Trip to France, Spain and Portugal

Mike and Judy Henderson
September 1 to September 25, 2017

we're traveling on our own now.  The cruise finished and we're going to spend a week traveling in Spain.  I've put up a new map to show our planned travels.  We went to Granada to see the Alhambra.  Now, we're in Madrid and will spend two full days in the city.  Then we train to Barcelona for two full days, after which we fly to London and then home.

9/20/2017  We started the day by going to the Thyssen museum.

There was a special exhibition of Venetian art that was scheduled to close soon, and we were fortunate to be able to see it. The rest of the collection covered a good selection of other periods, and the museum itself was not so large that it was overwhelming for one visit.

We then went to the Circulo de Bellas Artes building, recommended by our friend from the train, Marie.  There's a café on the top of the building that has wonderful views of the city.  However, to keep too many people from crowding up there, they charge 4 € to take the elevator up.

The elevator took us to the fifth floor (remember that the ground floor is floor zero) and then we walked up about two flights to get to the café.  The view is spectacular.  Here are two panoramic shots of the city in two directions.  One thing you'll notice is that the city is not a high rise city.  We were up seven or eight stories and we were looking down on most of the other buildings.  The land near the building seemed fairly flat, so it's not that the Circulo de Bellas Artes building is built on a hill.

 Since we were there, we decided to have a beer and a snack at the café.

Judy at the café.

On our walk back we passed the Prado Museum, but didn't go in.

We did go into the Royal Garden.  There's a charge to get in, but for seniors, it's a half € per senior.

That was enough walking for one day, so we went back to the hotel.  That evening, for dinner, we went to a café near the train station.

We had paella.

Then it was back to the hotel for a night's rest.  We go to Toledo tomorrow.

9/21/2017  Before we leave for Toledo I want to show you the breakfast restaurant at the hotel. It's on the top floor of the hotel and has indoor and outdoor seating.  Here's a picture of Judy (in mid-bite!) at breakfast, with  the train station in the background.  We'll take the train to Toledo from that station.

We were lucky to get train tickets that day, but we had to take seats apart.  I hadn't purchased tickets to Toledo in advance because we hadn't decided which day we wanted to go.  We went to the station and purchased them at one of the ticket machines. 

Here's the waiting area for the trains.

The train station in Toledo is really a work of art.  Judy commented that it was worth the trip just to see the train station:-)  It was inaugurated in 1919.  Check out the link for more pictures.

This is where the ticket agents sat.  They dealt with the customers through the small windows.

Here's a map of Toledo to help you orient.

You can walk to the old town of Toledo but it's all up hill so we decided to take a taxi, and we arrived at the Alcázar (picture from the web).

We walked the small streets of the old town, stopping to look into some of the shops.  Judy bought some earrings.  Then we headed to the Toledo Cathedral.

It's really a big church.  I was surprised and amazed at the size.

Toledo had a fairly large Jewish Quarter and we headed there next.  I wanted to see the synagogue.  On our way, we passed the El Greco museum.

Just past the El Greco Museum was the synagogue.

It's not a functioning synagogue any more - it's preserved as a museum.  I asked for a senior ticket and the ticket agent said that seniors were free but I had to show proof of age.  So Judy and I got in free.

The main prayer hall.

When we left the synagogue we walked to a lookout point that gave a great view of the river and the opposite bank.

Along the way, we saw this shop whose proprietor was named "Serrano" which is the name of the street we live on.

As we walked out of the old town, I saw this marker in the road.  It probably indicates the beginning of the Jewish section of the city.

We walked out of one of the original city gates.  Cars actually drive through that gate.

We were outside the city walls.

These strange things sticking out from the city wall are actually covers for six escalators that take you up or down from the heights of the city.  Take a look at the link for better pictures.

We took the escalators back up to the city.  To show how high the city is, we were about at the level of that highway before we got on the first escalator.  It's quite a lift.

We walked the narrow city streets back to the area of the Alcázar.

And we took a taxi back to the railway station to board the train to Madrid.  It was an interesting day and a good visit to Toledo.

That evening, we had dinner at a very nice tapas restaurant, El Imparcial, with our friend, Marie, and her dog, Lucy.

Lucy was a hit with some kids in the restaurant.

Our adventure continues here.