070913

Saturday

An earlier start today with H&G having prepared brekky stuff, including  the very nice bowl of fruit with kwark and cream, plus a soft boiled egg and breads. Then we had some multiple instructions including for the for washing machine. We went off to visit Plony  and Leo in Zutphen, a very pleasant drive and very quick. Henk had the info on his TomTom and we were there in about an hour Leo was on his balcony with a vigorous wave. H&G left and we went up to the third level apartment. Lovely to see them again and a surprise; Ellen & Henri arrived shortly after we did. Lots of talk and a couple of photo’s of P&L. The usual (for P&L) couple of drinks and some cheese and liverwurst and then Ellen went off to get the car so she could drive us to the station at Zutphen She came back with croquettes and buns and after this simple repast we decided to leave.

Ellen drove us away after pleasant goodbyes, with the hope to see each other again. The train ticket system did present a couple of challenges such as rejection of our credit card but not Ellen’s and we watched our (intended) train pull away from the station. Goodbye Ellen and a ½ hr wait for the next train.

Did a train swap at Appeldorn and onto an express to Amersfoort. I had  been at the station on the bike so getting home was a breeze. Got the washing machine going at last (shutting the door completely helped) and had the stiirfry from Thursday night. Decided to follow the instructions from Gea regarding the 6 bottles of red wine on top of the cupboard which they’d cleaned out of their cellar at Winschoten. First up was a half bottle of red which, after 2 months of no red was quite OK.

Dishes done, washing on the rack and bed.

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Friday

A relaxing morning, with breakfast laid on by G&H and a lie in and relaxing start to the morning. Did some photo shuffles to clear some memory out of my camera so I could take some more pics (additional to the 3500 I’d already taken). Went with Henk to change the bike over at the repair shop. Impressive place, superbly organised with a whole wall of small tools and suspension rails to hang bikes and scooters from overhead rails.

Nice little trip and short ride to get a bit used to the traffic on the right side of the road.

Had tea with Petra and their two delightful girls, a shepherd’s type pie with sausages on top and witlof and mince base. Very tasty. Left there about 8.30 and went home, followed by a delightful walk through the streets of Amersfoort at night, just lovely. Got home for a snack of yoghurt and fruit, and talked ‘til 1AM.

050913

Wednesday

Up at 5.30AM, finished packing and got our gear down into the foyer and waited for our booked transport. It arrived about 10 minutes late, just as I was calling up the office to find out where he was. Loaded up and off to pick up the second passenger for a fairly swish hotel on the waterfront. Waited 15 minutes and figured we were going to be a bit later than the 7AM at the airport we’d planned for. Up the road ,stopped at the traffic light and stalls the VW van. We are now almost in a sweat as he cranks and cranks the engine, which at last fires up. I must admit he drove pretty quickly to the airport.

At the airport the fun begins, there’s a long queue, two counters processing the prospective passengers, slowly.  Group of blacks at one took nearly 15 minutes to get through, at the other counter the a group of women who looked like they were moving house, they had that much luggage. Way overweight luggage wise. Of course you can’t process that issue at the counter, so over to another and of course why would you process other passengers why they’re farting around getting excess baggage paid for? We’re starting to sweat as the scheduled time of departure is there, and we’re just at the counter. Bolt for the gate 31 and get aboard this very squeezy seat, I cant put my knees together. Have to get partially up out of my vinyl seat to ease muscles about 2/3 of the way through the flight. It’s tolerable, especially when one considers that the alternative is 4 times the price-at least.

Arrive in Schiphol and walk what seems like ½ km to the baggage collection; and wait. Arrives at last, we pick it up, buy our train tickets at the vending machine, get tickets and out. Sapristi! There’s Henk and Gea who’ve driven into Schiphol to pick us up. Bliss and joy and hugs and 3  kisses. Henk organises the credits on the tickets, and  an hour later we’re esconced into the second bedroom of their Amersfoort flat.

A shower a bedroom we can spread our stuff out in and a good comfy solid bed. Talk about generosity! Two happy people this night.

