We left London early around 7 a.m. We caught the first tube of the day to the Northern line. Then we had to wait for the first subway of the day from the Bank station. People piled in the cars and Ben's eyes got big as he didn't think we could fit anyone else. We had our bags and backpacks so it was a fun squished ride. We had to catch the 7:41 a.m train from London Bridge station to get to the Gatwick Airport. The Northern line dropped us of at L.B. at 7:38 so I had to RUN with my bag to the ticket office, Ben was running with our 35 pound bag. I bought two tickets quickly, ran to find Ben ready to board the awaiting train. I hopped on with sliding doors closing behind me. We had about 1 minute to spare. We made it to the airport in time and caught our Air Europa flight to Madrid.
We arrived in Madrid, Spain mid afternoon. The Madrid airport was not the most efficient as our bags took 30 minutes, our de-plane took 20 minutes and the metro entrance was 20 minutes from our terminal. Talk about a bad first impression. The metro wouldn't take credit cards so we had to get out Euros there. Then we had to buy the tickets in Spanish, trying to determine the right path to take to our hotel.
We finally made it to our AC Hotel Aitana by Marriot just in time for Ben to attend a session at his conference. I got situated in our room, showered and unpacked us for our three night stay.
He came back and we spent the evening exploring around "Sol". We grabbed dinner at Cafe & Tapas, after looking for a non-touristy spot for 20 minutes. We tried patatas bravas, tostada with jamon, croquettes, and two "salads." The nightlife was busy and bustling on a Sunday night. We got some gelato and called it a day.
The next day was Monday and Ben had conference sessions in the morning.
It was the first night I finally fell asleep at a decent hour, so I slept in and made up for some lost sleep. The other two wives were doing things with their husbands, so I waited for Ben to finish.
I met Ben around lunchtime and we had a few hours to tour the city together.
We took the Metro to Opera station and found the Royal Palace. Ben was obsessed. It was actually a lot more grandiose than I expected. I was surprised by its' large ceiling frescos in almost every room. They were ornate and beautiful. We spent an hour at the grounds and going through the palace.
Afterwards we walked back to Sol and walked to Retiro Park as we passed some other beautiful sites. We ran out of time to have lunch there but got a good feel for it and enjoyed the nice weather. The little lake with boats and Plaza de Armas were fun to see.
SEGOVIA-
Our
plan was to take the 8:00 Renfe AVE train to Segovia. We arrived at the
train station too late, not knowing the regulations for ticket buying and how
crowded the trains would be. We had to wait until 9:45 for the next train
to depart, but luckily the journey was only 30 minutes long. I was very
frustrated but we waited at the Charmartin station for the train in a Cafe with
wifi. Ben got some work done and I looked at more specifics on traveling
within the city. We got to Segovia at 10:30 and took the bus to the city
center that dropped us off at the aqueduct. We were in awe at its size as
it towered over our heads. We walked through the narrow streets and found
the cathedral. Ben loved the feel of the smaller city streets and the
cobblestone. The cars drove right along with us as we walked to Plaza
Mayor and beheld the grand cathedral. The sun was shining and it was a
cool 65 degrees. We couldn't see all the side chapel/rooms because there was a
communion service going on but we saw most of it and its' tall ceilings.
The detailed vaulted stone work was beautiful.
Headed to the Alcazar we enjoyed its setting on the hill, the deep moat, old armor and gold adornment of the rooms. It was smaller than the Royal Palace at Madrid but much older and very unique. We climbed to the top of the tower in 150 steps and looked over the city. There was dense vegetation around the river below us and then very dry Arizona like landscaping elsewhere. They had a Newton book on math from the 1700's. We headed back through the city back to the aqueduct and back on the bus to the train station. I was worried we wouldn't make the bus in time for our 2:00 train so we rushed to get lunch at Burger King and jumped on the earlier bus ride. We made it back to Madrid and got out of Segovia right before the rain came. Ben wanted to make a 3:30 conference session so we hurried back to Cuzco station and got him there a few minutes late.
The Alcazar or palace*(below)
The cathedral (below)
I went back to the hotel to plan our evening. Ben was done by 5 and we headed to the Prado Museum for the free visiting hours at 6:00. We arrived a little early and grabbed a quick dinner at the museum cafe before going in. Ben had a roast beef and I had a chicken sandwich with Tres Mex Doritos and a croquette. We joined the free line and finally entered the museum. My feet and body were tired so I didn't have the stamina to read all the artwork descriptions. We saw a few famous Goya, Rembrandt and other paintings. After the museum we headed straight to the Real Madrid vs. Elche soccer game. We rode the Metro with many other fans to the stadium and got there a few minutes before kickoff to hear the national anthem and announce the players. We sat by Chad and the other BYU co-workers were two rows behind us. Elche scored on a PK in the first ten minutes. That got Real Madrid going! Then we had a header goal scored right in front of us. We sat on the north side behind the goal. It was very steep seating so we didn't feel like we were up too high. The crowd was fun, not to loud but a few people were secretly smoking which was not too pleasant. Around 15-20 minutes in Cristiano Ronaldo took a PK right in front of us. It was so fun to see live. I got a few pictures and Ben got a video. Then Ronaldo had a header goal making it 3-1 for us. Halftime came and we bought the largest 2 euro popcorn you can imagine. Nothing like the states prices for snacks. The second half was slow until we got some subs in and Ronaldo got another PK on the other side. Then with three extra minutes added to play Ronaldo had a 1 v. 1 with teh goalie and poked it in to make it 5-1 for Real Madrid! We couldn't have asekd for a more exciting, goal-scoring game.
