Monthly Archives: October 2022

DAY 8: BARCELONA & EMBARKING THE CORINTHIAN: IN SEARCH OF DON QUIXOTE

Adios Cristina, buenos dias Corinthian! Before we boarded the ship today, we had one last morning with Cristina so a few more hours to enjoy her wonderful company. This morning we were exploring another neighborhood near our hotel as well as a hidden gem—the Palace of Music or Palau de la Musica Catalana.

What a true jewel that place was. Hidden deep in the neighborhood of El Born, the Palace of Music surprised us with it’s beautiful facade and magnificent interior. It was done in the modernista style as typical of the neighborhood but on a grand scale. It was designed by Louis Domenico i Montaner and was built between 1905 and 1908 for Oreo Catala which is a choral society. They were founded in 1891. They wanted a place where they could put on concerts and practice so they had this beautiful structure constructed. Hidden away in this neighborhood, it was protected from the bombs that hit the city during the Civil War.

They did have financial issues while trying to build the concert hall. They would have to judiciously pay their bills. Sometimes the electrical bill didn’t get paid for a while. They opened up to concerts before the place was completely finished in order to pay for the rest of the work. In 1997, the palace de la Música Catalana was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site When we went inside I knew why.

The exterior was fantastical enough with grand sculptures. On the corner Miguel Blay’s vast sculpture which symbolizes Catalan music commanded my attention. It was intricate and all of the lines flowed as typical of the. Modernista style. There are no straight lines or sharp corners in that type of architecture. They prefer flowing lines. I really liked the ticket office which was basically a little cubby hole in the column beneath the balcony. It was decorated with a floral motif.

Inside I have to admit that my jaw dropped. I have been in some beautiful places such as the Opera House in Buenos Aires which was gorgeous and the Sydney Opera House but this one had them beat hands down. Not only was the exterior a symphony of ornate beauty, the interior was a profusion of mosaics, stain glass, light, and color. It was as if we had walked into a beautiful garden that totally surrounded us. I immediately fell in love with it.

The ceiling in the concert hall was decorated with ceramic roses and a huge skylight with stain glass than flowed down into the concert hall like an inverted volcano. It lit the hall up along with the floor to ceiling stain glass along the walls. Every little niche was decorated. Back behind the stage was a combo mosaic and painted mural of women playing the different instruments of Catalonia. All I can say about this Palace of Music is that it was absolutely magical. I would have loved to have heard a concert here. Our guide Mercé did play some music for us over the sound system. I didn’t recognize the piece but listening to it in these surroundings nearly brought me to tears. It was so special. On Christmas they bring all of the choral groups together here to do a big concert. That would be amazing to see.

The only current problem with the concert hall is lack of capacity. Choral groups have gotten so large that the stage isn’t always big enough to hold them. They have found a creative solution. They now can extend the stage out by covering the first several rows of seating in the audience. Of course that also means fewer paid seats. You take the good with the bad.

After seeing the concert hall, we got to visit their practice room will also is a chamber music concert area. Small groups can rent it out to perform in. During the day and even while performances are going on in the concert hall, groups can practice here.

From my beautiful Palace of Music we strolled around the El Born neighborhood. The streets were narrow and dark. This was definitely an older part of the city. It was interesting to see the architecture as well as symbols of life continuing here such as laundry hanging out on the balconies. Along one street were benches that had what looked like cannon balls next to them. On the ball it said “Born.” I thought that was neat.

We came across a small museum that was filled with giants. Cristina was acquainted with the man running it and he allowed us to come inside. It was nice to be able to see the various giants up close and personal. It gave you a much better sense of just how gigantic they were. There were all different types. There were kings and queens, horses, Moors, soldiers, monsters, dragons…the variety of figures was amazing. Sam was dwarfed by the figure when she stood next to a giant.

Cristina led us next to an archeological site within the neighborhood called the El Born site. It has a sad history. As in many European countries, there has been much fighting in Spain. One such war was the Battle of Succession. This war occurred after the death of Charles II (the sickly one with the deformed jaw and victim of too many bad genes) in November of 1700. He had declared Philip of Anjou as his heir since he himself had no children, but other European powers backed Charles of Austria. Philip of Anjou was Louis XIV’s son and the other countries were afraid that if Philip became king, it would give France way too much power. Catalonia championed Charles of Austria because they didn’t like the despotic policies of the Bourbons. It was a big mess. After the end of the war Philip was crowned king with the understanding that his heirs could not rule in France.

This outcome led to the destruction of a portion of Barcelona in 1714. Entire blocks were razed as punishment for supporting Charles of Austria. Over 1,000 families had to demolish their own homes. This site was the location of around 50 of them. In 1876 the Born Market was constructed here.

The market itself was the first wrought iron building in Barcelona. It definitely stood out from all of the stone buildings. Because all of the building materials were light weight, it went up quickly and economically without needing a big foundation. This preserved the buildings beneath.

The market was designed by Josep Fontsere who used the Parisian market of Les Halles as a guide. It originally housed the market that use to be in Placa del Born and the old fish market that had been around since medieval times. In 1971 the El Born Market was closed because it was moved to Mercabarna. The decisions was made to conserve the market building and preserve the ruins beneath it. It was a good decision. Not only did it memorialize what had happened in this neighborhood, it conserved the ruins. They did a very nice job of it. Outside in the square in front of the building they used different colors in the bricks of the square floor to create the outline of the houses that stood here. Inside the old market you can see the remains of the buildings that had been terraced over.

We wandered until we came to a huge church—Basilica of Santa Maria Del Mar. It was imposing. Atypical of most of these huge churches, this one one was completed in just 55 years. Most basilicas take a couple of hundred years. Santa Maria Del Mar was built from 1329 to 1384 and is the only surviving church that was created in the pure Catalan Gothic style. The guilds in the area actually shelled out the money to build this basilica. The stone guild couldn’t afford to donate so their men carried the stones with which the church was built from the harbor to the church. What a chore that had to have been. They were thanked with two tiny carvings of men carrying a stone on their back. One was on each of the massive front doors.

The church was so imposing that it was a bit startling to face away from the church and see a statue of a man squatting and pooping next to a store! We had seen this same statue in Madrid and had no clue was it was for. Cristina enlightened us. It is a Catalan Christmas tradition to put the pooping farmer called a Caganer as part of the nativity. I know it sounds really strange but to the Catalan people, it brings good luck and joy. If you don’t include it on your nativity, you will have misfortune. Of course we had to go inside the store and buy one as a Christmas ornament. It won’t be the only strange ornament we have on our tree. We bought a penis in Bhutan in a town with a monastery known for solving fertility issues. They had penises everywhere, on buildings, on signs….you name it, it had a penis. As I recall there was a legend about a monk chasing off demons in the area with his powerful “thunder stick.” The things you learn traveling!

This finished up our last tour with Cristina. She loaded us up on our bus and took us down to the pier so we could board in time for lunch. I was sorry to say goodby to her as she had been a great TL. From what she said, I think this was her first time doing it. However, I was glad to sit for a few minutes on the bus. I had my iPad which is heavy in my backpack. It had been my understanding that we could leave things on the bus while we did our walkabout. This morning we found out differently. They were using our bus to shuttle luggage from the hotel to the ship. We had to carry our stuff with us. Sam had her cold medicine in her backpack and had to carry it all morning as well. It hadn’t been ideal but you do what you have to do. I was also wearing my boot which is always exhausting. The thought of taking a break for lunch on the boat was lovely.

It took a bit to get onboard. First we had to show our passport. Nobody cared about our COVID card. Then we had to go through security. I had to practically strip as my whisper radio receiver had to go in my backpack as well as my camcorder. My name tag had to go into my purse. It took a bit to get everything where it needed to be but we all made it through.

One member of the crew met us at the bottom of the gangplank welcoming us and telling us to be careful. Another crew member met us at the top of it and welcomed us onboard. Inside we all had to have our temperature taken. My was 98 which I guess was a bit high to them (Doug’s was 97) but within reason. Another crew member ushered us into the lounge to wait to for our turn to check in. While we waited, we filled out cards for WiFi. Each device had to have its own login and password so I had to fill out two.

When it was our turn we checked in and had our picture taken for our boarding cards. We take it every time we leave the ship and use it to get back on. When we are back onboard, we have to put it back in the slot with our room number on the big board. That way the crew knows who is onboard and who is not.

Although we had been told our rooms wouldn’t be ready until 5 PM, both of ours and Chris’ were ready now. We had requested room 602 because we had been in it before when we went to Antarctica and all of our paperwork said 602 but we ended up next door at 604. It was no big deal. We dropped off our carryon and then knocked on Sam’s door on Deck 3 before heading down to Deck 2 for lunch.

Lunch onboard is always a buffet although right after COVID they had to change it to a plated meal. They have finally been allowed to change it back. All crew members were wearing masks at all times though. We didn’t have to which I didn’t think was fair to the crew. I know OAT is just trying to keep everybody healthy the best way they can.

While I was checking out the desserts, the head chef asked me if I had been on the Clio before as I looked familiar. I told him I had. He asked, “Was it in 2018?” Darned if it wasn’t! Joyce and I had been on the Clio when we did the Suez Canal trip in January of 2018. That was a bit freaky as I am not that memorable! And he was the second person so far that said I looked familiar. Weird.

After a great lunch, we got unpacked and then Doug, Sam, and I left the ship to do our last walkabout in Barcelona. We wanted to see the statue of Columbus as well as walk the last half of the Ramblas. Chris stayed onboard.

Columbus’ statue was right at the harbor. It was very reminiscent of Nelson’s statue in Trafalgar Square. Before COVID you could go up into the column by elevator but it was closed now. That would have been a great view. From there we decided to check out the Rambla de Mar which was the extension of the Ramblas out into the water. It led to a huge shopping mall. We walked just far enough on it to enjoy the view and then headed back to dry land.

We wandered passed the Maritime Museum and made our way to the Ramblas. We strolled like Catalonians for the last time, enjoying the ambiance of the city even though the walkway was crowded. We walked up to the mosaic in the sidewalk where we had ended when walking it from the hotel. We had now walked the entire Ramblas.

On the way back to the ship we stopped at a little store and bought some milk for Sam to take her Trikafta with and then made our way back to the ship. We showed our new boarding passes, put the milk through the x-ray machine at security, and made our way to our cabins.

We just happened to bump into our new trip leader Victor as we were going to our room. He had just gotten to the ship after getting all of his last group off to their homes. He was literally doing a back-to-back. He seemed very nice though. I think he is going to be great.

At 6:15 we all congregated in the lounge for our very first port talk. We will be having these every night. One of the trip leaders will tell us a bit about the port we will be at the next day and go over our schedule. They also have the day’s itinerary on the ship’s intranet as well as on a board on Deck 3 which is where you exit the ship and where the port talks are held.

Tonight’s port talk was a bit longer than normal as they were introducing the Captain of the ship, the hotel manager, and all of the trip leaders. We had already met Victor. Gabo had been the TL for the other group on the pre-trip so we knew him a little bit. He is quite the character. Tonight we met Clarissa and Marcel. He is really tall. He is Sam’s age and from Barcelona so I need to find out if he is single and see if I can do a little bit of match making 🙂

The TLs all seem great and Lazlo the hotel manager is quite the comedian. He had us in stitches. The captain is from Cuba. Gabo is from Argentina although he has lived quite a while in Spain. So it is an eclectic group. I think it will be a fun group.

From the port talk we went straight into dinner. We sat at a big table and Victor joined us. It gave us a chance to get to know him. We hadn’t met with our group yet so we didn’t know anybody in it. We had a nice time chit chatting with him. Plus it gave us a chance to ask him questions we had about the trip.