 

Hmmmm. I seem to have lost a day here?? Transferring from Word to Blog not always successful!

030913

Monday

Up before 7AM and away by 7.45, as the train to Montserrat leaves at 8.36AM. Well with discount cards in hand we hopped on and off trains and eventually got to the station that sold the tickets AND accepted the discounts E38.95 each which was E1 less than in Rick Steve’s manual. We had just on 5minutes to spare! Off on a narrow gauge (by Aust standards) and travelled about an hour to  the Montserrat station. Directly adjacent is the chairlift building. ‘tis a snappy rig built by a German company in 1930. Only two gondolas, one up and one down about every 30 minutes. Bit of a buzz this one – very steep and rides over two ridges. Looked like solid engineering work at both ends and the middle – refer to photos.

Arrived at the top at about 10.15 and planned out our course of action for the day.First up was a walk to the top of the mountain and a small church. Firstly the audio visual show which also showed the routines of the monks and the boy’s choir. We were about to leave and the boy’s choir video came on with what I assumed to be two previous members, delightful. We hopped on a cable car, but this on the cables pulled a rail car up the steep incline. The views were fabulous, looking down onto Montsarrat and the valley below, probably 60 degree slope downward view. We climbed up to the hermitage and looked at where one had lived for 6 or so years, then along a narrow ridge to the steep stairs and back to the main track.We hopped onto the cable car with a delightful group of girls with their teacher from central Germany, who helped our wait for the car pass the time very quickly,

Then the included lunch. Usually it’s Pauline who picks that which she shouldn’t have picked, but yours truly did a corker; a plate of deep fried calamari rings in a very oily batter, and not hot anymore, two pieces of fish quite nice with grossly overcooked cauliflower and chips not hot anymore. Pauline’s tucker was fine, rice with chicken, excellent sausage and some of  that cauli. At least we weren’t the only ones to leave the cauli on our plates. Glad that this meal was included with the tickets, I’d have seen red to line up for this.

Visited the basilica on the mountain, a long queue to see the black Madonna with the orb and no queue to enter the cathedral. Quite dimly lit inside but very highly decorated, about as ornate as we’ve seen. The long exposure photo’s tell it better than I can.

The museum was an interesting collection of art and sculpture mostly donated over the years but exhibited well. Modern lighting and aircon and then to see the old riveted trusses holding up the roof was a surprise through it’s contrast. Considering the age of the place I shouldn’t have been quite so surprised. The art works were quite variable in quality (Donated makes a difference, you normally don’t donate the van Goghs and Rembrandts) but some lovely work, especially the portraits. Of course some pretty ordinary stuff as well.

We’d finished the viewing and went back for some bottled water as the local stuff was undrinkable. A shortage of steam resulted in our decision to head back down the mountain. Arrived in the gondola area and watched one head down, ½ hr wait for the next one. Again a lovely trip down, with a young boy initially too scared (cautious?) to venture up to the windows, but gradually overcame his reluctance and enjoyed the ride. Approached the bottom station and the train pulled away, so another wait of about 40 minutes. This was useful for a snooze for both of us on the hard platform seats.

Caught the train back and had the dubious pleasure of the kid with his brother and parents who had one of the most aggravating voices ever. Except when he reverted to his normal voice on a couple of occasions. We’re grateful he wasn’t on a 12 hr flight.

Finished the day with a bit of local food  from an Turkish food establishment which was quite satisfying but the beef was undercooked and I sent it back, to get it cooked and somewhat tough, though less so than before. Home, packing for tomorrow’s departure and rest follows. 

020913

Sunday

The days run into each other and Sundays seem a long time ago. We’ve missed church but not churches and today was another day of bussing it around Barcelona. This time caught the No 2 (orange) circuit that winds its way around the western end of town. The bus companies (two of them) have their systems down pat. Stop numbers for hop-on or Hop-off are clearly signposted and mapped. Commentary via plug-in earphones in about 8 different languages. We had two day tickets and after the first tour went home for a sanger and a siesta for PP, then back onto the bus circuit of yesterday. We’d missed Gaudi’s Park Guell yesterday so it was on the hunt for the elusive park.

