Post by Charlie: The tourist office at the airport told us that our plan to go into Madrid on the subway would not be a good idea because they were on strike and offering minimal service so we might have to wait a long time. She suggested the shuttle bus. We went over there and ran the last 100 yards to catch a bus that was just leaving, good luck. On the bus we talked to a woman for Portland OR who lives in Madrid. She said the bus was a lot easier anyway. But she had waited an hour for a bus that is supposed to run every ten minutes. then she said this was not just to subway strike but a general strike for all public transportation in the whole country. Our plan was to take the train to Toledo where we had a B&B reservation. Normally the train runs every hour and takes 30 minutes. She was skeptical of our chances of getting to Toledo. Apparently the law is that that can only do an 80% strike and must have “servicios minimos” of 20% capacity. But she said they often ignore that.

We got to the main train station and went to the phone store and got Vodaphone SIMS for our (unlocked) phones. Easy peasy and nine euro for nine euro of call time, at about 8 euro cents a minute. So that worked. Next went over to where the Toledo trains were prepared for a wait. No trains for you! They said no train was going to Toledo (or anywhere) today and suggested the bus. The train station was pretty empty, just some tourists like us walking around looking  lost and wondering how they were going to get where they were going. We were thinking we might have to stay in Madrid for one night.

We stopped at a coffee place to have our first cafe con leche but they only had cafe latte and cappuccinos. We checked and found we had wandered into an Italian coffee place but they made us a coffee con leche anyway.

We called our hotel (hostel actually) in Toledo and talked with the manager and he thought there were buses but he would check and call back. He called after a while and said there was a bus from Plaza Eliptico at 3pm. It was about 11am then so not too bad. We took a taxi over there and went down to where the buses loaded. Again not much happening. the information window was closed and a few people were wandering around looking lost and/or disappointed. We looked around and found a ticket window open and the guy in a uniform comes up and says something like “bus to Toledo?” We can’t figure out how he knew. Buses went to dozens of places from this terminal. Anyway there were lots of signs about “servicos minimos” and this included a bus to Toledo at 3pm. It was the local but we were glad for anything. It was 10 euro for us both, the train would have been 20.

We walked around the area and asked about restaurants and found a place. It was okay but not great but lots of food and pretty cheap, 10 euro each for the menu of the day including two courses, dessert, wine, and coffee (con leche, of course).

The bus was very local and took an hour and 15 minutes but we saw a lot of places around Madrid. The area is quite dry, more than we expected it to be. We took another taxi to near the hostel, which is in an area where cars cannot go and we were finally there.

The place is very nice. It was a relief after 26 hours of travel to be able to unpack our bags and rest a bit. Then out for a bit of Toledo.

We often see new fashions in our trips to Europe that we see a year or two later in the US. But maybe it is Albuquerque and the fashions are happening at the same time in New York, probably so. Anyway for those of you not living in New York, or Europe, we have been seeing a new fashion: women wearing short-shorts, often colorful, and knee-length soft leather boots. A good fashion for young women because only a young woman could pull it off without looking ridiculous.

Here it is:

It seems obvious now and probably to you.

We ate at Alfileritos 24, at Calle de los Afilteritos 24 (cute huh?), the guidebooks said “Modern international”. Our hotel manager, Enrique, recommeded it and called it just “24”. I guess that is what the young, hip crowd calls it and Wynette and I, with our combined 125 years, always try to go where the cool kids go. Overall it was very good.

This is the appetizer we got “carpaccio de pulpo” Somehow, despite our hipness, they gave us the English menu which called it “Roast octopus”. When we got it, it seemed like the wrong order. Where’s the octopus I thought. And it seemed kind of small for 10 euro. Wynette agreed although she was looking at it from the other side of the table so I guess it is mostly my error. We were this close to asking the waiter about it when I suddenly realized that the plate was all black and the pattern on it was, in fact, our octopus. It would have been highly embarrassing and a big hit to our hipness if we had asked. Anyway, once we found the cleverly cleverly-hidden-as-a-pattern-on-the-plate octopus, it was very good and we were off to a great start with the meal.

The play-doh does look like a kid shaped it. It was potato and turnips (and purple coloring) and was good too.

I’ll refrain from posting pictures of all the other courses, which we did take.

We ate here the first day in Toledo.

This is actually two bars/restaurants sharing the same patio. On the left with the reddish chairs is our restaurant and the next two rows with the darker chairs is another bar/cafe.

Post by Wynette:  If you’ve read our blogs from trips to Italy you know we were always raving about the coffee. To our surprise, we like the coffee in Spain even more.  It’s been fantastic.  We always order cafe con leche (coffee with hot milk) which is pretty much like a cappuccino except the milk is not as foamy.  So it’s really like  coffee latte in the States except in a cappuccino-sized cup.  And the coffee tastes a lot better than any coffee I’ve ever had in the States. It’s rich and full bodied but never bitter or harsh.  We liked the coffee in Toledo (where we spent the first 5 days) and we find we like the coffee in Catalonia (NE Spain) even more.

A few times, when we would leave a bar, we’d tell the person behind the counter how much we liked the coffee.  Their face would light up.  They really seemed to appreciate that we told them that.

I wanted to include this picture because it’s only one of a couple we have of us together so far. The  nice woman behind the bar asked us if we’d like a picture when she saw us taking pictures of each other.  Wouldn’t you know, this happens to be an Italian coffee bar (Illy) that we stopped into while waiting for a train in Madrid, on the way to Barcelona. (You can see our suitcase handles there behind us.)

Post by Charlie: Some of you may think that I am obsessed with bathroom fixtures. Well so be it. Here is our sink in Girona. Still square but sloped for better draining and with a slider for hotel goodies on one side.

And you fellow bathroom fixture fans should check out our sink in Sorrento from last year’s Italy blog, linked to in a previous post.

Post by Charlie: Girona has a river going through it with several bridges. Our hotel is right by one of the bridges, a red steel one, designed by Gustav Eiffel tower of Eiffel Tower fame. On the corner is this redbud tree. There are lots of redbud trees around Girona. We come back from all four directions and it is always so nice to see our redbud tree and know we are almost back.

We took an hour-long ride along the coast in what was advertised as Dali’s fishing boat. Gala was the name of Dali’s wife, as well as his boat.

Our boat man man spoke Calalan, Spanish and French but not much English:

We took the trip with a very nice French family:

The younger son was adorable:

We passed a natural arch under Cap Creuss, which is at the easternmost point of mainland Spain.

We passed several boats:

And to prove we were really there: