1-30-07 Madrid
Well my gosh where did I leave off, ahh yes our lovely train ride from Bilbao to Madrid, and I mean lovely…yeah…. While the actual ride was quite pretty, we soon grew quite tired of the train when the ride that was supposed to be 3 hrs turned into 12!!! Apparently some snow had fallen blocking us between Bilbao and Palencia, so we waited…and waited…and waited… the time for our next connection came and… we just waited some more.
Eventually we made it to Palencia, but not before one of the crazy old Spanish guys in our car decided it was time to break out into song… no I am not kidding, and yes it was actually quite good, but when everyone clapped, it convinced him that he should do it again… and again…and again… does anyone else see a pattern with this trip? Don’t get me wrong, he was a cute old guy, but he just kicked that dead horse one too many times.
Once we actually made it to Madrid, we jumped on the metro, baggage in tow (FUN!!), and made a switch midway to finally get to the stop near our hostal. Well let me tell you, this hostel was lovely, couldn’t find it from the street, filled with british high school students, they cancelled our room 30 min before we got there (damn snow!!!), and now we were put in a giant room filled with 4 twins (beds not people) and no heat! Oh and they informed us that we would have to hang around the hostal until noon the next day so they could figure out where to put us.
YAY!!! We get to move again, well at least it was only up a street or 2. This place seemed a bit quieter (little did we know). Our room reeked of smoke and the shared bath was with around 12 other rooms….awkward. Anyway so we finally made it out of the room and explored the surrounding area. We also went to the Museo de Prado, it was quite interesting but not my cup of tea. I enjoyed the Valezquez and the Goya pieces the most, along with the Ruebens and the Van Dykes… those crazy Dutch guys…as Jeannie says, if they are not painting about sex its death… ho well at least it makes for an interesting subject. The rest were rather unremarkable, but it certainly was a good museum.
The following day we had a great time wandering and exploring. First off were some delicious croissants and juice as always, then we went to the museo de Reina Sofia and its expansion by Jean Nouvel. The museum was really cool, I enjoyed the cubism more than Jeannie, but she got to see some surrealistic photography, so she was more than content. We both agree that their temporary exhibition of early art in film… well sucked. I have had my fill of flickering tvs and scratchy audio loops for quite a while… I an can appreciate what they were going for, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.
The Expansion was really nice, actually much nicer than I though it was going to be when I saw it under construction a couple years ago. The courtyard space was a little breezy but what isn’t this time of year. The Library was gorgeous, just a really nice space. I wish we could have caught the auditorium open, but hey the library so made it worth it, cool bookstore too.
Anyway after the Reina Sofia we explored the Parc di Retiro. I must saw it is beautiful even in the winter. When I last went, it was spring and was spectacular, but it more than held its own in winter. Retiro is on the small kind of scale as Central Park, where is the major green space for a very large metro area. The key differences being the forms of the urbanism around them and the planning approaches used. Central Park is more raw natural space, while Retiro is a heavily planned baroque series of spaces and interventions.
We then went to Plaza de Colon for lunch… yes we broke down and went to Hard Rock… but hey we are determined to go every hard rock we can… no real reason just sounded fun at the time. From there we wondered on up to the Plaza de Espana and on to the Palacio Real. From there we went to Plaza Mayor, which was a very cool shopping courtyard, and not too dissimilar to some of the great roman courtyards and colonnades.
It’s official… I am a tea junkie. You people can have your coffee, just give me some hot tea, man that stuff is good, and it really helps this damn cold that I am still trying to get over since New York.
Well now we are on our train to Cordoba, thank god. I can not wait to get there and take a nice shower… there was no way I was going to that at that last nasty hostal we were in. I think that is the one place in the world I have seen where the women’s room was more disgusting than the men’s…. and that is saying something. I lost my ring that Jeannie gave me a couple years ago, actually I should say someone stole out of the bathroom, but hey it was my fault for leaving it there…. oh well she owes me a new one anyway… Well that was a bit longer than I was planning…huh oh well off we go to Cordoba… man this ride is different from the last one. Last time we were up in the mountains, now we are crossing these wide valleys between. It really quite beautiful, it would be even nicer if there wasn’t all of the soupy fog, but it sure does make the mountains look cool when they pop out of it. Right now we are going theses huge groves of olive trees… its crazy how many damn olive trees there are here… oh well… until next time…
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Bilbao (1/27/07)
Ahh! Sunny…er Snowy Spain? I guess I should have seen this coming, but that requires thinking ahead and planning and all of that other boring stuff. As it is we left JFK at least an hour and a half late (on the least comfortable international plane I ever experienced… unless you count that one RyanAir trip where they were literally trying to sell a seatbelt to you, this may be a personal opinion but if someone is trying to sell me a seatbelt, I figure I am screwed enough that in the end whether or not I actually purchase will not matter as we die in a fiery crash because the pilot spilt his scotch and soda… but enough digressing for one day.
The airport in Madrid is really quite nice, you know the one done by one of those british guys… Richard Rogers…or that other guy I can’t think of…you know the famous one…anyway the damn thing was huge., and of course we missed our initial flight because of the JFK disaster. So now we are to get on another flight to Bilbao at the 6th gate….welll make that the 70th gate (so nice of them to switch the gate 5mins before we started boarding… ah Spain I missed you so).
Another lovely airport, this time done by Santiago Calatrava… damn its snowy here in Bilbao too! Once in the city we find out that our “hostel” is actually a swanky “high-tech hotel” in the major plaza of Petite Palacio Arana, a mere 200m from the train station…score! While we waited on our room we explored this side of the river. It is just as I have remembered it., a lovely maze of streets locked away from the automobile and filled with wandering people, even during siesta.
Once back to the hotel we of course pass out for a few hours…oops. Once awake we explored the commercial side of the river and wandered along the river towards the Guggenheim and the Calatrava bridge… Jeanne-Marie does not care for the museum’s exterior, but did like the spider sculpture and the cool playground next to it. I am inclined to agree… but hey at least it makes more sense here than the Disney in L.A.
Now we prepare to go out for dinner. I have been telling Jeannie that in Spain people do not eat until around 10 at the earliest. She started to not believe me as we were walking back to the area around the hotel and all the shops were closing. Thankfully I was correct (for the first time ever it seems) and we found a lovely little Chinese… yes Chinese restaurant not afar from our hotel. I did nearly kill myself by choking on the flowers they put in my damn tea…. I mean yes it was pretty and I am sure it is more authentic… but I was not expecting dandy lions in my ginsing tea but hey it was still darn tasty.
Currently we are on our train to Madrid… well kinda. Since I wasn’t thinking we are traveling on Saturday and so we must go through Palencia first, no big deal but now we are stuck as something seems to be blocking the tracks a little up ahead… so this should be fun Hopefully we do not sleep on the train, or maybe we can at least get to Palencia and hope it is big enough for a hostel to be there… wouldn’t that be nice.
The airport in Madrid is really quite nice, you know the one done by one of those british guys… Richard Rogers…or that other guy I can’t think of…you know the famous one…anyway the damn thing was huge., and of course we missed our initial flight because of the JFK disaster. So now we are to get on another flight to Bilbao at the 6th gate….welll make that the 70th gate (so nice of them to switch the gate 5mins before we started boarding… ah Spain I missed you so).
Another lovely airport, this time done by Santiago Calatrava… damn its snowy here in Bilbao too! Once in the city we find out that our “hostel” is actually a swanky “high-tech hotel” in the major plaza of Petite Palacio Arana, a mere 200m from the train station…score! While we waited on our room we explored this side of the river. It is just as I have remembered it., a lovely maze of streets locked away from the automobile and filled with wandering people, even during siesta.
Once back to the hotel we of course pass out for a few hours…oops. Once awake we explored the commercial side of the river and wandered along the river towards the Guggenheim and the Calatrava bridge… Jeanne-Marie does not care for the museum’s exterior, but did like the spider sculpture and the cool playground next to it. I am inclined to agree… but hey at least it makes more sense here than the Disney in L.A.
Now we prepare to go out for dinner. I have been telling Jeannie that in Spain people do not eat until around 10 at the earliest. She started to not believe me as we were walking back to the area around the hotel and all the shops were closing. Thankfully I was correct (for the first time ever it seems) and we found a lovely little Chinese… yes Chinese restaurant not afar from our hotel. I did nearly kill myself by choking on the flowers they put in my damn tea…. I mean yes it was pretty and I am sure it is more authentic… but I was not expecting dandy lions in my ginsing tea but hey it was still darn tasty.
Currently we are on our train to Madrid… well kinda. Since I wasn’t thinking we are traveling on Saturday and so we must go through Palencia first, no big deal but now we are stuck as something seems to be blocking the tracks a little up ahead… so this should be fun Hopefully we do not sleep on the train, or maybe we can at least get to Palencia and hope it is big enough for a hostel to be there… wouldn’t that be nice.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
New York (1/25/07)
Oh my, here we are and the trip has begun. New York is well… as expected. Not to take anything away from it, but then again it was freezing and New Yorkers are obnoxious… of course that was expected as well.
