April 6, 2017: Madrid

While we had a very scenic drive through the mountains east of Segovia en route to Madrid yesterday, we weren't able to pull off and take pictures because there was no shoulder on the road.  The remainder of the trip was on less scenic freeways through Madrid to the airport where we turned in our rental car - no dings, no scratches, no problem.  We then checked into our hotel nearby, went for a walk, had a late lunch, and took it easy.

Today we spent in Madrid.

After studying the various options for getting into the heart of Madrid, a taxi turned out to be the best choice - reasonably priced and quick.

 

Although we'd both been here before, we still decided to take an orientation bus tour via the good old Hop-On-Hop-Off bus.  The bus was full, but we were able to get good seats on the upper deck.  Alas, our headphones didn't work, except for very enthusiastic static.  Oh, well - the driver announced our locations and we just sat back and enjoyed Madrid's beautiful architecture.

 

Had to get a picture of the Biblioteca Nacional (national library).

 

Beautiful fountains and monuments everywhere -

 

And beautiful buildings - wait, what? McDonalds???

 

We passed through the Plaza del Sol just in time to witness a familiar street scene.  If you can enlarge this photo, notice the two police officers arriving on bicycles on the right.  In the center, see the "blanket guys" instantly pack their wares - they have cords attached to the blankets that they can just pull to turn the blankets into instant packs, ready to head off to the next site to spread their blankets on the sidewalk and illegally sell sunglasses, genuine fake watches, and whatever else.

 

After the bus tour and lunch at a convenient Burger King (McDonalds looked too high class for us), we walked around the neighborhood near the Prado where we saw electric bicycles for rent - a great idea, but there weren't many takers today.

 

Just down the street we found a vertical wall garden - John, of course, checked out the structure, irrigation, etc.

 

It's an exceptionally large example of a wall garden - many stories high,

 

We then headed to the botanical garden that's next to the Prado museum.  Spring blooms were at their peak.

 

Beautiful beds of tulips.

 

John was curious about several plant labels, including this one identifying these gorgeous tulips as a variety of dahlia.

 

We had a 4 pm appointment at the Prado to meet the same guide who had given us such a good tour when we were last here 13 years ago.  John still had his business card (some people keep everything!), so we sent him an email, and voila!  He still gives tours and was happy to accommodate us.

 

We met him at the new entrance - Jeronimos, after St. Jeronimos church across the street.  This is a new wing of the museum, which extends under the street to the new modern brick building that houses conference and educational facilities.  This building was constructed on the vacant land left after Napoleon destroyed the monastery that had once been connected to the church.  I tried to get a picture of our guide, Juan Nuevobarrios, but he seemed camera shy.  I would also have taken pictures in the museum, but I obeyed the "no photography" signs, unlike many others.  Take my word for it, we had another outstanding tour and came away knowing so much that we didn't  even know we didn't know.  One highlight was learning so much about Heironymus Bosch - a surrealist who predated Dali and friends by 500 years.

We looked around the Prado a bit more on our own after our nearly 2-hour tour, then took a taxi back to our hotel to pack our bags in preparation for our flight home in the morning.

 

For a last dinner in Spain, we walked across the street to a great little bakery/cafe we found yesterday - the gregarious owner has traveled in the western United States and was happy to talk to us about where he'd been and where we lived.  

 

The food is good, too - I had hummus with a 

selection of whole grain toast, and John ordered a pizza (which I helped him with).

We finished packing and got a good night's sleep.

April 4, 2017: La Granja

 

Another gorgeous day in La Granja - a little chilly in the shade, perfect for sightseeing.

First on today's itinerary was the Royal Crystal Factory museum.  Apparently glass and crystal making has been the town's primary industry since the 1700's.  While they are still in business, it appears to be scaled way back from what it once was.  The museum is in the building that once housed the ovens where the glassmaking took place -

 ,

This is a replica of one of the ovens, which was located under a huge dome -

 

Along with the original molds and other equipment, the museum features examples of the types of products created, as well as the history of glassmaking at this place.

Examples of earlier jars

 

Examples from the late 1700's and 1800's

 

Examples from around the turn of the 20th century 

 

20th century

Unlike yesterday, we didn't have the place to ourselves.  Lots of tour groups - mostly school field trips - were here today.  We tried to avoid them, with partial success.

After the glass museum, we walked back to the hotel for lunch.  This is another beautiful place - I love the life-size sculptures hanging around the hotel lobby:

 

Apparently these guys are on the economy plan.

 

There's also a Zen garden in the basement level:

 

And the location is great - no need to drive anywhere.

After lunch we headed back uphill to the Palacio Real (Royal Palace), where photography is not allowed.  Too bad, there were lot of works of art, chandeliers, and painted ceilings we would like to have taken pictures of.  The chandeliers in particular were amazing, but you'll have to take my word for it.

The palace was impressive, but we are more impressed with the gardens and fountains - and, surprisingly, there's no entrance fee for the gardens (except on the few days each year when the fountains are operating).  More trekking uphill took us to the top of an over-the-top water feature that must have been a jaw-dropper for palace guests in its day.

 

This is all one water feature, with water spilling down from one fountain to the next - the view of it from inside the palace was stunning (even without the fountains running), but, alas, no photos allowed, and there were guards everywhere making sure no one tried.  The statues seem to be bronze that's been painted (?) to look like shiny copper.

 

We did pretty much have the gardens to ourselves.  We couldn't have had a better day for enjoying them.

 

The one trade-off was that we missed seeing the trees in full leaf, but that seemed like a small price to enjoy the peace and quiet.