Dinner itself was good. I wasn’t in the mood for fancy tonight so I went plain. There is always several choices that change every night. If you don’t like any of them, you can always order grilled, salmon, steak, or chicken. Those choices come with a baked potato steamed veggies. Sam went with the grilled steak and I got the grilled chicken. For dessert we had some type of chocolate brownie pie thing. It was really good.

We are actually staying berthed in Barcelona tonight so I won’t be gently rocked to sleep while we sail. You do feel a bit a motion though even when you are docked. Tomorrow we will see a portion of Barcelona that we did not see on the pre-trip. For anybody who didn’t do the pre, this will be their only one day to see the city. Trust me, it takes well more than one day to see all of this fabulous city. I’m going to be sad to leave it tomorrow.

DAY 7: FIGUERES, SPAIN: IN SEARCH OF DON QUIXOTE

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Happy Birthday, Samantha! She was so happy to be spending her birthday in Spain. She has looked forward to this trip for a very long time. I was happy for her that she had finally made it here. At breakfast we gave her her card and a necklace I had picked up in South Africa. On the bus Cristina had everybody sing “Happy birthday” to her.

If I am to be perfectly honest, I can’t say I was very excited about today other than it being Sam’s birthday. I am not a big fan of Salvador Dalí. I also have to admit I know next to nothing about the man except that his art is weird. Melting watches? However, if I had to chose, I would pick him over Picasso but that isn’t saying much. But today would be a good time to expand my horizons and afterall, isn’t that what travel is all about?

The trip to Figueres which is Dalí’s home town took close to two hours. Our driver today was Ramone and he did a fabulous job. While we drove Cristina increased our knowledge base about her country. Spain is divided into 17 regions. Catalonia or Catalunya is the region that Barcelona is located in. Many of the regions have their own language. Catalonias pride themselves on having their own language. For many who live in the region, it is their primary language and Spanish is secondary. The region also has its own police force and they can only serve in this region. Catalonia has its own parliament and own president. Many citizens want to separate from Spain and be their own country. As you can imagine, that has caused some problems. This region produces approximately a quarter of Spain’s GDP which is one reason why Spain doesn’t want them to separate.

We had noticed that the air quality in Madrid and in Barcelona had been bad some days. Cristina said that they are strongly discouraging people from driving in Barcelona because of the pollution problem and because of traffic jams. Hopefully that will help get the problem under control although we hadn’t noticed the air being particularly bad. The only reason we knew about the air quality was our weather app. Trust me, the air here was nothing like the nastiness we experience in Deli, India when the farmers were burning their fields. There you couldn’t see anything across the street.

To set the stage for our visit, Cristina gave us some background information about Salvador. He was born in Figueres in 1904 to a well-to-do family. His father was a notary for the city. Before Salvador was born, his mother bore his brother. However, that Salvador died. When she had her second son, they named him Salvador. When he was just little they took him to the cemetery and showed him his brother’s grave. It was my impression that they went overboard in talking about their dead child and made Salvador feel “less than.” It is my opinion that this is why he grew up to be such an extravagant person. He was trying to get his parents attention. He wanted them to see him and not his dead brother.

That wasn’t the only thing his parents did that created the strange man he became. As he reached puberty, his father left some reading material for him. Now that in and of itself isn’t a bad thing. However, it was the nature of the reading material that was the problem. It was all about sexually transmitted diseased and what they can do to you. I think there were photos and everything. It scared the tar out of poor Dalí. He never wanted to have anything to do with girls or women after that.

Despite the questionable things his parents did raising him, they did do one thing right, they sent him to the best fine arts school. There he met and hobnobbed with other who would become famous such as Picasso and Joan Miro. It was here than he honed his formidable talent. He never graduated because he refused to finish his final examine saying he knew more than his professors did.

He ignored women until he met the love of his life, Gala, in August 1929. She was actually Russian and her real name was Elena Ivanovna Diakonova. She was ten years older than Dalí who was 25 at the time. She was also married to Surrealist poet Paul and had a daughter. Dalí was friends with Éluard and had invited he and other friends to a holiday house his family owned. It was then that he met the woman he would come to call Gala. At the end of the stay, Paul Éluard left and Gala stayed. I’m not sure what happened with the daughter. Gala and Dalí remained together for the rest of their lives.

They bought a small fisherman house and lived there until WWII when they went to the U.S. to live. It was at this time that he started becoming famous. The couple returned to Spain after the war and Dalí continued painting. He also wrote, made a film, and created installations. He made jewelry and clothes for Coco Chanel. The man was obviously talented as well as a showman. This could be because he felt like he always lived in the shadow of his dead brother. He felt like he had to be outrageous to get people’s attention.

When Dalí was older, he wanted to give something back to his hometown of Figueres so he bought the old theater where he had his first showing and began a labor of love turning it into a museum of his work. He bought Gala a castle to live in because she admired castles. She instituted one rule. He could not come to the castle unless he received a written invitation from her to come. Dalí lived in his museum.

Gala died seven years before he did. Dalí was a broken man after that. He became very ill and spent most of those seven years in bed. He was staying in the castle and had created his own burial spot next to hers but he accidentally started a fire in the castle and had to move back into the museum. He never returned to the castle even after he died. The mayor or Figueres swore that Dalí told him on his death bed that he wanted to be buried at the museum. And so he was. We’ll never know if that is truly what Dalí wanted or not.

Dalí died in 1989 and left all of his worldly goods to the government of Spain. Years later a woman showed up claiming to be his daughter. His body was exhumed and a DNA sample taken. She was not his daughter after all. People think she did it in order to try to weasel 25% of his estate away from the government. She would have been a very wealthy woman if her gambit had paid off.

The Dalí Museum was one different place. Outside the theater was painted a reddish color and had roundish loaves of plaster bread attached looking like freckles. On the roof were large egg shapes. As we walked towards the entrance with our local guide Isabelle (Belle for short), she pointed out the balcony of the apartment that Dalí lived in. I was so grateful that we had Belle with us on our visit. Without her explanations I wouldn’t have understood anything I saw. The museum was very much like Dalí himself—bizarre.

To be honest, I am struggling with how to describe this place and his work. In some ways it reminded me of Gaudi because nothing was what it seemed. Inside the theater was a piece of work by Dalí that looked a bit like Abraham Lincoln when viewed through the camera on your phone. However, with the naked eye, you saw blocks of colors with the naked back of Gala. I’ll never figure out how he did that. It was amazing.

The backdrop of the “stage” (remember this museum use to be a theater and Dalí kept it true to its former purpose) was a ginormous painting of a female torso with a cracked egg-shape for a head. The nipple on the right was created by Dalí painting a sperm. It represented the male side. Every little thing in the painting had meaning.

Dalí did enjoy his installations. In the middle of the courtyard outside the theater he had his old Cadillac with what looked like a plump Valkyrie standing on the hood. She was attached by a couple of chains to an upside down boat. I’m not sure what that was all about. What was even crazier was if you put a coin in the box by the car, it would then rain inside the car!

We passed through the courtyard and into the the old theater. This is where you could see the marker for Dalí’s tomb. When we went downstairs, we saw the actual tomb. Surprisingly, it was quite plain. Up above his tomb he had placed a glass sphere.

Although Dalí was a surrealist, he hadn’t become one until he was 24. Before then he had studied all of the classic artists and was an excellent technician. He did some portraits of Gala that were beautiful. They also had a basket of bread that he had painted. It looked like a photograph. If you looked closely, you could see a face in the bread.

His artwork repeated a few themes over and over. He had a thing about time, thus the melting watches that he liked painting. He wanted to show the passage of time. We saw a tapestry of his melting watches. The actual painting is in another museum.

We saw paintings he had done using octopi. You could see the sucker marks and all. He also used a candle to “paint” a picture of Jesus. Amazing. The strangest room was the Mae West Room. He used furniture and architectural pieces to recreate her face. For instance a lip couch was her lips. A fireplace her nostrils, two large prints her eyes, drapes make up her hair. If you stood at one vantage point, you could actually see the entire face framed by hair.

One of the last rooms we visited had a huge mural on the ceiling. It was both he and Gala reaching up to the sky. It was painted as if you were under their feet looking up. The figure of Dalí is painted with drawers making up his body. His drawers are open and upside down to represent that he gave everything to his art. You could spend hours looking at this painting and still not catch everything. That was very true of many of his pieces.

Being a more traditionalist, my favorites were his paintings of Gala. You could tell that they were painted with love. The two I particularly liked were not surreal. One showed her naked back. It was beautiful. The other one was a bust painting. She had one breast exposed. Beautiful paintings, both of them.

One piece he did in retaliation. He knew Picasso and valued his friendship and opinion. When Picasso said that Dalí didn’t have any talent, Dalí got angry. He painted a very pointed piece in retaliation. Picasso never forgave him although Dalí apologized many, many times. Such is the power of art.

The museum was full of illusions and multi-dimensional works. Some pieces were made by looking at a reflection in a mirror, some in the reflection on a bottle. We even saw a few of the pieces of jewelry he had created. In the “Treasure” room, we did see his famous elephant with the long, skinny legs. It looked like it was made out of gold.

My mind was whirling as we walked out of the museum. It was next to impossible to process all that I had just seen. It was too much. Dalí’s work was nothing like I expected.

We had free time after the museum to explore the rest of the town, get lunch, or go back and see more of the museum. The four of us chose to get some lunch. Sam and I were starving. We found an outdoor cafe and enjoyed some sandwiches. Mine was pulled pork and it was excellent.

After eating we just wandered around the shopping area. Sam wanted to check out the Flying Tiger store for Halloween stuff. She found a bat wing headband to wear for Halloween. By the time she had made her purchase, it was time to head back to our meeting spot.

It was a quiet hour and a half ride back to Barcelona. We were all tired so Cristina left us just chill as we made the drive. I dozed a bit as I have been getting too little sleep.

We made it back to H10 in time to get ready for our flamingo show. We showered and changed clothes and then hit the Ramblas. We went halfway down as per our instructions and found the pub where we were suppose to meet the rest of our group. I believe our meeting point was called the Traveler’s Nest. It was a small place and apparently other groups were meeting here as well. Somebody stopped by about a food tour. While we waited for the rest of our group to show up, Doug and I enjoyed a beer. I slammed it down thinking we would be leaving any minute. Turns out I would have had plenty of time to finish it. Eventually our group all arrived. It was the four of us and then two other families. A young man met us here and then walked us to Taranto theater which was only a couple of blocks away.

The show was only 30 minutes long but it was great. I felt like I was watching an authentic presentation of the dance. Sure the flamingo show back home at the Columbia Restaurant was more glitzy. I felt this one was more authentic. There were only four performers out on a tiny stage. The entire theater wasn’t very large. One was a guitar player, one a singer, and then a man and woman dancers. The singer must have had a fan club because there was some hollering when he came out. He was very good.

The music, the singing, the dancing were all first rate. I loved it as did Sam. The male dancer was very tall and super skinny but he could move. He was fabulous. The female dancer was probably in her late 30s or early 40s but she was very good as well. I was sorry when the show ended. I was ready for more.

After the show we met up with your young man. One of the families had vanished so he spent valuable time trying to locate them. We found out later that they had gone back to the pub without telling him. I felt badly for him.

Part of our ticket was tapas after the show. We had that at the pub. It was much better than I expected. There was way too much food to eat. We had mushrooms, shrimp, cheese, sausage, sangria, bread with tomato….They just kept bringing out the food until we were stuffed. It was way more food than we expected but really good.

While we ate we visited with the family from England. They were very nice. We enjoyed talking with them. The other family was a mother with three children. She was too busy with them to socialize with us. They ate quickly and left.