In the afternoon we asked around and found the park on route 1 so the afternoon was spent there. You’ve got to hand it to the bloke; he was pretty cluey in the architectural area. The parks buildings and the gardens with the landscaping were fabulous. Most unusual but fabulous. We spent most of the afternoon there walking through the garden on the paved pathways, each corner different with plants and rockery, on many terraces. Took a photo of the Familia Sangria from the park’s high elevation-views to the Mediterranean even! Gaudi himself lived on the premises for 20 years in a house of his own design; could have been longer but for that tram.

We meandered downhill to the bus hop-on point and were glad to be home. We discussed how we’d basically burned the candles at both ends and little wonder were running out of steam. As we wanted an early start tomorrow to make the train for Montserrat (from Mountains serrated). Got to be at a reasonable hour.

 

010913

Saturday

Up and at’em early – 8.00AM! Pauline had my brekky ready and we were out of the door by 9.00AM or so, wanting to get our bus tickets as early as possible and on to the bus. Total trip length for the green circuit was 2 ½ hours. Our first hop-off was at the Sangria Familia, Gaudi’s masterpiece, a cathedral - worked on it for 40years and then stepped in front of a tram – exit architect. He’s buried in the crypt there. This building is still a work in progress but getting in to it is not a pleasant experience, akin to the Vatican, the queue at least 1 ½ sides of a city block long. I said it might be great to visit but I’m not waiting that long, so it was photo’s of the exterior and move on. The site is a construction site with at least 4 tower cranes and large sections under scaffold. It appears the there are some sections (the “spires”) being prepared for cleaning, quite possible s some of this edifice has been up for nearly 100 years. Took some pics of a model under Perspex and then coffee plus. Even an “American” coffee was served in a cup that would be small (very) by our standards.

We hopped of the bus to what we thought might be Park Guell by Gaudi, but instead found a lovely set of gardens which had some Gaudi works in them. We ambled through them, and then headed for the dunnies per the park plans- shut!. We weren’t to be put off so easily so a bamboo plantation provided excellent cover for our needs. Back onto the bus and hopped off near hte Gaudi houses.

From there we walked for about 2 ½ hours past the other Gaudi houses and the Arch of Triumph, done in brick, and looking better than the French version.

Nearly miscued on getting the streets right for the home trip but home at 5PM, but just made it. Pauline was pretty well done with hoofing it for the day so a glass of juice, a shower and a lie down and she’s Pauline all over again – bewdy!. Time for blogging the many missed days as we were early. Must admit that we’ve been time poor, but I guess that there will be a lot of stuff that’s been missed from the blogs when we get the prompts from the pictures taken. Have to transfer photos from my camera card s there’s only 190 spots left.

 

310813

Friday

We decided to take it a bit easier after the high-speed traverses of Toledo, so it basically a suss out the place day, a bit of orientation if you will. A visit to the TI (tourist information) and we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted to do over the next 4 days- 2 days of hop-on hop-off bus tours and some visits to some of the highlighted spots in our Spain guide. Did a fair bit of walking around and still didn’t have good direction control, even with a fairly good map.

On the way home found no common ground for eats so yours truly sat and had my 150mm  Subway with drink with all my mates at the time and then home. Pauline enjoyed a feed of a very nice ice cream we’d bought yesterday and a coffee.

All in all, a fairly quiet day

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Thursday

After last nights prelim packing we were ready at 7.30. Dropped our luggage downstairs after checking emails and found we’re back on the email trail again- thanks Daz! You’re 12000km away and still that capable wiz at handling my tech issues with computers. At least Gmail was back on line. Only a few bugs to eradicate on bigpond and Pauline’s phone.