 

This fountain was completely empty yesterday - it's the one where John was looking at the pipes. Today they appear to be filling it via the spout at the top.  When it's really running, water shoots high into the air, with more shooting from each of the figures around the sides.  John surmised that pipes as old as these really couldn't handle running full-bore like that more than a few times a year.

Eventually we strolled back to the hotel, peering into the now-open "chocolateria" that was closed yesterday.  I felt deceived to discover just another cafe with a few paltry chocolate-iced pastries.  False advertising!

April 3, 2017: Traveling to La Granja

This morning we left Fermoselle after a sparse breakfast at the hotel bar.  Spaniards aren't big breakfast eaters.

The cross country drive to La Granja (in the village of San Ildefonso near Segovia) would have been uneventful, even boring, had we not taken a wrong exit (in fairness, two exits were roughly 18 inches apart), and were then lured by a McDonalds billboard to ignore the GPS in search of familiar food (skimpy breakfast, like I said) which we never found.  Hungry and cranky, we eventually found our way here, marriage intact.

 

La Granja is quite the place.  I was here with Sheryle, Stephanie and Juan about 7 or 8 years ago during the summer to see the fountains, which are only turned on a few times per year (they are amazing).  While we won't be able to see the fountains in action, there are 1,500 acres of gardens and several museums, including the royal palace, built by King Philip V in the early 1700's to serve as the summer palace for Spanish royalty.

La Granja means "The Farm" - this is royalty's idea of a farmhouse.  Not surprisingly, Philip V was the grandson of Louis XIV of France - who built Versailles.  La Granja is modeled after it.

 

After checking into the Parador and finally eating lunch, we walked up (as John commented, everything's uphill in Spain!) to begin exploring the gardens.  Notice the snow in the background - it's a warm, sunny day, but there's still a nice cool breeze from the surrounding mountains.  This is a French-style garden, emphasizing symmetry with alleys of trees, boxwood hedges, statues, and fountains.  Even though trees are just starting to bud and flower beds haven't yet been planted, it's still beautiful.  And the fact that we nearly had the place to ourselves made it even better.  

 

Even without jets of water, the fountains are impressive works of art.

 

And John was equally impressed with the engineering.

With 1,50

0 acres to explore, we only saw a small part before we decided we'd walked uphill enough for the evening and headed back (uphill!) to the hotel.  En route back a sign caught my eye -

 

My smile faded when I realized that the shop was closed - but I'll be back!

From the balcony of our hotel room we can see a bit of the snow-covered mountains above the town.

 

April 1-2, 2017: Heading north to Oropesa and Fermoselle

I haven't posted anything for a couple of days, one of which I spent feeling gastrointestinally challenged - most likely the result of having fish for lunch the day before.  Last year I had an unfortunate experience with a delicious yellowfin tuna steak in Chile, and one would think I'd learn.  

So I spent a beautiful drive from Gibraltar north through La Mancha (so John says) curled up in the backseat, thankful that we rented a larger vehicle.

 

You know you're in La Mancha when you see these giant bulls (toros) along the roads.  John pulled over to take a picture of this guy.  They were originally ads for a government promotion and have remained standing for many years.

 

Our first destination was Oropesa - a surprising treat.  It's a well preserved/restored medieval town.  The church has a ceramic tiled roof, which suggests that it was originally a mosque that was turned into a church after the Spanish recaptured the town from the Moors.

 

We saw storks nesting everywhere - on every power pole, on trees, and on this steeple.

 

We're staying in the Parador that adjoins the castle.  I erred in an earlier post - Franco didn't start these.  They were founded in 1928 by Alfonso VIII to promote tourism and save historic buildings - they are still government owned.  The public rooms of this one are the living areas of the original nobles' residence, one of whom was the Viceroy of Peru.

 

This view of the church was from our window - there were several churches nearby, so we were serenaded by dueling church bells on the hour.  Either they didn't ring them at night or we slept soundly.

 

On Sunday morning I was feeling much more chipper, so we explored the castle, which dated from 1402.  That's me atop the tower.

 

Someone didn't come to a good end - apparently being hung in a cage from the castle wall was a punishment meant to serve as a warning to others.  Worked for me.

 

From Oropesa we headed northwest to the entirely untouristy town of Fermoselle.  We looked up someone we'd visited 13 or so years ago on the off chance she'd remember who we were.  We found her, still working in her family's shop (tienda), but, alas, she had no recollection of us.  John had originally met her when he was on an agricultural tour of Spain - she had been studying English and had been excited to talk to a native speaker.  Apparently the English classes have been discontinued - she remembered neither the language nor us.

We did enjoy exploring the town - another medieval walled town with a castle.  We were impressed by the huge boulders that formed part of the foundation of the castle.

 

Unlike Oropesa, this town's castle is pretty much in ruins.  It seems to be private owned, and if I read the hand-written sign correctly (questionable), the owner is attempting to restore it without government assistance.  We paid a euro apiece to go up to the "castle garden mirador" (mirador=scenic viewpoint) that looks out over the town -

 

And also over the Douro River and Portugal beyond.

 

Julia recommended another mirador, so I went off in search of it, climbing to the top of the other high point of the town - right past it.  Eventually I figured out that there was no viewpoint where I was headed and turned around.  

 

Halfway down the hill I saw the sign and the lookout, just as the sun was setting -

 

En route down the narrow road I met a man leading a horse -

 

I can't imagine where the horse was going to spend the night.

Having had a sketchy lunch at an even sketchier "restaurant" along the way (the only one open on Sunday afternoon), we went in search of dinner - had an excellent one at the Medieval Restaurant next door to the hotel.  We were the only diners.