It felt good to walk up the Ramblas back to the hotel. After all of that food I needed to walk some of it off before hitting the hay. It wasn’t as late as I was afraid it was going to be. I wanted to get some sleep so I could fully enjoy our last day with Cristina. Tomorrow afternoon is the start of the main trip. We will bid Cristina “adios” and meet up with our new trip leader Victor. Plus we will be boarding the Corinthian tomorrow. We will be on the ship at last!

DAY 6: BARCELONA: PARK GUELL, SAGRADA FAMILIA, LA RAVAL: IN SEARCH OF DON QUIXOTE

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What can I saw about today except that by the end of it, my feet hurt! We walked well over 8 miles. Midway through the day I changed into my boot. It’s a good thing I did because we had much more walking to do. The amount of walking isn’t a complaint as we saw so much of Barcelona today. It was just tough on the old footsies 🙂

The day started out with a guided tour of the park Gaudi designed. Actually Park Guell wasn’t intended originally to be a public park. The Earl of Guell who was the Rockefeller of his time here in Barcelona had this brilliant idea of creating a high-end housing area for the wealthy in Barcelona. It would be on a nearby mountain where people could go to escape the heat and crowds of the city. He hired a young new architect that he had discovered to create this space. That architect was Antoni Gaudi.

The Earl of Guell had inherited his fortune from his father. Then he married an exceedingly wealthy woman. He ended up one of the wealthiest people in Spain. Then he met Gaudi in Paris where Gaudi was living at that time. He was so impressed with his ideas, that he bankrolled all of the young architect’s projects. He paid the bills without paying any attention to what they were. In the end that carelessness cost him. He went bankrupt.

Now Gaudi wasn’t your typical architect. He had his own ideas about how things should be built. The university where he graduated said they didn’t know if they were giving the degree to a madman or a genius. The Earl himself didn’t always understand Gaudi either but he was betting on Gaudi being a genius. And since Gaudi’s buildings are still around, I think that gives us the answer. You either love his work or hate it. I don’t think there is any middle ground. More than seven of his buildings are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. That tells you something right there.

Gaudi had been a sickly child. He suffered from rheumatism and had constant pain in his intestinal tract. Then in 1876 both his mother and his brother died. Gaudi took it very hard. Between his pain, poor health, and depression over his losses, her turned to the church and became an extremely devout Catholic. That was to stick with him for the rest of his life. He didn’t really care about people as much as he did his religion and his work although he did do charity work. As a result, he never married or had children. When he died in a tram accident, he donated everything he had to the church.

What makes Gaudi’s work so unique? He takes all of his ideas from nature. You won’t find straight lines and 90 degree angles in anything he creates because nature doesn’t have those. His columns lean or curve much like the trunks of trees. He believed that nature gave you the solution to all of your problems. You just had to study it and imitate it. He also believed that nothing beautiful was useless. He also believed that nothing was what it looked like. These principals were to guide his design decisions all of his life.

The park which is 30 acres was suppose to contain 60 estates for the rich and famous. Gaudi began work on it in 1900. He was still working on it in 1914 when WWI started so the project was put on the back burner and never finished even after the war. By that point only two houses, neither designed by Guadi, were built. Nobody wanted to live there. One of the houses is now the Gaudi House. He lived there for a while and currently it is a museum dedicated to him. The other house actually predates the park and is where the Earl lived.

While we were driving to the bus, our local guide Gonzalo gave us the 411 on Gaudi and Park Guell. He also talked a bit about the area of Barcelona we were driving through. Just off the Ramblas and the center of the city is a section called the Enlargement. Spaniards are not creative with their names. It’s called the Enlargement because this is the area that was built in the 1800s when the city fathers decided to tear down the city walls and enlarge the city. It’s construction is unique. The corners aren’t 90 degree corners. The “point” is chopped off. These days they use that small section mostly for parking. Back when the Enlargement was built, they wanted to make it roomy and clean. So instead of narrow roads, they constructed wide ones. Each block was suppose to have a large garden to keep the air clean and buildings on only two sides. However, business people knew that was wasting valuable land so they built apartment buildings that covered the entire block so they would have more space to rent out. The owners lived on the primary floor which was the second floor and rented the rest of the building out. I have to say, I did like having the corners chopped off. It gave the area a very distinctive look.

Soon we were pulling into the parking lot of Park Guell. What a marvelous place for children! Actually, Guell’s old house is a school now. Lucky kiddos! Gonzalo who really enjoyed talking, described what Gaudi had tried to do. As we walked he pointed out the roadway that was supported by pillars. However, these pillars were nothing like you typically see. They leaned like tree trunks. Some actually looked like palm trees if you used a bit of imagination. They blended in with the trees that abounded.

We kept walking until we came to a pink house with white decor around the doors and windows. This was Guell’s house and now a school. It was not Gaudi’s work but it was fanciful with a cupola jutting up into the sky. From the school we could see over to the Monumental Zone. This is the portion of the park you have to pay to get in to. The rest is free to the public and people can amble through the acreage as they want. There are playgrounds there for the children as well.

The Monumental Zone has all of the Gaudi pieces that the park is famous for. Sam and I had seen photographs and were itching to see the real thing. The first familiar bit of Gaudi we saw was the mosaic bench in Nature Square that winds for 360 feet around the area much as a snake. In fact Gaudi took his inspiration for this long bench from the shapes a snake form. He arranged the curves so that no matter where you sit on the bench, somebody is in front of you. He thought this would stimulate conversations among people. The bench itself was decorated with mosaics created with pieces of broken pottery. Gaudi literally smashed crates of dishes to get the pieces to use. It sounds crazy but the result was wonderfully fanciful. Sam and I loved it. And the way the benches were constructed to follow the human form, made them super comfortable even if they were stone.

Sam sitting on famous Gaudi bench in Park Guell

Besides being pleasing to the eye, there was also method to Gaudi’s madness. He engineered the square as a catchment system in order to collect the rainwater hitting the square. He built it so that the water would funnel down into the area below and then into a cistern which would supply water to the houses that were never built.

From the terrace we looked down into the area below with two fairytale buildings. One looked like Hansel and Gretel’s gingerbread house. The other one looked like a giant cupcake. They were a child’s dream come true. I couldn’t wait to see them up close but first I had to enjoy the terrace.

There were crowds of people here so trying to get a good picture of the bench was next to impossible but we got what we could. It was truly a marvel. It felt like a magical land plunked down in the middle of a tropical forest. The feeling persisted as we walked down the stairs and into the hypostyle or Pathway of Columns. The Pathway of Columns contains 100 columns. Some leaned considerable. The columns were also hollow (nothing is what it looks like, remember). They provided the funnel for the water coming off of the square and sent it down into the cistern.

The ceiling of the hypostyle which Gaudi had originally planned to be a market area complete with places in the ceiling on which to anchor tents, actually resembled an egg carton. Inside some of the concave areas he had placed designs created with broken pottery. In other places the designs were between concave areas.

The stairway down to the gingerbread houses was equally magical. Between the two staircases were three fountains. Over the fountains was a mosaic salamander. Gonzalo called it a salamander but others called it a dragon. It looked more like a salamander to me. Whatever it really was, I loved it. It was so bright and cheerful. It made you smile just to look at it.

We came to the two fairytale buildings at the base of the staircase. One is now a souvenir shop and I believe the other one is empty. They were truly amazing structures. Perfect for children, I can understand why rich adults might not have wanted to live here. It defied all of the conventions at the time. We had a few minutes here to use the toilet, shop, or just explore. I manage to do a little of all three. I did a fair bit of gawking at the two cupcake houses. They were mind blasting wow.

Although there was more of the park to see, we had seen the highlights so it was back to the bus. We had more of Barcelona to explore today. Actually, the park was the only item on our official schedule. The bus was heading back to the hotel. As we made our way back, we took the scenic tour by the old Hospital of the Holy Cross and Saint Paul. This hospital was huge! I believe Gonzalo said that it covered 13 blocks. It was constructed between 1901 and 1930 to take care of the poorest of the poor. Today is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

It was built in the Art Nouveau style and had 12 pavilions. It was a fully functioning hospital until 2009 when a new hospital was opened. Portions of the old hospital were kept. They are now a museum and a cultural center. Alfonso worked miracles and found a place to park so we could get out and admire the architecture of one portion of the hospital. The central piece looked more like a church than it did a hospital. It had a spire shooting up into the sky with a clock in it. It was beautiful.

There is an interesting story associated with this hospital. Gaudi was walking to confession on June 7, 1926 when he was struck by a tram. It took a while but finally some people brought him to this hospital. They had done this because they thought he was some homeless man as his clothes were dirty and ragged and he was quite unkempt. They didn’t recognize the famous architect. He spent three days in this hospital before they finally realized who he was. When they asked him if he wanted to be moved to another hospital, he declined. He died that very day. On the day of his funeral, 5,000 people showed up to pay homage.

This was the end of the road for the four of us. We weren’t going back to the hotel with the rest of our group. We had 12:30 tickets to the Sagrada Familia which is the church Gaudi started building 100 years ago. Cristina told us that the church was just about a ten minute walk from here. One of the reasons we stopped here was to drop us off. I think originally they had planned to just drive by the hospital.

It’s impossible to even know where to begin with the Sagrada Familia. This place is beyond anything you can imagine. Even its history is grandiose. The name means “Holy Family” referring to Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. As I said before, Gaudi was extremely religious and particularly devoured to Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. He believed it was his mission in life to build this church even though he knew he would never see its completion. He was fond of saying “My client (God) is not in a hurry.” He was content to let others carry on the work and let it evolve. They are hoping to finish the church in 2026 on the centennial of Gaudi’s death.

It is difficult to describe what seeing the Sagrada Familia for the first time is like. The church is absolutely massive and it isn’t even finished. Nothing prepares you for this place. It is a feast for the eyes except for the construction cranes, scaffolding and areas that are covered. Even with all of that it is still mind blowing.

It has 8 330 ft. spires that shoot upward, one with a huge star on top. When it is complete, it will have a whopping 18 spires. Crazy. Each of the three sides has a different facade. When finished each side will have four spires at the entrance on that side. Then in the middle there will be four even taller spires which are dedicated to the four evangelists—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They have just finished the tower for Mary. The crowning glory will be the tower for Jesus which will require its own zip code as it will be 560 ft. tall! It will have a huge star on its top. These figures can’t even begin to describe the immenseness of this structure.

The entrance we used today isn’t what will be the main entrance. That isn’t completed yet. We came through the Nativity facade. It will eventually be a side entrance. It was awfully grand to me. This was the only section that was completed when Gaudi died. As you can guess, this entrance deals with Jesus’ birth. The native is sculpted above the massive doors. But it doesn’t just celebrate Jesus’ birth but all birth and life. It gets a little strange when you see huge grapes and apples on architectural details (not sure what they are called). Not something you would expect to see on a church. The details at this entrance were intricate and covered it entirely. It was too much to be able to absorb. No description I can give will do it justice.

When we walked in, the interior was completely different from the outside. It was filled with light and color from the bright stain glass windows that I hadn’t even noticed outside. On the Nativity side of the church, the windows have yellow, green, and blue glass. This symbolizes the birth of Jesus, poverty, and light. On the other hand, the Passion facade has yellow, orange, and red. They symbolize water, light, and resurrection. The sun was streaming through these windows so that side of the church was lit in fiery colors so much so that Sam said that side symbolized Hell while the other side which was cooler and tranquil, symbolized Heaven. Her explanation worked for me better than the one we found about the windows.

When Doug purchased our tickets online, he got the tickets that also included going up the Passion Tower. I was afraid we were going to be climbing stairs but there was an elevator. However, we did have to climb down the 500 stairs to get back to the ground level. My knees were not happy campers. To be honest, it wasn’t worth the extra money to go up there. You really couldn’t see a great deal. The windows in the tower were tiny. You could go outside at one spot and get a bit better view, mostly of fruit on the facade :-). You could see a portion of the city down below as well and pieces of the church itself.

