Spain
May 21st, 2010
We have arrived
Our first day got off to a rather inauspicious start when we showed up at our hotel only to find that they had lost our reservation. Even after I pulled up the confirmation email on my phone they were still insistant that there was no reservation. They claimed that the hotel had switched ownership since I had made the original reservation and it must not have gotten written down.
At which point we asked that even though they didn’t have our reservation, did they possibly have a room for us anyway?
This caused a great kerfuffle while they spent the next 30 minutes calling god knows who on the phone still trying to track down the original reservation only to declare at the end that they did in fact have a room but we could only have it for one night. They were very insistant and apologetic about this point but as our original reservation had only been for one night we were happy.
My parents had been standing by while all this was going on because they got into our hotel before we did and they aren’t even staying there.
It’s really very warm here. Very warm. I’m glad we didn’t come in the heat of summer. And we’ve all ready walked a lot. From our hotel down to Plaza Mayor where we strolled through the fabulous Mercado de San Miguel. Then on to the Palacio Real ( Royal Palace).
Honestly, I think that’s about the last royal palace I need to see in this life time. We’ve seen palaces in Paris, Vienna, Munich, Prague and probably a few more that I’m leaving out and at this point they all start to blend together. Not that it wasn’t nice. It was. But it was another nice palace. Meh.
Now we are back at our hotel were Irene has insisted we have a short siesta before meeting my parents for dinner later.
Tomorrow morning we pick up our rental car and drive to Toledo. Irene and I will be back in Madrid at the end of our trip to spend a few more days.
Posted in Journal Entry, Spain | 1 Comment
May 13th, 2010
The Final Countdown
Hard to believe that a week from now we’ll be leaving for Madrid. After many, many months of planning I’m very excited for our trip to begin. All of our hotels and transportation have been booked. Books have been read, web sites have been pored over, and travel shows have been watched.
I’m hoping to post frequently during our trip as just about all of our hotels boast of “free WiFi”. I know I say this every time but I really will make an effort to keep this blog up-to-date. So check back often, or, better yet, subscribe to the rss feed.
Posted in Journal Entry, Spain | No Comments
Mar 31st, 2010
Driving Over Lemons
I recently finished Driving Over Lemons by Chris Stewart and found it a pretty enjoyable read even if it didn’t give me quite as much insight in to Spanish culture as I might have liked. He focused more on life on the farm and dealing with the adversities presented by nature and his remote location than fitting in with, and exploring his new cultural surrounds.
I’ve read a number of books in the “move to a foreign country and renovate a house” genre over the years and a large part of their appeal is how they present new cultures through outsider eyes. And although I certainly have no desire to buy a run-down, dilapidated house to fix up, I could imagine moving to a foreign country.
There are a couple of sequels to this book, so I might check those out before our trip. I’ve got a couple other fiction books set in Spain to check out before (or possible on) our trip as well and I’ll review those later.
Posted in Books, Spain | No Comments
Mar 22nd, 2010
A Train Wreck Of A Site
Without a doubt, the gold standard of train system web sites is DB Bahn for the German train system. One of the really nice things about it is that it has schedules for not just Germany, but the rest of Europe as well. So when it comes to trains, I always check there first. It is unfortunate, however, that you can’t actually buy tickets on the site for anywhere but Germany. Understandable but unfortunate.
This leaves you at the mercy of the site for the country you are trying to buy tickets for. And if their sites are anything like Renfe, the Spanish rail site, that can be a bit of a nightmare. There is ostensibly an English language version of the site but…
I’ll let this quote, from a very helpful article on buying Renfe Tickets Online from TripAdvisor, say it for me:
The website is a bit surreal. It is like Alice in Wonderland, where nothing seems to be what it really is. Even if you are on the English page, you will find some items in Spanish. Sometimes the website will send you to a completely Spanish page! However if you persevere you may be able to save some money by getting the web discounts.
We aren’t taking as many trains as we normally would on a trip like this because of the flights and the car we are renting for the first week. But of the trains we are taking, one is a night train. So I’ll also point you to this great explanation of the different classes to be found when booking a hotel train, and which are the best choices. It’s from the forums of BritishExPats.com. It’s a bit old, but all the information still seems applicable. It mentions that the sleeping cars are segregated by gender unless you pony up for on of the much more expensive private cars. This seems a bit ridiculous if true.
I’m probably going to enlist the aid of a Spanish-speaking friend when I actually book the tickets just to make doubly sure I don’t screw up anything important.
Sigh. Oh DB Bahn , why can’t they all be like you?
Posted in Spain, Travel Tips | No Comments
Mar 12th, 2010
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General Notes on Spain
I’ve added a bunch of links to the Spain Resources page including all of the hotels we’ve currently booked. Also, some museums and tourist bureau sites for the places we are going to.
We have been focusing on getting the first week of the trip locked down because that’s the leg that my parents will be joining us on before they head off to Barcelona and we head off to Valencia (after spending an extra day in Sevilla). Now that we’ve finished booking hotels for that part of the trip, we can start to concentrate on the rest.
As I mentioned, I had a lot of trouble coming up with a workable itinerary because Spain is so big and the train system isn’t quite as extensive or fast as it has been in some of the other countries we’ve visited. What finally enabled me to come up with a plan was using the cheap flights offered by Vueling to mke a few of the larger hops between cities more doable and time efficient.
We’re a little over two months out, and at this point I’m getting pretty excited about the whole thing. I even bought a new lens for the trip. One with a wide range so I could wouldn’t have to be swapping out lenses on the fly. Between that and my Lensbaby I should be all set.
Posted in Spain, Travel Planning | No Comments
