took 100 years to build as they had to fill in a canyon between two hills, channel a creek, provide fountains/water for drinking water for humans, drinking water for animals, washing water and then send the water through for the farms  and provide a tunnel to connect the two ends of town .... then they build the plaza on top of that.....

We eventually got back to the bodega and went straight down to the caves where they keep the wine cool.... though now they use oak barrels ...

We had a white and an absolutely delicious rosé in the caves, before heading up for some cheese, a couple of reds and a bubbly. If I could I would get a couple of cases of the rose and the bubbly shipped over. Marjan called the bubbly 'dangerous' : perhaps not correct in viticulture language, but absolutely accurate in its moreishness.

Unfortunately, our time with Fernando came to an end. We headed off to Chinchon for a quick look and some lunch. The plaza, curiously a round one, was similarly set up for the summer festivals, and we had a short wait for lunch.

A slightly tense drive into Madrid, imagine coming into Spencer Street as a foreign driver, barely dampened another wonderful drive. Perhaps I should have drunk less and spat more. Thanks to eldest daughter for the wonderful calm navigation.

The tears have flown freely

A consolidated post because I do not intend to put too many family photos online.....

Both daughters joined us and it was great to see them and chat and laugh. We managed to get a few feeds in to them to acclimatize them to the pork based diet. They seemed to handle it just fine.

On Friday night was the first big family get together at a Flamenco Tablao. I think we had 24 there. It was a fairly good show with ordinary food. Actually a very good show. We then strolled through Madrid to have a chocolate and churros at San Gines, we overran their basement area, although I must say churros in 35C is a bit wrong! Anyway it was a great night, and a great way to start the family stuff.

On Saturday we went to El Puente De Los Franceses and sprinkled some of Dad's ashes in the Manzanares. I reckon they probably purified the water somewhat. It was extremely emotional for Tomas and I, but we had support and girded ourselves with roast chicken and sidra at Mingo's.

Today we have been to Villa Del Prado, where we finally laid Dad to rest with Mum. Again very emotional. We got out to La Poveda afterwards and had a swim in the Alberche, followed by a lunch with about 36 members of the extended family. A lot of crap was talked, a lot of hugs were squeezed and a lot of kisses shared. Finally we finished it off with a walk up La Calle Del Cerro to see Abuela's street and the famous mile post.

Most of that will mean nothing to most...... but every one of those places or names resonates......

It's been A Hard Days Night....

and Marjan's tired as a dog......so let's stop now.

Majan did not sleep at all last night. Must have been the excitement of a travel day to Madrid!

We were up early as I had mucked up the car/train booking. So we needed to get the car into Sevilla by 9:45, but our train did not leave till 13:40 (Spanish style time). So we drove out through the rural dawn, stopped at a servo for a coffee...Marjan had two....the second means she has a very hairy chest!

Got the car to Santa Justa train station, on Avenida Kansas City ...yeah go figure....apparently a sister city relationship.

Anyway the train station had a Left Luggage office to leave our luggage, and a helpful info man, who told us all about the buses, so we made the most of our sojourn by riding into town and visiting the Plaza España. Nearly every town in Spain has a Plaza España, but Sevilla's is special for a few reasons. On a personal level, I recall the girls, particularly Anna running around here 20 odd years ago. It is also an amazing building, built for the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition. Finally it has a little alcove for every province in Spain.

Marjan and I enjoyed a walk around the shady bits, reminiscing about our trip 20 years ago, and getting photographed in our region.

Eventually it was time to head back, get our luggage back and board the train for Madrid.

We got to Madrid without incident, found our digs, literally a ston'es throw from Sol. For those who don't know Madrid, Sol is the centre of the known universe for madrileños, it is kilometer zero for Spanish roads, pretty much in the centre of Madrid, which is pretty much in the centre of Spain and constantly abuzz, and constantly under construction. So nice accommodation. We managed to do a grocery shop and are awaiting the first of our daughters who will join us for some family time.

Arcos

We again breakfasted in the hotel balcony, with the wonderful rural view. Later today than yesterday and with a lovely cool breeze.

Though we have been staying in Arcos de la Frontera we had not really had a good look around. Today is the day Arcos. Into aimless wandering mode we got!

The old Arabic Alcazaba is now a private home and we could not get in. Right at the top of town, it made me wonder what even villain has bought it.

The two biggish churches were quite extraordinary for the amazing altar pieces, many altar pieces each, with way over the top gilt and detail. Obviously the artists commissioned to do them were given the quite clear instructions to throw everything in... if it is in the bible, it should be in this altar piece. Marjan was quite taken with what appeared to be Virgin Mary in a sun-hat. Very topical and local.... might be worth a sun-safe ad?

