Spain 2022

Bullet Train Valencia to Madrid Alvaro overlooking Cathy Champagne to Celebrate Negative Test Dr. administering COVID Tests to allow us to return to US Fabulous Confit (maybe) of Artichokes White Asparagus Turbo Cheese Cake and Amaretto Crowds Celebrate Madrid beats Liverpool in Soccer We took the bullet train from Valencia back to Madrid where we returned to The Principal Hotel and checked in. We were given a suite overlooking the plaza once again. We didn’t realize it at the time but there was a major Soccer game Madrid vs Liverpool. The whole town was in a state of excitement.   We did a preliminary pack for our trip home tomorrow and awaited the doctor for our Covid test required for our return to US. It is absurd, the US has far more COVID cases than anywhere else in the world. And the US doesn’t require people to take a test to fly domestically. It is all COVID theater. The Doctor came to our hotel and administered a rapid test. It was different the ones we hav...

Park atop the Parking Garage with  species indigenous to Valencia Face inside of Statue Performance Arts Center Interior Main Performance Space Reflections of light off of broken tiles Water Features and Cinema Cinema Inside the Garden atop Garage Fabulous Garlic Shrimp Best Paella Yet! Let’s get the worst part out of the way first, and add some lessons learned. A little background first, when we were last in London, Cathy got pickpocketed. We have no idea how they accomplished it, but as we were walking, we realized her purse was open, her wallet was missing. It was amazing how professional it was.  Because we shared the same American Express and Visa cards all our credit cards needed to be cancelled. In addition, Cathy lost all her id’s, Driver’s License, Insurance Cards, etc. When we arrived back in the States, we got new credit cards and made sure that we had separate numbers so that if one of us ever lost their cards the other one will still have a working card.  ...

  Hoisting the Paella Pans Lake Albufera, where they grow Bomba Rice Rice Liquor Paella Inspection Paella Passed the Inspection! Perfect Patatas Bravas Why can't we take Parsifal out with us? White Asparagus Beautiful Modernist Style Market Unusually Shaped Tomatoes, wonder what they taste like The Water Tribunal  When we awakened, we asked ourselves, why are we staying in this hotel? The room was nice, we had a private patio, but we thought the service sucked, and the bed was hard. We had to decide if we wanted to switch to a better hotel. The obvious answer was Hell Yes! We quickly secured a reservation at the Westin Valencia, a luxury hotel in every way. We packed up and took our luggage to our much nicer new digs. Since it was only 11:30am we checked in but couldn’t go to our rooms, which hadn’t been cleaned yet.  We then taxied to The Water Court (Tribunal de Las Aguas). The Tribunal meets outside the Door of the main Cathedral, every Thursday at noon, keeping a...

Typical Valencia Architecture Bull Fighting Ring The Silk Exchange Building Real Valencia Oranges Columns of the Silk Exchange Religious Pageantry Spicy Tuna - Yum Delicious Bread Pudding   We left some of our luggage behind in Madrid, and headed off to the train Station to take the bullet train to Valencia. Why can’t the US have trains like this? It had wifi, it was very smooth and fast. We arrived in Valencia about 2pm and taxied to our hotel.   The hotel is in a hip part of Valencia, with lots of outdoor cafes and stores. The weather is definitely cooler than Madrid. I went for a walk (quickly finding the Apple Store), while Cathy remained in the room. When I returned it was time to head out and see our first sites. We decided to go to the Silk Exchange. It is the most famous building in Valencia. The taxi driver dropped us off at the Silk Museum instead. He must have misinterpreted where we were intending to go. The small museum was interesting, but not where we wanted to ...

Madrid is Like Paris South American Plunder Nice Gold Ensemble, love the hat One of the Only Four Existing Mayan Codex (Books) Vacation shopping I hope Vino Generoso means "Generous Pours of Wine" Cathy Inspecting the Wine at Angelina Porcini Mushrooms with Eggs We both suffered from Jet Lag again last night. It’s a bitch not being able to fall asleep, or if you fall asleep waking up an hour later. My cousin Sora sent me a great quote today: “ The seventies are your Go-Go years, the eighties are your Slo-Go years, and the nineties are your No-Go years!” There might be some truth in that.   We sorted our clothing out in anticipation of our 3 day trip to Valencia tomorrow. We are going to take minimal belongings on the train. We will leave our luggage and extra clothes at the Hotel and will reclaim them when we return to Madrid.   We decided to visit the Museum of the Americas. On the way we drove past what I could have sworn was the Arc de Triumph. Unfortunately, this Arc de T...

Pedestrian only Streets The  Spanish Society of Authors and Publishers Tapas Bar opened in 1892 Tortilla Monument to  m onument of Daoiz and Velarde Heroes of May 2 Fireman at Chueca in background After our long day of walking in Toledo, today was a down day of rest. Cathy had a 90 minute massage at the hotel and loved it. She said the masseur was cute. Hmm. I went for a walk, and somehow screwed up the Spanish SIM, and had to buy another one. It was a hassle to get it activated. But we are connected again. This is critical if you want to walk in Madrid. We are staying in Chueca (the Silverlake of Madrid). It is so full of short streets that twist around that it would be impossible for a visitor to find anyplace without Google Maps! You see many people walking around looking at their phone. We have been here 8 days and can now somewhat navigate on our own.   After Cathy’s massage we headed out for a walk. We came across a great building that could have been in Barcelona. ...