Once back down, we all split up and did our own thing. Sam and I wandered at will. Doug followed his Rick Steves guide. I’m not sure what Chris did. I don’t think he is a Gaudi fan. Sam and I discovered a JMJ monogram between the front sets of chairs. It stood for Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. We also admired the pillars here for the four Evangelists with their symbols. For example Mark is a bull and John (Joan on the pillar itself) is an eagle. To one side you could look down into the crypt where Guadi is buried. You could only go down there to meditate or pray.

The interior is filled with columns. I believe there are 56 of them. They look like living things with leaves, branches, and capitals that look like knots on trees. The columns are all different shades of gray and brown as Gaudi used different mediums to create them. Some are basalt, some clay, and others gray granite.

The choir loft looked like a huge section of additional seating. We found out that this is where a 1000 person choir will sit. They will be backed by several organs. The church already had one organ installed in 2010 which is huge. It has 1,492 pipes on two manuals and a pedalboard. As enormous as that is, it isn’t big enough to fill the interior with music so they need to install more.

The Glory facade will be the main entrance when it is completed. We could see the massive bronze door from the inside but couldn’t see the outside. The doors have the Lord’s Prayer written on it. That is surrounded by “Give us this day our daily bread” written in 50 languages. Interestingly, they can’t finish this portion of the church until they demolish an apartment complex. Why is that? Well, in the 1950s the mayor of Barcelona sold the land that was earmarked for the church. He didn’t think the project would ever be finished. Oops. Now the city has to buy back the land.

The project is being funded strictly through private donations such as the money from ticket sales. That’s one reason while construction is taking so long. They have to earn the money. Plus the Spanish Civil War interrupted construction. In July 1936, anarchists broke into the church and set fire to the crypt. That fire partially destroyed Gaudi’s original plans, drawings, and models. They had to spent 16 years trying to piece them back together from fragments of the master model. Although they wanted to open the church in 2026, COVID may have ruined those plans. We’ll just have to wait and see.

When we had our fill of Sagrada Familia, we manuvered our way outside. We made a fast visit to the school Gaudi had built for the children of the neighborhood and the workers. We also made a quick trip through the museum. To be honest, I was starving by now and ready to get some lunch.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped in a small market and bought sandwiches, chips, and beer which we enjoyed in our room. By the time we finished eating, it was time to meet Cristina for our optional tour through one of the neighborhoods in the area. I strapped on my boot as my foot was a bit achy and we met Cristina in the lounge. Only a handful of us showed up but that was okay with us.

Our walk this afternoon took us to the El Raval neighborhood. Raval is Arabic for “suburbs.” The neighborhood first started as an area next to the port outside of the city walls. Raval was one of four suburbs making up the larger part of the Ciutat Vella neighborhood. I believe people even called it Chinatown although no Chinese lived here. It was and still is, home to Pakistani, Indonesian, Indian, and Eastern European immigrants. It was home to everybody Barcelona did not want.

This section of the city was very close to the hotel and is the area where most immigrants still live. It has developed a reputation for seediness and you really shouldn’t go there at night. However, the city is trying to rehabilitate the area. They built a new modern art building there to try to bring in native Barcelonians. It has only been somewhat successful in mingling the Spanish with the immigrants. It HAS been successful in getting the skateboarders into the area. The area in front of the museum was designed with them in mind. We saw skateboarders doing all sorts of tricks on their boards. I’m not sure how many people were in the museum 🙂

We passed what used to be an old monastery where nuns took in unwanted babies. The mothers would leave them on the foundling wheel in the wall and put money in a hole in the wall to help pay for their upkeep. The nuns then raised the children. Whenever the mother could, she would put money in the hole in the wall. If the nuns could, they would adopted out the children to wealthy homes.

We also walked by another old hospital that is now has a nice restaurant as well as,, a I believe an Art School in it. Back in the old days, before Holy Cross & St. Paul Hospital, it took care of the poorest of the poor. That included lepers. At first all patients were lumped together. Basically they were making them comfortable until they died. Gradually they began separating the patients out. The mentally ill were put in one place, lepers another. They began trying to care for them rather than merely housing them until death. In the small courtyard we wandered into, we saw a statue of a man having to show the skin on his leg. He must have been a leper.

We made our way slowly to the market that we had explored yesterday—St Josep or La Boqueria. It had originally been a monastery. Today many of the shops were closed down but we had several minutes to explore. Sam and I found a bench and sat for a while. It had been a long day and I was beginning to run out of steam.

Once we all gathered back up, we headed out once again. We next stopped at a storage area for giants. No they weren’t mythical beings who were larger than life. These were gigantic puppets that people pull out for parades and march down the street with. The giants are hollow with a pole up through the center of them. The designated person climbs inside and holds the pole up. They walk in the parade dancing around with the giant. There is mesh in the front of the giant’s clothing at eye level so the carriers can see where they are going. Only adults are allowed to take them as the giants are extremely heavy. They do have lighter ones for teens to carry.

The Old giants of the Barcelona Carnival or Casa de la Caritat are now found in the Ethnological Museum. This small museum had replicas but I believe they take them out for the festivities. The first reference of these giants is from the 1424 Corpus Christi celebrations. Since then they have been a constant feature of the city’s celebrations. One of the four main giants is the Barcelona City Eagle which is documented as far back as 1399. It is the highest symbol of all the festive images. The eagle symbolizes justice and nobility.

The giantess Laia is another important figure although much more recent. She came about in 1997. She represents an actual 9th century girl from Barcelona. Hers is actually a sad story. Laia lived here during Roman times. She was thirteen when the Romans decided to torture her for being a Christian. They asked her how old she was and when she answered “13,” they said they were going to do thirteen bad things to her. She survived all of that so they crucified her on an X-shaped cross. She became the patron saint of Barcelona.

The actual giants were really neat to see and much bigger than I expected. They had to weigh 60 or 70 pounds. You’d really have to want to carry one of these things. Although these four here were the main figures used in festivities, Cristina told us that there were giants stored all over the city that they bring out.

Eventually we ended up at the Roman necropolis that we had seen yesterday on our walk. It was around about here that we decided to split off from the group. We had a mission to complete. Sam had found via Google, a yarn shop a mile or so away from the hotel. She missed the one in Madrid, I wasn’t about to let her miss out on this one.

Although the group walk was continuing, they were going to cover the same ground that we had just covered earlier today after seeing the Sagrada Familia. They were walking to Gracia Ave to see the Gaudi building there which was in the Modernista style popular in that neighborhood. We figured we had just walked by it so we didn’t need to do it again.

With the shop pinned on her Apple map, she and Doug navigated us through the streets. We had actually located it earlier on our way back from the Sagrada Familia but we were coming at it now from a different direction. Plus we really had to hustle because we had to be back at the hotel and ready to leave for our Welcome Dinner by 7 PM. So we made a mad dash. I hobbled along as quickly as I could in my boot. We actually made good time and got the the store quickly.

Doug sat outside while Sam and I went inside. I wish we hadn’t been in such a hurry. I know she would have preferred taking her time to pick out yarn but she knew the clock was ticking. In the shop she perused yarn while I glanced around the store. There was a group of women in the back doing some type of needle work. Two younger women were at the counter. I believe they were tatting. I just don’t have the patience for any of that. I admire all of those that can do it though.

It took several minutes but Sam finally find some yard that she liked. She just wanted to make a little something as a souvenir of her time here. She paid for her ball of yarn and then we hustled our way back to the hotel. It seemed to take forever. I was so happy when I finally spotted our street. I couldn’t wait to soak in a hot shower.

We actually made it back the the hotel in time for both of us to shower and wash out our “smalls.” By the time I finished with that and had wrung them out and hung them up to dry, I was exhausted. I checked my watch and we had walked over 8 miles. No wonder I was exhausted. I really didn’t feel like going to the Welcome diner but I forced myself to get ready.

In the end I was glad I had gone. We went to a place called Mussol which means “owl.” Sam and I were afraid we were going to be eating owl but we worried for nothing. We had Spanish sausage that was excellent as well as a roasted potato, Iberian beans, and zucchini cooked in olive pool and decorated with crushed olives. It was all excellent. For dessert we had chocolate lava cake which was great as well.

We all walked out of there stuffed to the gills. It was a nice way to round out of crazy day of art, architecture, and high-speed moving. Tomorrow we are heading out of town to a small place called Figueres. I will be adding to my art knowledge there as it is the hometown of Salvador Dali and we will be visiting the museum that he created for the town.

DAY 5: TRAVELING TO BARCELONA, SPAIN: IN SEARCH OF DON QUIXOTE

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Today was the big day. We were heading to Barcelona to officially begin our Iberian voyage. Sam and I had been looking forward to being back and spending time in Barcelona for years. We were here for a couple of hour in 2016 at the start of a cruise. We have wanted to come back ever since. And now we were 🙂

I got packed up and then went to help Sam as she finished up her treatments. Packing for her is always a chore. I helped get her equipment stowed in her carryon and then we headed down for breakfast. We ate fast and then grabbed our stuff and brought it to the lobby to wait for our ride. I was a bit nervous but figured this time a driver would actually show up. And he did. We got to ride to the airport in style in a Mercedes van.

At the airport we found what desk we needed to check in at. Since I was requesting a wheelchair, we had to go to a specific one. The gentleman there got us squared away and took us the Assistance Desk. Most of the seats were already filled with people waiting for wheelchairs. It did not look promising. I took the last seat and we waited. And waited. Finally Doug went up to the desk and asked how much longer it would be. The gentleman told him that they try to get people off to the gates one hour before boarding. He had told me he didn’t know how long the wait would be. Oy vey!

Pretty much an hour before boarding, my driver showed up. Doug had already found me a wheelchair so all she had to do was start wheeling me. Our only real challenge was security. It was a bit of a boon doggle. Sam and I both had to be tested for bomb residue. I’m not sure why. Then my backpack had to go back through x-ray because my iPad had been inside it the first time. They hadn’t said anything about taking it out or I would have. All watches had to come off, etc. Eventually we made it through as did my wheelchair and my sweet lady got me to the gate. Doug tried to tip her but she wouldn’t take the money. Believe me, she had earned it!

We didn’t have to wait too long to board. Since I had a boot, we got to board first which was good because we had Sam’s medical gear. That’s the main reason we waited for the wheelchair. It fit in the bin so we were good to go. Each of us had an aisle seat so nobody was crammed in. The flight was around an hour and a half so it wasn’t long at long. However, they didn’t even give us water on the flight much less nuts. They took a cart up and down the aisle once but never asked if anybody wanted anything. It was definitely different.

I had a nice time reading. That is the one thing I miss while on a trip. I never have time to read….well, unless I want to do it at 2 AM :-). We always get back to the room too late. By the time I shower, import photos, and type up my post for the day, it is 1 AM or later. So I enjoy reading when I can. And right now my book is really good so I’m enjoying the heck out of reading it.

We landed and made our way to the luggage claim area. It was a long haul but we got there. It took a while before the luggage started coming out. Then it took a while for our bags to arrive, but they did. We were all set. In the Arrival Hall we immediately spotted our OAT person. It was actually a lady and a driver. We had to wait a bit as we were fetching another couple whose plane from Frankfurt had landed. We didn’t have to wait too horrible long. When they made it through, we climbed into our van and headed to the hotel down in the central area of Barcelona.

We were staying at H10 Hotel Universistat. There were several H10 Hotels in the area so you had to be sure to remember the specific one. It was in a great location right down in the heart of things. We got checked in and settled in our rooms. We also met Cristina who was going to be our guide for the next couple of days on the pre-trip. Her name I won’t have any problems remembering since it is the same as mine 🙂

Once we got situated, we headed out to take a walk. Our friend Chris had just flown in from the States today so he was tired. Plus he had walked around before we arrived. He decided to relax instead of coming with us. So the three of us headed down the Ramblas.