We left the Rock at the crack of dawn, I mean seriously when was the last time I got up at 4am?!? And on purpose for that matter!!! Anyway Jeanne-Marie and I survived and reached our lovely hostel, the Chelsea Inn. I swear that was the mostly sweltering hotel room I have ever had the displeasure to encounter. Oh and for those who are not already aware Jeanne-Marie and I are now officially engaged (took my damn time didn’t I, it only took 6 and a half years to get it done.
On the rest of the first day, we meandered through the area near our hostel (17th st. between 5th and 6th ave.) Had some amazing greek food just down the street from our front door… it is nice to be in a big city again.
Day 2 we focused on mid and uptown, seeing everything from Times Square, Penn Station, Central Park, the Met, and attempted to see MoMA but my dumbass forgot it is closed on Tuesdays….doh! It’s a long damn walk from 17th to the Met ( around 70th) and of course with all of our wandering in between, we had a hell of a day of walking… what a way to break in the new shoes. That night for food we went to a place again down the road, Havana… I can’t call it bad Cuban food but it was a bit disappointing, although the free jolly rancher shots made up for a little bit of the crappyness of Jeannie’s rice dish.
Wednesday we explored Broadway and lower Manhattan. We somehow managed to not buy anything on Canal St. and Chinatown… oh yeah we are on a budget…. Well hell who thought we would actually stick to it…. Although Jeannie has been encouraging me with that big whoopin stick of hers… anyway went by WTC and Battery Park to catch a glimpse of the Lady. Then we went back up to Time Square for a yuppie lunch and on to MoMA… did I fail to mention that Jeannie’s watch screwed up and so we thought we got there at 3:30, when it actually was really 4:45…damn that was a sprint through a museum if I ever saw one…. Oh well chalk it up as another excuse to come back to the City….darn.
Thursday we mailed home all the shit we thought we needed when we really didn’t. After thought we were chased out of the hostel at noon and forced to go to the airport hours before the Iberia check-in desk had even opened….woooo good times in JFK terminal 7… good times…yeah…
New York as a whole was interesting, most especially the vitality of the street, and all that it encompasses. From vendors to dogs, from markets to stoops, from taxis to suicidal pedestrians. The street was always vibrant and full of… not life exactly… but rather action. The city may not sleep, but it certainly never sleeps…. And now that I think of it… it didn’t let me sleep either… Well on to Bilbao and all the glories of Spain.
We left the Rock at the crack of dawn, I mean seriously when was the last time I got up at 4am?!? And on purpose for that matter!!! Anyway Jeanne-Marie and I survived and reached our lovely hostel, the Chelsea Inn. I swear that was the mostly sweltering hotel room I have ever had the displeasure to encounter. Oh and for those who are not already aware Jeanne-Marie and I are now officially engaged (took my damn time didn’t I, it only took 6 and a half years to get it done.
On the rest of the first day, we meandered through the area near our hostel (17th st. between 5th and 6th ave.) Had some amazing greek food just down the street from our front door… it is nice to be in a big city again.
Day 2 we focused on mid and uptown, seeing everything from Times Square, Penn Station, Central Park, the Met, and attempted to see MoMA but my dumbass forgot it is closed on Tuesdays….doh! It’s a long damn walk from 17th to the Met ( around 70th) and of course with all of our wandering in between, we had a hell of a day of walking… what a way to break in the new shoes. That night for food we went to a place again down the road, Havana… I can’t call it bad Cuban food but it was a bit disappointing, although the free jolly rancher shots made up for a little bit of the crappyness of Jeannie’s rice dish.
Wednesday we explored Broadway and lower Manhattan. We somehow managed to not buy anything on Canal St. and Chinatown… oh yeah we are on a budget…. Well hell who thought we would actually stick to it…. Although Jeannie has been encouraging me with that big whoopin stick of hers… anyway went by WTC and Battery Park to catch a glimpse of the Lady. Then we went back up to Time Square for a yuppie lunch and on to MoMA… did I fail to mention that Jeannie’s watch screwed up and so we thought we got there at 3:30, when it actually was really 4:45…damn that was a sprint through a museum if I ever saw one…. Oh well chalk it up as another excuse to come back to the City….darn.
Thursday we mailed home all the shit we thought we needed when we really didn’t. After thought we were chased out of the hostel at noon and forced to go to the airport hours before the Iberia check-in desk had even opened….woooo good times in JFK terminal 7… good times…yeah…
New York as a whole was interesting, most especially the vitality of the street, and all that it encompasses. From vendors to dogs, from markets to stoops, from taxis to suicidal pedestrians. The street was always vibrant and full of… not life exactly… but rather action. The city may not sleep, but it certainly never sleeps…. And now that I think of it… it didn’t let me sleep either… Well on to Bilbao and all the glories of Spain.
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