Went upstairs to the L2 breakfast area and it was prepared early, ready at 7.20AM, enough time for an unhurried brekky. Finished eating, went downstairs to the lobby and the concierge called for a taxi, there in about two minutes and off to the station. Waited for about ½ hr at Toledo and then back to Atocha in about ½ hrwhere we organised our next adventure onto the Renfe  AVE, Spain’s fast train. Tried to get an earlier train than the booked 11.30 AM but couldn’t change it, ah well. Loaded our stuff on and all aboard. Pulled out and the train gently accelerated for quite a while, it needed to, to get to the 300km/hr speed indicated on the digital readouts in the carriages. Lovely smooth ride, Apparently Spain have spent big getting this network right and it’s starting to pay off with the high usage.

Scenery along the route was not that different to what we’d get from Melbourne to Sydney, dry country, quite a bit not arable but missed seeing any wildlife or big trees like our eucalypts. Only two stops en route and into Barcelona Sans. Good signage and a call to our accommodation indicated that a taxi was OK. There’s 10,000 in Barcelona and they are well regulated. Our enthusiastic lady cabbie got us into the city, except got a bit dyslexic in reading the address, dropping us off at 117 in lieu of 177, 3 ½ blocks down the road. Bummer!. Hauled our gear there and were welcomed by Sebastian, a Frenchman who has adopted Spain as home. Settled into our room, bed, couch, wardrobe, 450mm sq table, lights, fan, end of story. Open the windows at night for some additional cooling and a bucket load of traffic noise. Can’t have it all I guess, seeing it’s only about 7-8 minutes walk to the centre of the old city.

Quite a warm day and we walked into the main square with its three fountains and huge paved areas. Supermarket downstairs and a two person lift (and baggage) between LE (exit level) and our L4. The lift was OLD, but has worked every time.Nice stair from the ground floor level to the exit lobby, all in marble and then similar all the way to the top. A couple of light/ventilation wells for the full building height. Dinner was the sangers we had bought in Madrid, but tasty. A few goodies from thesupermarket rounded things off well. In bed early but sleep with a lot of external noise coming in doesn’t always work as well as one would like.

 

290813

Wednesday

It was on with the shoes and ready to take off early to look in detail at Toledo. What a fabulous old city within the original walls that remain. So much for early, breakfast not served until 8.30AM so some route planning in order. We figured we could walk across the whole old town in under ½ hr, but the streets didn’t get set out in gridded patterns in the early years, dating back to about 200 BC when the Romans set up shop in these areas. Toledo’s setting lends itself to effective fortification with a river running through a steep sided gorge. An obvious place for a bridge as you can effectively control (read tax) incoming and outgoing traffic. The other bridge located similarly. When you build, you only need enough room for a donkey and a small cart, hence some effective traffic pinch points and a multiplicity of one way streets – but it works.

We meandered through the town, firstly to the main entry gate with its twin gates, like a sally port at prison; don’t want to pay tax? Stay put for a while and we’ll see. Had a look at the old walls, some of it re-built but not so as you’d notice it unless you were an architect or historian.

We visited the Jewish history museum, that was not a success, more jewish tradition than history and on top of that a radio information handset was on an older and unbelievably slow technology, almost as if it were an old diskette system in lieu of the modern digital types which give effectively instantaneous jumps between exhibits. A system update would be quite appropriate.

Had a look in at a cathedral (not the main one we could see from our breakfast floor) with a walk of 133 steps to the top of the tower, providing wonderful views across Toledo. The church interior too was quite interesting, amazed at the variations that occur from place to place and in time.

Got home and showered, then out for nosh, not easy to come to a concurrence on that one. Quite a few restaurants looked at and at last a selection made. That was just for the restaurant. Then the menu item(s). I decided on a black rice paella, Pauline on a seafood paella-hmmm. One out of two; mine was OK, Pauline’s paella rice undercooked- she can pick ‘em. However the icecream on the way home provided some amelioration for the paella saga, it was excellent.