The Ramblas is a main pedestrian thoroughfare here in the center of Barcelona. People come here to shop, get a newspaper, buy flowers, see people, and be seen by other people. Spanish people just love to walk. The full Ramblas goes down to the water. We didn’t want to go that far. These days it is more of a tourist area than anything else. And today tourists and locals were out full force. I never expected all of these crowds. That hasn’t been my favorite part of Spain. I thought it was the off-season and the crowds would be smaller. If this is smaller, I’d hate to be here during the season!

The street is actually five separately named segments but it is considered as one whole. Because we had been warned so many times about pickpockets in Barcelona, Sam and I both made sure that our small travel purses were clipped shut. That might not stop a pickpocket but it would slow them down. Shoot, I have a difficult time opening the purse when I clip it shut.

We walked from our hotel to Placa de Catalina which is the start of the Ramblas. It is a 12-acre square and is the link between the old part of the city and the new. The square had an interesting monument. It was an inverted staircase which represented the shape of Catalunya.

I need to explain about about Catalunya. It is the region in which Barcelona is located. It is also a region that wants to be its own country. The people have their own government, their own language….They have been fighting for their independence for a long time. We saw a lot of Catalunya flags flying in apartments as we walked. So the inverted stairs represent Catalunya. It honors one of its former presidents who declared independence for the breakaway region in 1931. People still come here to demonstrate as to whether they should remain a part of Spain or be their own country.

The nice thing for me about the Ramblas is that it was downhill. Of course that meant it was all uphill going back to the hotel. You always have to take the good with the bad. Actually at this point it just felt good to be walking after being at the airport and sitting for so long. A good stretch of the legs always feels good. Plus Sam has always wanted to just stroll the streets here. This was her opportunity.

Our first stop on the Ramblas was a must for anybody who wants to return to Barcelona. It was at the Fountain of Canaletto. This drinking fountain has been here since medieval times. Legend says that if you drink from this fountain, you will return to Barcelona. Sam guzzled the water :-). She loves this city. Doug and I both drank from it as well. The fountain is a popular meeting spot for locals when they are out and about with friends.

The one thing about the Ramblas that gave me a bit of trouble was the tile. It was nice and flat but the pattern was wavy. The optical illusion was great. It undulated but was flat. It took a bit for me to adjust to that and not feel like I was going to fall. Actually where we were walking use to be a drainage ditch along one of the medieval walls of the city.

Barcelona is definitely a city you want to slowly stroll through to admire the architecture. The buildings are amazing and endlessly different. I, of course, almost broke my neck trying to see it all. It is very difficult to both walk and stare at buildings :-). Here on the Ramblas we saw all manner of skinny balconies on the apartment buildings. People are crazy for their outdoor space even if it is mere inches. Along the street are a bevy of plane trees. We have seen these thin-barked trees all over the world. They made for nice shade as we strolled along the walkway.

Years ago children use to drag their parents to the Ramblas to buy them a pet. You could get birds, turtles, and hamsters here. Not so any longer. These days you have to visit a pet store to get them. Animal rights activists shut down the kiosks on the Ramblas.

Just off the Ramblas was an ancient Roman necropolis. Who would have though! But the Romas were here. The Romans were all over Europe. We made a left turn off the Ramblas and found it about a block away. I had no clue but Barcelona was founded in 10 BC by the Romans during the reign of Augustus. The necropolis was on the main road in and out of the city. We looked down and could see a plethora of tombs. If you looked closely at the tomb you saw a hole in the top. That was for mourners to place their offering into.

Back on the Ramblas, we entered the section of flowers. All manner of plant kiosks lined the pedestrian way. You could buy seeds, plants, even cannabis. If it was a green, you could buy it. They were fun to look at but we didn’t stop. We had learned that if you even bought seeds here, you were required to claim them when you went through Customs in the U.S.

Right off the Ramblas was a market called La Boqueria or St. Josep Market. It dates back to the 1200s which is incredibly mind blowing. We walked through it and enjoyed the plethora of stalls. You could buy flowers, meat (I saw a stall selling skinned animals skulls complete with eyeballs), thinly cut and fried potatoes on a stick….just about everything possible to eat was available here. Sam and I were both eyeing the potatoes on a stick. The juices and smoothies looked really tasty, too. I always like seeing the fish displays although I don’t want the fish on my plate to have eyeballs. I don’t mind seeing that at the market. Weird, I know.

The produce here was amazing. I saw some of the largest red peppers I have ever seen in this market. They were incredible. You could also find all kinds of olives, saffron, peppers, anchovies, shrimp, and jamon. No market in Spain would be complete without kiosks offering jamon. We saw many with the pig legs handing down. It was a sheer delight to walk through this market and just take it all in. I do love markets.

We stopped at the midpoint of the Ramblas. We had to be back at the hotel shortly to do our orientation walk so we stopped at the Joan Miro mosaic which was red, white, yellow, and blue with a black stripe representing an anchor. It represents the city’s attachment to the sea. We turned around here and headed back to the hotel.

Back at the H10, we gathered at the lobby for our first meeting. Cristina gave us a brief description of what we would be dong for the next couple of days. Then she took us on a very short walk in the neighborhood. She pointed out ATMs and told us where to exchange money. All of our group but two who were tired, joined her for dinner at a tapas bar called Tapa, Tapa.

This was our first experience with tapas and it was great. Doug, Sam, and I all shared. We ordered seven different things and then shared which is the purpose of tapas. I ordered wok cooked veggies and pulled pork pastries. Sam got garlic shrimp and teriyaki chicken. Doug got tuna, wasabi shrimp, and something else. We all shared and it was great. I loved my pulled pork pastries. Doug’s shrimp wasn’t bad either. I think everybody had fun mixing their foods.

After dinner most headed back to the hotel but Doug, Sam, Chris, and I headed to a new gelato place Cristina had told us about. I wanted some coffee flavored gelato. Alas, the place we went to didn’t have any that flavor of gelato which was a big disappointment to me. Sam and I ended up getting the same chocolate which had some type of cookie in it as well.

We finished off our gelato and slowly ambled back to the hotel, enjoying all of the lights of the city. We had had a first good afternoon in Barcelona. Tomorrow we were going to have a brilliant day exploring all that we could of this fabulous city.

DAY 4: MADRID, SPAIN: IN SEARCH OF DON QUIXOTE

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I am so educated now about the world of art :-). I should become an art critic! All joking aside, I did learn quite a lot after our time in the museums today. But then museums are always a great learning experience.

We were up and at ‘em a bit earlier this morning. Our timed entry into the Prado was for 10 AM but Doug wanted to be there by 9:30 for “just in case.” We made it there by 9 as we are getting really good at the metro. I can’t complain though because these early hours are always so tranquil here in Spain. Later in the day you are fighting crowds of people. This early the Spaniards are all still in bed so you have the streets to yourself. Trust me, it is the quietest you will ever see Puerto del Sol. It was so nice to not be scrunched in. We did have to watch out for the joggers doing their early morning run.

We ambled through the quiet streets until we came to the Prado. We still had a while to wait because the museum didn’t open until 10. From experience we knew they wouldn’t open a single minute early. However, we had a passel of dogs to keep us entertained. We walked a bit around the building and watched a dog sitting in the grass chewing on a bully stick or something similar. Another little dog was gingerly walking through the dew wet grass, looking pathetically at its owner. Others walked by the museum briskly, wanting to get their walking in before church maybe.

As we had walked towards the museum, we had seen the police blocking off the street in front of it. We didn’t know if this was a typical Sunday occurrence or if something special was going on today. When we left the museum we heard music playing so I wondered if it was an outdoor concert. Maybe it was the famous person from the hotel where we saw fans congregating on our first day here. We will never know.

Promptly at ten the museum doors opened and we were ushered in. I was glad because the drizzle was getting a bit harder outside. I was glad I had my raincoat. Doug checked his backpack at the cloak room and Sam and I our jackets. I hadn’t brought my backpack today because I knew I wouldn’t need it. I wasn’t bringing my camcorder. Usually I take photos in museums.

I was glad I hadn’t brought it because it turned out that no video or photos were allowed. That is always frustrating because my photos help me remember what I’ve seen during the course of the day. But it is what it is. They did enforce the “No photos” rule, too. We saw them stopping several people taking photos with their phones.

As usual we used Rick Steves to help guide us along. He had ten paintings/artists he deemed the top ones to see. I can’t say that I agreed with him on many of them but at least it gave us some direction. The Prado is huge. Next time we go, I’d just like to aimlessly wander, I think. Both ways are worthwhile.

We began our Rick Steves-guided tour with a Hieronymus Bosch painting called The Garden of Earthly Delights. It was one I could cheerfully have skipped. I didn’t care for it. It was a large alterpiece with a central painting and two hinged side pieces. Bosch is a Flemish painter and he painted with great detail although not in a realistic manner. This work was a tale of what happens if you enjoy pleasures too much. It was bizarre, especially for an altarpiece, at least to me. I mean would you want to see flowers sprouting out of somebody’s bare fanny in your church? And that was the least of the “pleasures” on display. I’ll leave the others to your imagination.

The left panel showed Paradise. Everything was perfect. Animals were nice to each other. A cat was carrying a rat instead of eating it. Adam and Eve were getting married. The central and largest panel showed abandoned cavorting. The right-hand panel showed what happens if you enjoy pleasures too much. Basically it was hell. The glutton was continually being re-eaten. Mutant creatures torture people….It wasn’t my cup of tea. The talent behind this painting was phenomenal but the piece of work itself I didn’t care for.

We went from this cartoonish painting to one by Raphael who was a master of realism. His painting, Portrait of a Cardinal, was so intricate. You could see the shadows in the folds in his red cape thing. You could see the beard stubble on his face. Granted it wasn’t a painting I would want in my house, but the detail and realism was wonderful.

Then there was Fra Angelico’s The Annunciation. I wasn’t crazy about this one either. It was better than The Garden of Earthly Delights but not by much. It was a strange blend of cartoonish and realistic. The left side of the painting showed the Garden of Eden but it was that cartoonish style. Adam and Eve looked like they were half starved. They had also sinned and were waiting to get kicked out of the garden. The right side of the painting was in the realistic style. It portrayed Mary’s annunciation by the angel. It had 3D columns and was much more real looking compared to the left side. The blend of the two styles were just odd.

I did like the next painting. In fact, we had seen this artist’s home which is now a museum, when we visited Nuremberg a few years ago. The artist in question is Albrecht Drürer. He paints with extreme realism. His work is truly amazing. As soon as I saw his Self-Portrait, I recognized the style. This self-portrait is believed to be one of the first times that an artist painted himself. He did a bang up job and he was only 26 when he painted himself. You could see every hair in his curly locks. I was blown away by this painting. His attention and skill in painting minute detail was astonishing. I’d take this painting any day over Bosch’s pieces. I did prefer his self-portrait to his nude painting of each Adam and Eve although they were really good as well.

The next painting was interesting and wonderfully real and detailed. It was painted by Diego Velázquez and was titled Las Meninas. It considered by many to be the greatest work of art ever. I wouldn’t go that far but I did like it very much. Velázquez painted portraits for many royals. This particular one was fascinating. It showed him painting the king and queen’s portrait while their daughter Princess Margarita looks on. Velázquez is in the left corner painting. You don’t actually see the king and queen but you know they are there as you see their reflection in the mirror. The princess is watching the sitting while her Ladies in Waiting tend to her as well as a couple of little people. In the background you can see a servant standing in the doorway. There is a dog in the bottom right corner. Everything about this painting is pleasing. I love his attention to detail and how it is like a tiny slice of real life.

