Spain

I love Spain.  Madrid was a dry 34°C on the day I arrived.

One of the things I love is that at nine o’clock at night the city is alive. It’s warm and people are out. I just want to wander and be out, and do nothing. It’s so pleasant; it feels like a perpetual fiesta.  Spaniards eat late.  Dinner at 10PM is the norm.

A common things to eat for breakfast are churros, often described as Spanish doughnuts.  They aren't much like doughnuts at all, but are indeed deep fried dough, extruded into finger thickness and looped into a teardrop, and then dipped in a pudding-like hot chocolate.  I ate the following morning at Maestro Churrero – the churros are crisp and not oily, and the chocolate is thick and not powdered.

Museo del Prado

A tip for those planning to visit Madrid’s Museo del Prado: buy your ticket online. I was able to completely bypass the more than 100-metre long queue. My main reason for going was for Goya’s Black Paintings, including “Saturn Devouring his Children” and “The Cudgel Fight.” All fourteen are on permanent exhibition.

When in Bruges, I saw Hieronymus Bosch’s “The Last Judgement” and thought how small it was. In Madrid’s Museo del Prado, I saw Bosch’s triptych, “The Garden of Earthly Delights,” and it’s huge! The central panel must be 2m x 3m. There were also numerous other Bosch works, several of which I was unfamiliar with, and another version of Hans Memling’s “Adoration of the Magi” triptych, which I saw in Bruges.

Ryanair

Ryanair’s maximum checked luggage allowance is 15kg.  This is one of the ways in which Ryanair makes money – excess baggage is €15 per kilogram.  My fully loaded backpack weighs 20kg.  Before catching my flight from Brussels (Charleroi) to Madrid, I managed to jam all of my books, my camera and lenses and my laptop into my carry-on camera bag, but my backpack was still two kilograms over, so I had to pay €30 (A$51). It would be a tolerable amount, except that I already paid for two tickets! I was stupid enough to book a ticket under my middle name of Wayne instead of the name in my passport, Geoffrey, and the €100 cost of changing the passenger name exceeded the cost of simply buying a new €55 ticket. Still, at a grand total of €140, it was probably still cheaper than a full flight fare on a national carrier.

Getting from the Madrid airport to my hostel was very easy because the Madrid metro is so efficient.  A single ticket anywhere on the network is €1 (or €2 from the airport), and you never have to wait longer than five minutes for a spacious and air-conditioned train.  It surely must also rival the Paris metro in its extent.

Spain: Madrid, Segovia, Avila...

The flight was largely uneventful, though for some reason Mai Li kept setting off the security scanners, despite dumping all her things into the tray provided. I think she was frisked three times. We've not been too jetlagged after having arrived. We researched the seating plans on the plane and booked good seats on both legs, so I actually managed eight hours sleep. Mai Li only napped fitfully, though, so after 24 hours travel time and checking into our 4-star hotel indulgence, and luxuriating in the shower, Mai Li had a little siesta. We then ate at the Museo del Jamon, the "Museum of Ham," a smoky bar festooned with legs of ham serving beer and tapas. Madrid was a bit overcast and rainy, and at one point we were traipsing through the rain between hotels with our backpacks and ponchos.

The following day we caught a bus tour from Madrid to Segovia and Avila. Segovia has three main tourism draws: the alcazar, a 19th-century reconstruction of the original 13th-century castle which burned down; the Gothic cathedral; and, the reason I wanted to go, the Roman aqueduct, still in use, spanning nearly a kilometre, rising nearly 30 metres and all built without a drop of mortar. Spectacular.



Avila is surrounded by 12th-century walls, the best preserved in Spain. The guide book says as a top priority one should walk atop the parts of the walls open to the public, but unfortunately it is the nature of tours that you have to follow the leader, and we stayed at ground level.

Lunch was included in Segovia -- bean soup and roast suckling pig -- but it was nothing to write about except that it gave me food poisoning, the details of which I will spare you. Apart from being easier on my stomach, we've been eating fruit, bread and yoghourt from the markets because it's cheaper and eating restaurant food and tapas is too rich to eat all the time.

I am writing this from Seville, a truly beautiful city, but am I supposed to waste all my time on this computer? I'll update you from the next stop....