Walked home and thought that there might be a drop or two of rain about later. Not wrong! The sky arced up and it rained. After about 15minutes we heard this hissing noise outside, opened our balcony window and  looked down to see this “torrent on its bed” rushing down the street for almost the full width of the street. The noise is from thestreet surface which is almost universally (in the old city) cobbled, two converging torrents at the top of the street and hurtling around the corner at the bottom to go down beside the cathedral. A real surprise to us but the locals don’t even give it a mention, so for them it must be common enough.

Packed it all up again ready for a taxi at about 8.40AM. 

280813

Tuesday

Our last day in Madrid and a train travel to Toledo. Hopped onto a taxi and for the princely sum of about E8.5 we were at Atocha. Waited about 1 hr for booking in and to get our tickets. Then onto the train, the Renfe local. Luggage left at the entry door, found our  two very comfortable seats and off. The Spaniards have a reputation for the best highspeed train network in the world and it didn’t take long to have that verified. The train must have hit 150km/hr for most of the journey and almost noiseless with a very smooth ride.

Toledo station, brand new platform and superbly refurbished interior, like pre WW1 at least, quite beautiful. A taxi to the hotel was a good choice as hauling luggage up steep cobbled streets would have been gross stupidity. The taxi driver in his Skoda at one point had to retract the mirrors to get between a couple of buildings, a new slant on squeezy. Hotel was a fully refurbished (after looking at the photos more like re-built) old building, looked very professionally done with all sorts of olde worlde objects everywhere. Dropped our luggage off in reception at about 10.30AM and off on foot to explore. Jaw dropping would explain it adequately. Our first impression of the place was it was at least the equal of San Geminano and the longer there had this impression confirmed. The hotel had given us an excellent map with the buildings on the various streets to assist in the orientation process, so getting around, while not simple was quite manageable.

Of course no two streets were parallel so it was constantly to the map and referring to it at virtually every street intersection. Lovely to walk around these ancient streets with their small shops and piazzas most of them with umbrellas and atomising water sprays to keep patrons cool.

 

270813

Monday

Today we walked to the station and sussed out the railway system and how to get to Atocha station and get to Toledo and later in the week to get the train to Barcelona. Option 1 was lug our gear down into the Metro network, a rapid train swap and to Atocho on the Metro, two tickets at $1.50 each. Option 2 get a taxi to the front door of Atocho for E6-7-a nobrainer on that one.

The intent for the day was to have a good look around the Prado museum, a recommendation from brother Fred who suggested this in lieu of the Louvre in Paris which normally involved huge queues, especially for viewing the rather small Mona Lisa. Fred suggested that the art works held there were probably the best in Europe. Not that we’re art enthusiasts or conniseurs, but he was dead right. The exhibition spaces were superb, the art works interesting and we’d allowed an afternoon, should but glad we did have time to see what we wanted. An interesting painting was that of a Mona Lisa in the Prado; only slightly different to the one in France but the lady herself without a doubt, except for the slightly skewiff angle of her eyes and the not quite completed background. The place had huge ceiling heights and enormous floor areas. Our first bite was for a temporary exhibition of art works by mostly Spanish artists, took us well over an hour, and floor space wise was about 15% of one of the two floors. Later on had a look at the Dutch masters including Rembrandt and his pupil’s works. Great sculptures and drawings as well. Amazing how the influence of the early church affected the great early masters who were not allowed to express their talent in ought but religious subjects with a few exceptions. Then of course came the renaissance and the release of the church placed boundaries meant the expressionism was let loose, as well as repressed talents.

We left the place at about 5PM suffering from a substantial bout of cultural and art overload, trying to figure a way on how to disseminate this vast body of work we’d been privileged to see and admire. That process usually takes time and will no doubt pop it’s head up whenever we see some more of this and other stuff.

Off back to the Hotel and a feed around the corner. Had the customary beer with it and am trying to sample a fair range of the brews produced locally; there;s a good variation in taste from ordinary to pretty good. Still yearn for a Boags now and then though. I must admit that it’s nice to get a 1/2L of beer after walking in 32-35C heat for a few hours.

Large Gap exists here in my blogger notes in Word - Much catchup required-back to the photos.