Velázquez was a busy artist. Once he became the court painter, he didn’t have time for much else. However, before that, he had time to indulge in painting whatever he wanted. One of those paintings was The Feast of Bacchus. I didn’t like it as well as Las Meninas but it was interesting. You see some peasants who are buddying up to Bacchus who was the god of wine.

Of course during this time period, the wealthy used art as a means of getting out of trouble with the church when they had been naughty. When Velázquez was the court artist, his boss King Philip IV got caught having an affair. He paid his way out of trouble by having Velázquez paint The Crucified Christ. Apparently it worked. The painting was a bit different. It was one of the more poignant crucifixions I’ve seen. Velázquez painted the blood that dripped from the holes in his hands. It dripped down in a single line from the wound in his side. His two feet were bleeding as well. It was very touching.

We went from that crucifixion to the Immaculate Conception painted by Bartolommeo Murillo who admired Velázquez. His painting showed Mary standing on what looked like clouds with a beatific expression on her face. She was surrounded by hordes of babies floating around her. They all look happy. It was way more cheerful than many of the other paintings we had seen so far.

I have to admit that while we roamed from room to room searching out these various masterpieces, we didn’t confine ourselves to just these paintings. We checked out others on display. Some of them I vastly preferred to many of Steves’ top ten we were diligently hunting down. We went through one room filled with paintings of still lifes. They were wonderful! The subjects in each painting here looked real. Fine details turned these ordinary paintings into something extraordinary, at least for me.

Now I’ve heard of Titian for years and years but had never really seen his paintings. I knew that a particular shade of red he used was eventually named Titian after him. Today I finally got to see some of his work. He painted for both Charles V and Philip II. Back in those days royalty preferred to bring skilled artists in from Europe to paint for them.

I was indifferent to his work. His portrait of Charles V showed the king sitting on a rearing horse and pointing his lance forward. He was going to war against the Lutherans. Doug’s mother would not like it as she is Lutheran :-). There was nice detail in his armor and you could see a hint of the Habsburg jaw (they tended to have protruding lower jaws. It was horrible evident on Charles II). I particularly enjoyed how he used light in his paintings.

El Greco was the next artist on our hit list. I had heard of him but was unfamiliar with any of his works. They were interesting but not my favorite. Rick and I definitely have different taste in artwork :-). It was, however, an education experience to see all of these masterpieces of the greats. Each definitely had their strong points.

Now El Greco was actually born in Greece. El Greco means “the Greek” in Spanish. He studied in Venice for a time and then moved to Toledo which is 60 miles from Madrid. He strayed from the Renaissance style of realism. His work was painted more to evoke emotion than depict things factually. We saw his Adoration of the Shepards. I did enjoy the colors he used. His proportions on the people were all off but I’m sure an art critic could explain what he was trying to evoke by doing that. This particular painting was actually created for his own burial chamber so he obviously liked it. It was kind of neat. I just couldn’t get passed the shepard kneeling pantsless beside the manger. His Noble Man With His Hand on His Chest was more realistic. Of course it WAS a portrait he was paid to paint which makes a difference. The detail on the lace around the man’s neck and hands was phenomenal.

Ruben’s paintings are always something else. He does like to paint voluptuous women. I have to admit that I got distracted by Doug reading what Rick Steves had written about these paintings. When he described the women’s naked breasts to be like “squirt guns,” Sam and I both busted out laughing. I didn’t even know what that meant. Frankly, the entire time we looked at Rubens’ paintings, that was all I could think about. Then later we actually saw a painting in another section as we were walking through and it was a woman squirting breast milk quite a distance to land in a man’s mouth. I guess she really had squirt gun breasts!

Goya I was familiar with although I couldn’t name a single piece of work he had done. I knew he had a reputation for rather grim paintings. I think I first ran across his name reading a book but it has been so long ago, I can’t remember. Anyway, he was another court painter before he turned rebel painter and then depressed painter. The museum had samples of all three stages of his development as an artist. We examined his painting of the family of Charles IV. Granted his subject matter wasn’t all that great but the painting is less than inspiring. Charles IV truly did look like a dim witted George Washington. His wife didn’t come off much better. The detail in their clothing is nice.

The next Goya painting was more interesting. He was supposedly having an affair with the Duchess of Alba. They believe she may have been the model for two of his next paintings. One was of a woman dressed in diaphanous clothing reclining on a bed. In the second painting, she is naked reclining on the bed. The first it titled Clothed Maja and the second one, Nude Maja. At one point they had been framed in such a manner that the clothed one would slide in front of the nude one and hide it. Clever. The work on these two paintings was amazing. You could see the pale green of the bed sheets through her pillowcase and her nightgown.

Around this same time Goya began painting in a more rebellious way. He championed the French Revolution until Napoleon marched into Spain and slaughtered people in Madrid on May 3, 1808. His chill-inducing The third of May 1808 summarizes what occurred on that momentous day in Spanish history. On May 2, the people in Madrid rose up against the French protesting the occupation. The French sent in their Egyptian mercenaries. On the 3rd of May the French arrested all of the ringleaders and executed them. Goya’s painting depicts those executions. It shows a group of men lined up against a wall in Plaza de Espana and the firing squad taking aim. One prison in the center is wearing white and has his hands flung up as if to say “Why?” I could go all Don Quixote here and quote from the movie (“I don’t think he was asking why he was dying but why he had ever lived….”) but then I would get distracted from the subject at hand. The painting really hits you in the gut. It was somewhat realistic but emotional enough that the impact of seeing it was intense. My feelings when seeing this painting would contrast dramatically with what I felt when we saw Picasso’s painting Gurnica later.

I have to admit that Goy’s Black Paintings were frightening. He was painting his nightmares. They must have been awful. The one he painted of Cronus eating his children creeped me out big time. I believe it was called Saturn because the Romans called Cronus Saturn. Nothing like seeing a wild-haired, crazy-eyed man biting off the head of a much smaller person. I’ll be surprised it doesn’t give me nightmares!

Our last painting here was one of Goya’s last paintings. It was called The Milkmaid of Bordeaux. By this point in his life, he was coming out of his depression but he still had the fire to paint what he wanted to rather than what other people wanted him to paint. This particular painting was done in France where he spent his last years. I didn’t think the painting was all that fabulous but I much preferred it to his Black Paintings.

That finished up the Rick Steves’ tour of the Prado. We wandered around on our own for a little bit. Sometimes its nice to just ramble around with no particular agenda. We checked out the paintings we were interested in. Then we went on a hunt for Charles II paintings. Why? Sam had watched a YouTube show about him and his horrific Habsburg jaw. That poor kid was a disaster of genes. Way too much inbreeding going on and he was the result. We found some portraits and his lower jaw truly was way out of alignment with his upper jaw. He looked awful. He also had a hump which didn’t make it into the portraits. He was sterile, had rickets, had terrible intestinal issues…..He was a mess. I believe he died in his 20s. I’m sure his portraits were a challenge for the artist. There was only so much a painter could do.

We grabbed a quick lunch in the cafeteria before heading out to museum number two. By now it was raining, not hard, but it was wet. We arrived in a rush to get out of the weather right at 2 PM. We thought we had plenty of time to enjoy the museum. Nope. The docent informed us that we had ten minutes before they started making everybody leave. Apparently on Sundays they close at 2:30. We kicked ourselves for not verifying the times on their website. Our Rick Steves book is a few years old. Doug was less than happy because he really wanted to see the painting of Gurnica. Sam and I were indifferent but we all made a mad dash up to the second floor to see it for as long as we could. It was easy to find because there was a huge crowd of people staring at it. We told Doug to go admire it up close. We were happy at the back of the crowd.

I’m afraid this painting had the opposite affect on me that Goya’s painting did. This one left me cold. It was just too abstract. Yes, the event he was immortalizing was horrific but I just didn’t get those emotions from the painting. I’m sure others do and that’s why it is so famous.

So whether Sam or I liked the painting or not is irrelevant. The important thing is that Doug got to see it. He didn’t get to look at it for as long as he wanted but he at least got to study it for a few minutes before the docents started chasing us out. And chase us out they did. They weren’t letting anybody straggle behind. They wanted to be able to close the Reina Sophia right at 2:30.

I actually didn’t mind missing the rest of the museum. It was full of modern art and I’m just not a fan. I can appreciate the talent and inspiration behind the work but rarely the piece of work itself. Different strokes for different folks. Fortunately the rain had stopped when we walked out of the museum and began the long walk back to Puerto del Sol. We could have taken the metro but we decided to walk instead and see a part of Madrid that we hadn’t seen before.

It was a nice walk. We got to see the “real” Madrid, so to speak. By now the streets were getting crowded. I hadn’t expected these crowds. This was suppose to be the off-season here in Spain. We slowly made our way back to Puerto del Sol up tourist-crowded cobbled roads and sidewalks. By the time we reached our goal, my foot was aching a bit. I probably should have worn my boot today. Oops….

We did have one adventure along the way. It was actually a bit scary. We were in a small square when a man came walking by. He was either higher than a kite or mentally ill. I’m not sure which. He tried to start a fight with a man walking passed us but the man ignored him and kept walking. Doug had walked a bit away from us to see something and as he was coming back towards Sam and I, he crossed paths with the man. The man asked him something unintelligible. Doug thought he was trying to selling something so he told him “No” very firmly. He put his hand out to keep the man away from him because he was getting in Doug’s face. That just escalated the man’s issues. He kept trying to hit Doug while Doug was trying to keep him off of him. The man just wouldn’t leave him alone. Sam and I kept telling Doug to walk away. He felt he couldn’t, that the man would attack him if he turned his back. None of us really knows what would have happened. Fortunately a local saw what was happening and came up to the man and tried to calm him down. That gave Doug the chance to get away. Of course his parting shot to the man which I won’t repeat, did not help de-escalate matters but we did get away. It had been a bit scary. I was just glad that it had ended okay. I was ready for my heart to stop racing.

Since it was cloudy and cool and we had the time, we decided we should take care of one more item on our list of things to try. We were in search of a churro shop where we could get churros and hot chocolate. We had learned that the hot chocolate here is quite viscous, unlike American hot chocolate. Here they dip their churros into it. We had looked all along the way as we walked but had no luck. We tried the pastry shop we had stopped at on our first day in Madrid but it was even more crowded than it had been then. We immediately walked away.

We did finally find a sweets shop that advertised churros. It even had empty tables where we could sit. That was a definite plus for Sam and I. I was ready to get off of my feet. I’m sure she was as well. We originally ordered 3 sets of churros and hot chocolate but when we saw how big each order was, we changed it to two. That gave us two hot chocolates and 8 churros. It was more than enough.

The churros were nice and warm—crisp on the outside, soft on the inside. Dipped into the thick hot chocolate, they were divine! Actually the churro made the chocolate less sweet. It was a perfect combo. We sat there and relaxed as we dunked and ate this wonderful Spanish treat. Thank you, Phil (from Feed Phil) for introducing this to us! Once we were sated, we pushed up to our feet and headed out the door. Time to go back to the hotel and start packing for our flight to Barcelona where we would meet up with the travelers on the pre-trip as well as our friend Chris who climbed Kilimanjaro with us.

We made our last metro ride, after purchasing one more ticket (that wasn’t as easy as we thought). Back at the hotel I repacked the few bits and bobs I had taken out of my suitcase. Actually I had to take most things out of it to pack my hiking shoes. I always put them on the bottom. I miss my old suitcase where they had their own compartment that I could just unzip and stow them away.

For dinner we decided to have a learning and discovery at the market where we bought our ice cream last night. It was very close to the hotel which was great. Inside they had a nice choice of salads so that’s what Doug and I got. He also got a package of jamon. We got a bag of chips to share. We had to hunt to find cold beer. They had plenty on the shelf but neither of us enjoys warm beer. We were about to give up when we finally found a tiny case with beer in it. We chose a couple of different ones. Then while Doug paid, Sam and I went to the prepared food section (you had to pay separately from the main market) and got her Milanese chicken which was basically a chicken breast that was breaded and fried. She thought it would be warm but it was ice cold. She ate it anyway.