Lots of amazingly narrow streets. Here are a couple of shots of the main thoroughfare through the old town.

We found this amazingly quirky, kitsch Belen. Belen is Bethlehem in Spanish and stands for a nativity scene. Well this one had been done up by a local religious club who had commissioned some real artists for the figurines. Every 6 minutes it cycled through as a night scene. It had several nativity scenes. The local bloke who was minding it was very proud of the work that had been done over 8 years to create it. We enjoyed it so much I left a couple of euros donation.

Went into one of the old palaces, that is now a 'local art' museum. It was a really pretty building, with a couple of glorious internal patios. Patios of course are the heart of Andaluz architecture. In the bottom section, which was once the Guardia Civil stables, we ran into Curro. Curro works here a bit. He has to so that he can get his unemployment benefits ….. a sort of work for the dole. If he had asked I would have paid Curro to leave us alone. He insisted on 'interpreting' the paintings for us, pointing out where they were set, where a new petrol station had been built, where he and his family had a dip in the river etc etc etc..... Eventually Marjan went to the toilet to escape, I let him latch on to a new couple wandering about. He was nice enough, but I did not really need someone to tell me that a painting was of Arcos on a stormy day..... my artistic sensibilities are not THAT atrophied.

More wandering, with views over the other side of the hill, and then back up the hill for some lunch........ we did the three course Menu Del Dia thing for 9.50 euros. It included a jug of sangria, so we were a little torpid by the end of lunch. …....

...and also after a nap.......

At least by the time for the picnic with a view, we were OK.  

Round to Ronda

We awoke early and breakfasted in the hotel balcony, looking out at the start of a rural day.....horses, farmers, flocks of birds stretching out in the morning...... and the swifts swirling about us with their amazing aerial contortions.

We got our car and drove to Ronda. The drive was again up and down mountains, though very pretty countryside and some lovely villages. The pass between valleys was up around 1100 metres, so nothing to be sneezed at. The road were a little scary, but at least in good condition. The narrowness and lack of verges has me wanting to close my eyes and pray when a truck comes around a bend.

We got lucky in Ronda, someone pulled out of a free parking space as we came in, so we pulled in and walked to the Plaza del Socorro for a second cuppa for the day. Lovely space to watch the world go past.

We were soon checking out the Puente Nuevo (new bridge), and yes it is a long way down. The bridge has some gruesome history, with both sides in the Civil War using the rooms in it to torture captured opposition and then to hurl them out the windows. Ahhh the joys of war!

We did our normal aimless wandering, though some pretty streets. We liked that Ronda had a few plazas with trees and shade. It broke the heat down a little and provided some pleasant changes for the eyes as well. Soon enough we found ourselves down the hill having a different look at the bridge. We met a Melbourne couple and exchanged 'couple photo' duties.

For Laura, this is what a Spanish waterfall looks like! You can see how they are channelling the water along the right hand wall.

Had a drink at one of the plazas, in the background a musician from the academy playing some lovely Spanish guitar. Could have stayed all day, but they charged 5 euros for a wine and a water. Outrageous!

More aimless wandering around the old town, a building visit or two, some drinks, some lunch, some more aimless wandering. I had a chat with a bloke at the cathedral who insisted that Spaniards discovered Australia but left because they did not find gold or silver ........ who am I to argue .... real Spaniards know it all after all!

There was a bloke in one of the plazas/parks playing something familiar ....Spanish guitar....but........aha it was the Beatles. Sounded good.

Eventually we came back across the river via the Puente Viejo (old bridge) ….. to more views of the New Bridge and the incredible gorge that separates the 'old' town from the 'new'.

Whilst at Plaza del Socorro Marjan had spotted an interesting cake shop....aren't they all? Whilst contemplating cakes, we bumped into the guy from the cathedral. Turns out he is a teniente (lieutenant I think) in the Spanish army. His name is Jesus and his job is to escort visiting military folk from around the world, who stay at a military hotel in Malaga, and make sure there is no trouble. He was escorting a small group of Romanians. He is not their tourist guide, but hovers nearby ..... and obviously chats to strangers like me ...... so we chatted a bit more....about the state of the Spanish economy, and the difficulty in finding meaningful work ......... meanwhile Marjan pondered cake.......we eventually left Jesus and Marjan, bought and ate cake.

Eventually I wondered about Jesus' bona fides and checked my wallet....all there! Suspicious bugger!

On the way back to Arcos we took the wider, safer, faster but slightly less picturesque road. We were much faster, and my heart rate was almost normal all the way.....slightly elevated due to the presence of my true love!