SEVILLA :
We took our first taxi in Europe and it was so nice not rushing somewhere via public transportation.
The metro wasn't as frequent at 6:15 a.m. so we chose to leave our hotel and head to Atocha train station with the taxi. We made it there in time to get a pack of donuts for 2,75 a 3 euro fresca and two apples for 2,50. Gotta love the mark up at the convenient stations. We boarded easily for a 7:00 a.m. departure from Madrid-Seville. The speedy train was so slick and we got there at 9:30 a.m. We found a luggage storage facitily and went to catch the bus that all the online reviews mentioned. We waited 15 minutes for the next bus just to have the driver tell us to go to another bus station since we were headed to the Plaza de Armas. I was frustrated and confused becuase everyone had mentioned this was the correct bus. We found bus line 21 he mentioned, hopped on and hoped we knew where our stop was. We found a nice hotel at Plaza de Armas and got quick WiFi and a map. Ben helped plan our day trip from one end of the city to the other.
Our first stop was the Plaza de Toros, the famous bull fighting ring. It was neat to see where they started bull fighting in 1800 and still continue to do fights today. This started as training for battle and then became an official sport, with the first school for bull fighthing in Seville. We walked along the riverfront trail and saw the tower overlooking the city and river. It was not a very touristy part of town but the tree lined streets and slower pace was a nice feel.
We made our way through the narrow Spanish feeling streets to the Cathedral. Its' size towered over us and we stopped in the chapel during visiting hours before finding the main entrance with a 15 minute line. It was forecast to rain 70% chance so we wore pants. It ended up only raining while we were in the cathedral so we lucked out with a sunny warm 75-80 degree day. We really lucked out.
Inside the cathedral the ceilings were huge with ornate decorations from top to bottom. We were allowed to alk in all the side rooms with decorative stained glass and gold ceilings.
We climbed to the top of the tower to find views of the gorgeous gothic architecture out the windows.
After the cathedral we went next door to the Alcazar, or royal palace, originally built for the Moors or medieval muslims.
At first we were skeptical of another entrance fee and not a lot to show for it, but we were soon taken away by the unique style and tile work throughout the building, often dating back to 1600. The door frames/ways had beautiful decoration and detail and each room had a new design. The palace was much larger than we expected. The ceilings weren't too tall but the details and style was eye catching. There was a vast garden area that was possibly even 2 times larger than the palace itself. We almost got lost in there.
We were very glad we stuck with the plan and enjoyed ourselves.
We found a small souveneir shop around the corner and got small tiles spelling LEWIS.
After being unimpressed with the food in Madrid, Ben decided to try a Mexican restaurant. We walked for 15 minutes trying to find it as it was highly rated and well visited based on the online reviews. We didnt get the exact address written down, just a star on our map of where it should be. (This is where having an international data plan would have been very helpful). The locals kept telling us different directions and my pregnant, hungry, tired self got frustrated. Ben tried one last street and somehow found the hole in the wall. The owner was from Mexico City and was very nice. We had chicken and pork burritos with rice and beans and some spicy salsas. It hit the spot and I could barely finish my meal.
We wanted to see one more place, Plaza de Espana before we needed to be at the airport at 6:30 pm.
We walked there for 15 minutes and found guards stopping us from entering because they were filming a movie. Ben went around the side to see if we could get in from another way and he snuck us in around the corner. We saw the beautiful plaza with a small canal with boats, fountain and gorgeous tile work. I was glad we could see it from the front but wished we could stay and enjoy the feel of the area. Ben said Seville felt more like Spain than Madrid because of the smaller scale, narrow streets, homey and romantic. Ben could almost understand them speaking better than I could because they speak Spanish saying their S's like "th".
We didn't find a bus stop near by so we walked back to the station 20 minutes. Lots of back and forth walking and oh were my feet already tired. We made it back to our starting point at the train station of Santa Justa, grabbed our luggage and caught the AE bus to the airport 15 minutes away. We checked in and got to the gate and waited for awhile to board our first RyanAir flight to Rome. The landing in Rome was the scariest I've encountered. It was 10:30 pm and very dark outside. We circled around the airport multiple times and finally on our landing we made a very sharp turn right before our touchdown. I was very grateful to be on land again. It took 45 minutes for them to get our bags out and then we had a taxi drive us to our bed and breakfast that night. We had arranged the taxi with our host at a rate of 40 euros. He tried making us pay 45, but I insisted and wouldn't get out of the taxi. Gotta love foreigners trying to take advantage of you!
Adios, Spain!
.JPG)