Tomorrow we meet our ride to the airport at 8:00 so it will be an early morning. The flight to Barcelona isn’t very long but even short flights manage to take a good portion of the day by the time you drive to the airport, sit for two hours, fly for two hours, wait for luggage, drive to the hotel…..We don’t expect to have much time tomorrow in Barcelona to do much but we will see.

DAY 3: MADRID, SPAIN: IN SEARCH OF DON QUIXOTE

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Our first full day in Spain did not dawn early. In fact it was still pitch black when Doug woke me up a little bit after 8 AM. He had said we didn’t need an alarm so I didn’t set one. He woke up on his own, I did not which doesn’t surprise me at all. I was so tired last night. I probably could have slept several more hours.

Daylight was burning though and Sam was meeting us for breakfast at 8:30. She’d had to get up much earlier to get her breathing treatments done. Such is the life of somebody with CF. She was actually over at our room earlier than the allotted time. She figured that if she was late, she would never hear the end of it. She was absolutely correct 🙂

Breakfast was fine. I had hoped they would have porridge or oatmeal but no such luck. I ate scrambled eggs instead which aren’t the best choice for my cholesterol level but it is what it is. I didn’t eat too many. Sam ate more for breakfast than I have ever seen her eat. She is like me and is not much of a breakfast person.

After running back to the room and grabbing our stuff for the day, we headed out. Today we were making our way to the Palacio Real or the Royal Palace which we had gotten a look at yesterday. Today we were doing the tour. Our tour time was 11:30 but we were going to walk some of the streets and explore first. Some times it is fun to amble along with no real objective in mind.

By now we were old hands at the metro. We made it to the station and found the correct platform much easier than we had yesterday. I wasn’t wearing my boot so the stairs were easier to navigate. On the train we donned our masks. You still have to wear them here on public transportation. Most people were compliant but not everybody. One man was wearing a mask but under his nose, only covering his mouth and chin. Then when he started coughing, he pulled the mask all of the way down. Oh, good heavens! I was very glad the three of us were wearing our really good masks!

Today we got off at Plaza de España which was a new spot for us. Since we weren’t in any rush, we strolled just enjoying the quiet, cool morning air. Very few people were out and about. We had the plaza all to ourselves which was lovely. Although rain had been forecast for all day, the sun was actually trying to break through the clouds and we spotted some sunny skies.

We also spotted a tall monument over in a green public area. We decided to check it out. It was very tall and looked like statues of women reading at the top with a globe behind them. At the bottom of this obelisk-type monument was a woman sitting on a chair. No plaque of any type identified who she was. As we walked around it seeking some type of sign, we noticed that every side was different. The next side had a man reading at the top and what looked like a bunch of musketeers at the bottom. I’m sure they weren’t musketeers but that’s what they reminded me of. Maybe they were Spanish explorers? The third side was easier. Both a man and a topless lady were reading at the top (strange, I know. What man is going to be reading if he is sitting next to a bare-breasted woman?). At the bottom was a man with a ruffled collar sitting on a chair. What gave it away on this side were the two statues near ground level. One was a man on a horse holding a long pole. Beside him on a donkey rode a short, stout man with a shield-type object on his back. All three of us knew at a glance that this was Don Quixote and Sancho his faithful companion. The fourth side had women working at the bottom. I can’t remember what was up top and I failed to take a picture.

Although nothing ever said what this monument was, we knew it had something to do with Miguel Cervantes. Sam googled it tonight and discovered that it was the Cervantes monument. It was inaugurated in 1929 but wasn’t finished for many, many years. Several more pieces were added to it as times passed. The monument depicts the universality of Cervantes’ works by showing people from five continents reading his books. On the side of the monument with Quixote and Sancho, the seated figure is Cervantes himself. Aldonsa is to the right. Dulcinea is also there but whether she is the other female figure on the opposite side, I do not know.

I am a big fan of “Man of La Mancha” both the movie and the musical. Sam is, too. In fact, one of her favorite songs as a four year-old was from the musical which we had seen with my parents at The Point Theater in Ingram, Texas. It was a local production but very well done. Sam went around for years singing, “One pair of arms is like another. I don’t know why or whose to blame….” She had no clue as to what the song was about. She just liked it. She liked the musical so much that when we were living in Hawaii and a professional production of it came to Honolulu, we took her to see it. She still didn’t have a clue :-). We watched the movie just a few days before we left on the trip and she caught all of those things she had missed as a child. We really enjoyed seeing this monument.

From there we strolled through the green public space to an open area close to the Royal Palace. It must have been the local dog park area because there were several owners out with their dogs enjoying their morning walk. Some dogs were fetching balls, others playing with each other. A chow and another dog got into a fight. It was the other dog that started it. The chow was the victim. Fortunately its hair was so thick that I don’t think it actually gotten bitten although the other dog had it by the throat.

We kept a sharp look out for a basset but didn’t see one. We saw several beagles though as well as Pomeranians, collies, and labs. There were some of the tiny furry dogs as well. They were all enjoying having a romp in the fresh air. I was enjoying just watching them.

Gradually we wended our way down to the bottom of the hill to where we believed the entrance to the Royal Palace was located. We had stunning views of this seat of royalty. It was massive. King Philip V who was enamored with Versailles built it when the old wooden palace built by Philip II burned down. He wanted to make it his own personal Versailles. Being born in France and at Versailles, that makes perfect. Philip V was actually the grandson of King Louis XIV.

Philip V is the father of Charles III. Charles added an Italian flair to the inside of the palace because he had spent his young years in Italy. He was not the last king to make changes. All of his successors did their level best to make the Spanish palace a true showcase for how sophisticated Spain had become.

These days the palace has 2,800 rooms. They have more tapestries than they know what to do with, hordes of spectacular chandeliers, priceless porcelain, bronze decor covered with gold leaf, a fabulous collection of armor, and a vast amount of history. The Royal family doesn’t live there anymore, however. They live in a mansion a few miles away. I’m sure this place is way too cold and drafty to live in. It does get dusted off and put on display for special events and formal state receptions. Mostly it is now a museum that harkens back to a piece of Spanish legacy.

Even though we were a little over an hour early, we decided to try and get in. The young lady scanned our tickets and didn’t blink an eye. Yes! We started out in a vast courtyard (Plaza de la Ameria) between two magnificent buildings. The building opposite the palace with the bell towers in the center was the Almudena Cathedral. That was a shocker. We had seen the other side of that church yesterday after we ate lunch. I had no idea it was so close to the Royal Palace.

The Royal Palace itself did remind me of Versailles, not that I’ve been there. I have seen pictures. It has straight lines and heavy columns. I believe they said it was French-Italian Baroque style. It was quite impressive with a balustrade roof. It is made almost entirely of stone. They didn’t want another palace to burn to the ground.

As we entered into the Grand Foyer, we immediately saw the Grand Staircase. The staircase itself wasn’t impressive but what it led up to was. At the top on a narrow balcony was an imposing statue of Charles III dressed as a Roman. Beneath him on the balcony wall was the coat of arms of the new king, Felipe VI. If that wasn’t impressive enough, the ceiling was decorated with beautiful frescoes. I about broke my neck trying to admire them all.

For we tourists the stairs today were just plain. However, when dignitaries come, they roll a special carpet down the stairs for them to walk on. And the steps were built to be shallow so when you walked up them, you had to do it slowly and in a dignified manner. Somehow I don’t think I was very dignified clomping my way up. I had to laugh though when I saw the bust of Philip V before we entered the first room. He had long curly hair. I think he was trying to be Louie XIV!

The tour only covered a small portion of the rooms in the palace. It would take forever to tour all 2800 of them. Plus the logistics would be mind-boggling. So you see just a small part. Then after a few months they change around the rooms on the tour. Technically, you could visit the palace many times and never see the same rooms. That’s not a bad way to do it.

Our tour today started in the Hall of Halberdiers who were the royal guard. Charles III’s portrait was over the tiny fireplace. We knew it was him because he had a very narrow face and a large nose. He is also in the fresco on the ceiling where he is in the guise of Aeneas the hero. I guess when you are paying the artist, you can get them to paint anything. On the left wall was a huge painting of the current royal family. The artist began this painting well before Felipe’s father abdicated the throne to him and well before Felipe met his wife. So the portrait shows Juan Carlos I and Sophia, the current king’s mother and father as well as his two sisters. There were some rumors floating around about why Felipe appeared to be standing away from his family. I personally think it was just the angle the painting was done at.

My favorite part of the room, however, were the fake doors. They looked real. I thought they were real. They were painted with minute attention to detail. From the way the doors gapped away from each other at the bottom to the realistic wood look, I was gob-smacked. Why go to all of the trouble to pain false doors? The architects wanted to give the room more symmetry.

From here we exited into the Hall of Columns which was formerly the Banqueting Hall until 1879. This is where the royal family held important state ceremonies such as the abdications of HM King Juan Carlos I in 2014. These days small concerts are held here as well. All of the walls were draped in fabulous tapestries. One of them was based on a cartoon by Raphael. The ceiling fresco was The Birth of the Sun by Jaquinto. According to Rick Steves, this fresco was suppose to demonstrate that the king of Spain drove the chariot of state as smoothly as Apollo did his chariot. The crystal chandelier hanging in the center of the room was gorgeous.

These two rooms also functioned as waiting rooms for people who came to talk with the king. The impressive surroundings were meant to make them nervous. We were able to take photos of the Grand Foyer and Staircase plus the first several rooms. I was happy about that. However, no photos were allowed in the remainder of the interior. I had my camcorder around my neck because we had to check our bags. The lady at the door of the Drawing Room made me show her that the lens cover was on it and that it was shut off. They were serious about the no photos or video! We saw them stop people who were taking photos with their phones. They were nice but firm.

I’m assuming we couldn’t take photos because the next set of rooms were the living quarters for Charles III. First up was the Drawing Room. The ceiling in here depicted Trajan who was a Roman Caesar who was actually born in Spain. I didn’t know that. I’ve seen temples and memorials to him all over the world. I shouldn’t have been surprised to find him here in Spain. The walls here were adorned in red and gold. As befitting a king, it was sumptuous.

We flowed from the Drawing Room into the Antechamber. Who would have thought that the Antechamber would also be a dining room? The room featured portraits of Charles IV who was Charles III’s son. Rick Steves said he looked like a dim-witted George Washington. I have to admit, he did! Whenever I hear his name now, that’s what I think of. That and the fact that he was henpecked by his wife who was toothless. I am rapidly losing all of my illusions about royal families 🙂

Anyway, there were four portraits of poor Charles IV and his wife Maria. These paintings were done by Goya who is one of the few Spanish artists that I’ve heard of. He made copies of these portraits which hang in the Prado Museum. Another famous painting called Las Meninas by Velasquez use to adorn a wall in here as well. It is now a prominent piece in the Prado.

The Gasparini Room was a feast for the eyes. Lots of stucco was used in here to create the Rococo style with curlicues everywhere as well as birds and vines, and fruits…..It was an overload for my retinas! I wasn’t surprised when I found out that it took sixty people three years to repair the rotted silk on the walls. They replaced the silk and had to hand embroider the design back on using the original thread. I did enjoy the stucco figures of Chinese people in the corners. They were an unexpected treat. The marble floor was an impressive mosaic of marble from all over Spain. I can only imagine how much work it took to create it. The table in the middle of the room was a work of art. The top was a mini-mosaic with tiny stones and glass. The chandelier hanging over it was the largest in the palace. Somehow that seemed fitting.

