Ad(ventures) with John

After a wonderful trip we arrived back in the US last night. We traveled for almost 24 hours, first flying from Barcelona to Amsterdam, then Amsterdam to New York, then taking a train to our hotel for the night. The flight to New York was really neat. We got to ride in a double decker 747, and they served a lot of food, wine, and spirits.  As I write this final post, we are on the bus headed to Maryland where a kind friend will drive us back to Shepherdstown.  Thanks for reading! We look forward to more travels in the future!   

We were leaving in the afternoon to fly to Barcelona in preparation for the long trip home, so we didn't have a lot of time to sight see today. We walked through a huge park that included a pond crowded with boats, carp, ducks, and terrible saxophone players who could only play forte with puffed cheeks.    We passed several fountains and saw the original gate to the city.    After our flight to Barcelona we were able to get to our hostel with enough time to have dinner in town. We ate at a restaurant inside a covered market where most of the tables are shared and they serve dishes made from ingredients sold at the market. The food was alright, but the decor was better. One wall was covered with fresh herbs!   

No shopping today! We had a slow morning, eating breakfast on our terrace, which has a wonderful view of the city.  After breakfast we took a historical walk through part of the city, where the street signs from medieval times were still available to view. The signs have icons on them depicting what was featured on each street so that those who were illiterate could still navigate. One street, for example, had armory stores on it.   After lunch at a market our walk took us to the royal palace, the largest palace in Europe. We toured the palace, but weren't allowed to take any pictures inside.     In the afternoon we walked through a floor of the Reina Sofia museum where Picasso's famous Guernica is housed. The museum is free from 3-7 on Sundays, so it was relatively crowded, and again, no pictures allowed.  Our final dinner in Madrid was on a little square at a restaurant we happened upon on a walk. It was one of the best we've had yet! 

You might have noticed a theme to the most recent dried: shopping. Today was no exception. In fact, when we looked through our pictures, we realized we had only one with posting.  We began with a walk, led by our trusty guide Rick Steves, down Gran Via, a road modeled after those in large American cities like Chicago and New York. There were many shops, and we seemed to stop in to every one. Surprisingly, we didn't actually buy anything. Along the walk, Rick indicated we should ride an elevator to the top of a hotel's terrace for a view of the city. It was a wonderful view.   The day ended with a free tour of the Prado museum, and dinner at a restaurant where we had our first taste of sangria and paella. Though we enjoyed it well enough, neither of us are itching to seek it out again.

Today was our last day in Lisbon, a place where we have come to feel very comfortable in our skin. As we only had a few hours here today, we took breakfast at the hostel, grabbed a cafe con lech (John), and then did some clothes shopping. Every clothing store is having a sale right now, which is great because Europe is where clothes actuary fit us. The only tricky thing about clothes shopping is that one has to find room to pack purchases! We trained to the airport and had lunch there before flying back to Spain. The flight ran late and we miscalculated when we had to be there, so we had some extra down-time at the airport. This was not a problem. We shopped more for clothes in the airport mall and Adam even served as a model-in-waiting for a French shopper (Geraldine) who was buying shirts for her husband.   In Madrid, we took the bus into town to get to our Airbnb. We have a neat little apartment on the top of a sixth floor walk up (118 wooden stairs). We have a quiet littl...

With our last full day in Portugal ahead of us, we decided to take a day trip to Sintra, which everyone, including the venerable Rick Steves, seems to recommend. Sintra is the town where nobility and Portuguese Kings of old went to leave Lisbon. There were also ruins from a tenth century Moorish castle. The two main sights were the palace and the castle and both are very high up from the historic town center, so we decided to take the bus up and hike back down the mountain on our return. The first sight we hit was the Moorish castle, which began with a display of ancient artifacts, including a dice carved from bone in the tenth century.   The ruins themselves are incredibly well preserved, with two levels of walls remaining and a large stretch of rampart tourists can climb. From the top we were treated to spectacular views as well as a view of the pena palace from afar, which would be our next step.       The pena palace is an eighteenth-century castle that, again, i...

Our second full day in Lisbon was spent touring the three districts that combined make up Lisbon's central core with John's mom and Richard. The Alfama (most historic), the bairo-alto (the high town), and the baixa-chiado (low town) each have their own unique vibrancy and color. We began in one of the central plazas that overlooks the ocean, compete with an arch that welcomes visitors to the town, much like Paris's Arc de Triomphe.   In the Alfama, we learned that a big street party occurs every June 13 in celebration of St. Antonio, and the remnants of decorations were everywhere. This part of the city was built centuries ago, and people were on average shorter than today, so we saw many small doors that one would have to duck under to enter today. We also kept seeing some incredibly small fire hydrants. How would the fire trucks get through the narrow streets anyway?         In the bairo-alto, a highlight besides the view was a drink called Ginjinha, made from...

Is this California ?? Today was a big day. We were up before five in order to get to the airport and catch our plane to Portugal. While we were on the tarmac waiting to board the prop plane, we discovered that Bilbao must be the " Hollywood of The Basque."    On the plane we had a very interesting breakfast: individivually-wrapped sandwich halves that had the crusts removed. They were wrapped in cellophane. Although there was a quaint charm about this, it did seem like someone forgot about breakfast and said "Quick- what can we give the passengers?!"   We found the public transit in Lisbon to be much different than in Spain: not nearly as clean, or as prompt, or spacious. Several times we had to wait for a second train or bus because the firsts were so full. We made our way to an older section of Lisbon called Belèm, where we visited the National Coach Museum. Don't be a name hater: this place was pretty cool. We learned about the history of royal ...

The sea, the river, and an American dinner. Today was a bit of a slower day for us. We began with breakfast at the same place as yesterday because we not only liked it, but we found it easy to order and pay. Plus, we were able to sit outside in a shaded space. I don'd think we've mentioned this, but many people in Spain smoke, much more than in the US (at least publicly). One must be careful when choosing outdoor seats! After breakfast we stopped at a used book store and found the English language section.    As we checked out of the hostel, the desk manager chatted us up and gave a recommendation to see a little town outside of Lisbon called Sintra. This wasn't the first such recommendation, so we plan to make a day trip there. Some of the morning was spent by the sea. There are two beaches at San Sebastian and we stayed near the surfer beach. The temperature climbed into the 90s today, so we didn't spend too much time in the sun. Next we sat by the river and read. It ...

We slept in this morning after a late night of travel, and it was a great decision. Breakfast was at a restaurant called Hogar, Dulce, Hogar ("Home, Sweet Home"), where none of the servers spoke English, our first time encountering that. Luckily, we've become comfortable enough that we're able to communicate what we would like. We toured the city, especially the bay area, where we found trees that were right out of Dr. Seuss.      There are two parts to the city here, separated by a river. On one side is a beach popular with surfers, and on the other is a beach that is more family oriented. We're staying closest to the surfer beach, which is the part of the city on the right bank.   A late lunch gave us another opportunity to use some Spanish, though we were less successful here. One of the dishes we ordered we thought was going to be a corn salad, but it turned out to be tripe!    After lunch we decided that we'd buy some supplies for a picnic dinner and h...