Lisa's Trip: Spain!

Hi everyone!

I'm sorry it's been such a long time between blogs, but between work and travel I've been rather occupied. You'll have to bear with me, this may be a long blog...

MADRID
I arrived in Madrid three days before I was to start my intrepid adventure. I spent these three days checking out the museums/art galleries such as Museo del Prado, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza and Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. These museums feature many works of art by famous Spanish artists, many I'm ashamed to say I'd never heard of before (but have a new appreciation of). There were also famous works by artists that I had heard of before too, such as Pablo Picasso. The Reina Sofia features a very famous piece of work by Picasso called Guernica which he painted in response to the bombing of the town Gernika, in the civil war.

Banco de Espana

For the first three nights, I stayed in a hotel on the north side of Grand Via. Every evening, on my way back to my hotel, I passed several women on each corner. They were all attractive women, wearing high heels and skinny jeans or skirts, and I assumed that they were all prostitutes. It wasn't until the second night when I was passing two of them and heard them talking to each other that I realised that they weren't all WOMEN!

The Edificio Metrópolis

My Intrepid Moorish Spain Tour started on the Saturday night, October 11th, with a group meeting in the lobby of our hotel at 6pm. I was extremely disappointed when I discovered that our group leader was doing the trip "blind" (as Stefan had on the second part of our Italy tour). I will say at this point that I did have a fantastic time on the tour, and Krisztina, was a great leader, very enthusiastic and passionate about Spain (Spain is her dream tour) and she had map-reading skills which were very good. Scarily good. In fact, she lead some of us in the group to become suspicious of her true profession (elite spy was high on our list). She also had a great sense of humour, which is essential at times when travelling in a foreign country, let alone trying to organise 11 other adults.

However, I was disappointed nonetheless. There had been a change of guide in the last 2 weeks before we started the trip because there had been a death in the family of a guide from another trip, so that meant the guide we were supposed to have had to fill in for that guide, then Krisztina had to fill in for our guide. So it was an unfortunate case of unforeseen circumstances that lead us to having a "blind" guide, but still, it would have been nice (and perhaps professional) of Intrepid to have let us know before we started the trip. This won't stop me from using Intrepid in the future, however, it might stop me from recommending them to other people.

So, a little about my fellow travellers:
Margaret, a lovely lady from Tasmania! Hobart, actually, however she did live in Launceston in Newstead for a while, and was originally from Ringarooma (although she didn't know mum, and mum didn't remember her, either). She also has a daughter who went to Melbourne University and studied Vet Science (she graduated a couple of years before I started), and also did the UK thing for a few years. It's such a small world!

Jess, in her mid-twenties who works as an industrial designer in Melbourne.

Nathalie, a woman in her early forties from Brighton, England. She has a grandma who lives near Barcelona, so she could speak Spanish quite well, and although she'd spent a lot of time in Barcelona, she hadn't seen much of the rest of Spain.

Zar-Zar and Yithette, two sisters from Brisbane. They were originally from Burma.

Andrew, a guy from Melbourne who does something with architecture computer programs for a living.

Richard, from Nottingham in England, who like Nathalie had spent a lot of time in Barcelona, but not travelled much around the rest of the country.

Matt and Lenore, a married couple with their own business from Sydney. Lenore was a vegetarian, and particularly seemed to have a personality clash with Lilian.

Lilian, a teacher in her sixties from Western Australia. Lilian LOVED to talk. Her favourite subjects include herself, her experiences and her family. I could write a whole book about what I know about Lilian, but this blog is about ME and MY experiences, so I won't .

And of course, our guide Krisztina, who was from Hungary, and who I've already mentioned before, so I'll move on...

Our group meeting finished at about 8pm and after half an hour to freshen up and get changed, we met again to go on our orientation walk of Madrid, which was combined with a tapas bar hop. This was one of the most fun orientation walks I've been on, probably because we were stopping to eat and drink along the way. We saw many of the sights I had already seen during my first 3 days in Madrid, including Plaza Mayor, The Royal Palace and Puerta del Sol.

Plaza Mayor

Royal Palace

The tapas bars we visited included Museo del Jamón (Museum of Ham) where we got a free plate of meat product with every first drink we ordered, and where the speciality was Jamón Serrano (cured ham).

Our second stop was Casa del Abuelo, where the speciality was cooked prawns. I had them al ajilo (in garlic) and they were the best tasting prawns (well, shrimps actually) that I tasted in my whole trip to Spain. This little tapas bar was possibly also my favourite in all of Spain. It was a very crowded, atmospheric place and the tables were basically island bars, around which there are no seats, you just stand. It was quite hot and claustrophobic and noisy, but that is a sign of a great tapas bar.

Our third tapas bar featured a lot of bull-fighting paraphenalia on the walls, including photos of a bull-fighter with a bull's horn going through his ankle, and surgeries to repair various bull-fighting wounds. There were also many bull's heads on the wall. Lenoré and Matt refused to go into this one, but most of us went inside for a look. Their tapas included a variety of seafood.

Our last tapas bar was called Casa Rua, and their speciality was fried calamare. It was delicious.

The group at the end of our orientation walk, outside the Royal Palace. From left to right: Nathalie, Andrew, Lenoré, Matt, Richard, Me, Jess, Lilian, Margaret, Zar-Zar, Yithette.

The next morning, we caught a bus to Toledo, one of the oldest cities in Spain. We took an orientation walk around the city, and took in the sights inside the old city walls. The sights included the old Cathedral, several synagogs, and El Greco's masterpiece The Burial of The Count of Orgaz. After lunch, we had free time, during which many of the group chose to look through the cathedral, before heading off to do their own thing. Nathalie and I looked through the cathedral, then wandered through the streets before heading back to the bus station and back to Madrid.

A wall of the main gates to Toledo.

The streets of Toledo inside the gates.

Puerta del Sol

It was Spain's National day, Columbus Day, when they celebrate the arrival of Columbus in the Americas. There was a parade travelling down Paseo Del Prado when we arrived, so we stopped to watch it for a while, before following it up the road, then catching the metro back to our hotel, and getting some tapas for dinner.

The Parade on Paseo Del Prado

The Edificio Metrópolis at night

CORDOBA
The next morning, we caught a bus to Cordoba. We did an orientation walk, but most of the sights were closed because it was a Monday. Fortunately, the most popular sight in Cordoba, the Mezquita, was open. This mosque was constructed by the Moors in 796, however it has been enlarged since this time and is now five times it's original size. After the Christian conquest, it was transformed into a cathedral, and now features elements of both a mosque and cathedral.