Charles’ Salon was his bedroom. He died here in 1788. This room had a blue theme as well as portraits of III. The ceiling fresco shows him in his armor kneeling as he established his order of monks. Even his son and heir appears in the fresco as a baby

We saw the Porcelain Room in which the walls were paneled with porcelain. If you looked closely, you could see the screws that held the panels in the wall. By now I was hitting ornate overload and was more interested to learn that the entire room was disassembled during the Spanish Civil War to protect it.

I have to admit that the Gala Dining Room was impressive. And massive. I loved the parquet floor but it was the size of the room that was astonishing. I guess it shouldn’t have been so surprising that it was big because up to twelve times a year the king had to entertain up to 144 guests. The huge table could actually be extended to run the complete length of the room. It was only half of that for us. The king and queen sit in the middle on either side of the table. Their chairs are just slightly taller than everybody else’s. Today they were pulled out from the table so we could see which ones they were. Across the ceiling were 15 chandeliers. It’s good to be king 🙂

The next couple of rooms truly didn’t interest me. I am not into silver, crystal, or porcelain. The next couple of rooms were dedicated to silver, crystal, and porcelain. The pieces were beautiful. I couldn’t believe how many porcelain sets had survived the centuries. That was the most interesting thing about it all to me.

We took a peek at the courtyard where King Felipe married his wife. She is a commoner who is a journalist. They held their reception here. Then it was on to the Royal Chapel. It was fancy but not as fancy as some of the Rococo chapels we saw in Sicily. Although the royal family does not attend church here, it is where all royal funerals are held. And this is where the deceased lies in state until the actual burial.

I did enjoy the Stradivarius Room. Charles III had quite a collection of these prized instruments. I believe there was one cello, two violins, and a viola. Just one of the violins was worth $15 million. Sam about died when she found that out. It is crazy what these violins are worth but there are only 300 of his instruments left today so I can kind of understand it. Stradivarius was the premier violin maker of all times.

Finally we got to see the “Crown Jewels” room. It was nowhere near as extensive as the Crown Jewels in England. Here we saw the wooden military baton used by Juan Carlos I. There was also the scepter used by Charles II who was the last Spanish Habsburg king. It is along side Charles III’s crown. Those items were nifty but seeing the actual documents of Juan Carlos’ abdication and his son’s acceptance were interesting. It was modern history.

We saw a couple more swanky rooms where people waited for the king to see them. They were all very ornate and designed to intimidate the ambassador or whoever was waiting. These days the new king is trying to be a more down-to-earth kind of ruler. He and his wife are very approachable.

Finally we reached the Throne Room. Of course it was one of the most opulent rooms in the palace. It was designed to showcase the power and might of the Spanish empire. The thrones, on a raised platform, were beneath a a gilded canopy. Above the thrones was the coat of arms. Each king usually has his own throne made so the one we saw only dates back to 2014 when Felipe VI was crowned. He went for a simpler look and instead of a gilded portrait on the back, he had them put a crown. He also stands on the floor when greeting people who come to see him rather than from the throne.

The chandeliers in here were made on Murano Island in Venice so they are priceless. There are lions and black bronze statues that date back to the old fortress that use to be in this location before 1734. Even the ceiling fresco which was painted by Tiepolo, dates back to 1764. The room is a living piece of history. For that alone I had to admire it.

The throne room completed our tour; however, Doug wanted to take a walk through the armory. So we crossed over from the palace to the building containing the medieval uniforms of war. The armory contained a fabulous collection of armor from that for young princes to horses. There was even armor for dogs! I felt sorry for the horses that not only had to wear armor themselves but also support the weight of their knight in all of his armor. They had to be so strong. And some had long skirts on as well. How they managed to not get tangled up in that dangling material I will never figure out.

It was interesting to stroll through and see all of the different design and decorations. Some were etched with extricate designs. Others had spikes protruding everywhere. Sam’s eyes got really wide at one cod piece that was, let’s just say it was very large :-). Most of the armor on display had belonged to either Charles V and Philip II. I was amazed at how much of this had been preserved.

As we walked away from the Palace, I noticed that the horse guards were out now. They hadn’t been when we entered. I didn’t want to disturb them as they were working, so I sneaked a few shots. Thank goodness for zoom cameras! Now I have Spanish horse guards as well as English horse guards.

Done with the tour, it was time for lunch. We grabbed a quick sandwich at the cafeteria at the palace before continuing our day. Our next adventure was the City Tours bus. We had to walk a bit to get to the stop. Along the way we noticed a man playing the theme from “Titanic.” His instrument—glasses of water! It was amazing the beautiful sound he managed to produce. Sam and I were mesmerized. I could have stood there for hours listening to him play.

Playing the theme to Titanic with water glasses

Doug was ready to head on after a couple of minutes so we continued on our way. Once we made it to the correct street, we had to figure out exactly where the bus stop was. In Cape Town the stops were clearly labeled. Here, not so much. We were waiting at a stop when one of the buses drove passed us and stopped a block away. Doug ran to hold it while I hobbled along as fast as I could, Sam keeping me company. We shouldn’t have bothered. They stopped but only let a couple of people on. That was a bummer but at least we knew where the stop was.

We had to wait a good while before the next bus stopped. He only let 9 of us on. The top was full so we had to sit on the first level where there really weren’t very many seats. Now I could understand why they were only letting a few people on. And I knew why everybody wanted upstairs. You couldn’t see much from where we were. Plus the windows had designs on them which further blocked your view. So far I wasn’t impressed.

We were doing both the historic and the modern routes today. The first one was the modern tour. The audio was mostly music with a little bit of information tossed in. I’ll be honest, I didn’t see much and remember very little of what they said because I was too busy trying to see what the audio was talking about. Sam and I always seemed to be on the wrong side of the bus as well.

The situation did improve. Around our fifth stop or so, a bunch of people came down from the top level so we moved up and found three seats. Two were together and Doug had to sit a bit in front of us. The bus wasn’t as open up top as I hopped. We still had windows although the top covering had been pulled back. I still couldn’t see very well.

The best I can say about the Hop On, Hop Off was that we saw a good deal of beautiful architecture from it. We passed by several embassies and museums such as the Prado and the Reina Sophia which we are visiting tomorrow. I did enjoy seeing the Biblioteca National. It was a beautiful building and I would have loved going inside for a few moments. It wasn’t one of our stops though.

It seemed like we had just gotten comfortable up top when Doug said we were getting off at the next stop. I worried that we would have the same issue getting on the bus for the historic tour as we did this one. I shouldn’t have worried. We got right on and found three spaces up top. This bus was better. It was truly open air. That allowed a bit better visibility. The commentary on this tour was worse, however, than on the first bus. It was mostly music. We heard opera music around the Royal Theater.

I was very disappointed when the audio talked about The Temple of Debod. All I could see were trees. This was an ancient Egyptian temple that had been dismantle and reconstructed here. They were trying to save the monuments of Nubia. It sounded really neat but I could only see bits and bobs through the trees. Oh, well….

The audio on this tour seemed out of sync with what we were seeing which didn’t help matters. I never could find what the lady in the audio was talking about. I finally stopped worrying about it and just enjoyed seeing the scenery. Madrid has a plethora of beautiful buildings. The architecture around here is truly amazing. They use red brick a good deal because that was cheaper than quarrying marble.

I know we passed the Palacio de Cibeles which was the former post office headquarters. Now it is a cultural center. We also drove by the National Archaeological Museum, and the Naval Museum. The buildings themselves were works of art. We swept around the famous Prado Museum as well as the Reina Sophia Museum, both of which we would be visiting tomorrow. The Prado building was impressively large. I have a feeling that you could spend a great deal of time in there and still not see everything.

Our ride ended when we reached the Gran Via. We were walking it and then calling it a day. And this was the perfect street to walk. It rather reminded me of Fifth Avenue in New York City. Everybody comes here to walk and shop. Stores lined the streets in beautiful old buildings. The street itself was built between 1910 and 1930. It was also the theater district. We saw the theaters where they were doing “Mama Mia” as well as “The Lion King” and “Tina Turner.” That was fun to see. I felt like I was back on Broadway. It made me itch to see a show even though it would be in Spanish.

The Four Seasons Hotel building was my favorite. It came to a point in front and had such wonderful details. It was just lovely. Up at the top was a cupola with a wrought iron balcony. Just beneath the balcony was a clock with two gold ladies sitting next to it. It was very fanciful and appealed to me.

Another fanciful thing here were the pedestrian walk/don’t walk signs. In an effort to be more inclusive, the city has changed them from the walking man, stop man. Now you can see a man and a woman holding hands or two men holdings hands. There is even two women holdings hands. It reminded me of the pedestrian signals in New Zealand. There we saw a sumo wrestler, the woman who was instrumental in getting women the vote, and even a drag queen!

Doug pointed out one street known for prostitution—Calle de la Montreal. It had an interesting neon sign across the road with lemurs. I couldn’t resist taking a picture but I had no clue what lemurs had to do with the oldest profession.

There was definitely a Roman vibe on some of the buildings as well. Across the street from where we stood, I snapped a photo of what appeared to be a wolf statue on top of a building. It wasn’t too far from a statue of somebody driving a chariot. The wolf actually turned out to be the wolf mother of Romulus and Remus.

From the corner we could also see the Telefonica “skyscraper” which was one of the first in Madrid. It is 300 feet tall and it was built on the highest point of land in the area. At one time it was the tallest building in Spain.

As we walked down the Gran Via we were amazed at the high-end stores as well as stores we had never heard of before such as Stradivarius which is a clothing store. We walked into one shop that use to be a theater. The entryway still had the theater glitz and glamour. However, the rest of the store was just a store. I had to take a picture though of the portion that kept the facade of the theater. What a shame they didn’t keep it throughout the store.

We walked all of the way down to the Schweppes Building which was an interesting construction with a huge neon sign at the top (I assume it was neon and would light up when it got dark). It was built like ovals stacked on top of each other, each layer getting progressively smaller. It was different. Other buildings reminded me of weddings cakes as they were so ornate. I’m surprised I didn’t fall and bust my other foot as I was too busy ogling the architecture to watch where I was going 🙂

We finished off our day by walking back to Puerto del Sol and finding La Casa del Abuelo. We had seen this place both on “Feed Phil” and “Rich Steves.” The garlic shrimp had looked delish so we wanted to try it. There were actually three Casa Abuelos very near each other. Two were just across a narrow street from each other. We sat at the one with a table and chairs outside and ordered beer, jamon, and garlic shrimp. Oh, my! What a taste treat it was! We scarfed down our shrimp as well as the jamon in record time. the beer—La Casa del Abuelo cream ale—went down smoothly as well. Even the olives they brought us with the bread were good and I don’t like olives. Shoot, even Sam ate olives and she never eats them!

While we ate we were serenaded by a group of young men across the way at the other Casa del Abuelo. They were having a jolly old time. Then the restaurant servers got them chanting the restaurant chant. It was entertaining. We also got to watch the cars drive by as we were very close to the street. It all made for a wonderfully unique dining experience. If we are ever back in Madrid, you can bet we will be visiting the House of Grandfather again.

Full of food and wonderful experiences, we made our way back to the hotel via the subway. We stopped at the supermarket in the basement of the department store next to the hotel and splurged on some Magnum bars. Just a little dessert to end the day with. We actually found a box with just three bars which was perfect.

We are going to appreciate art tomorrow at the Prado and the Reina Sophia Museums. I will be overflowing with art knowledge this time tomorrow. Be warned!

DAYS 1 & 2: TRAVELING TO MADRID, SPAIN: IN SEARCH OF DON QUIXOTE

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We are back in an airplane a mere two weeks after getting home from Africa! What a whirlwind it has been! I can’t say that I’m eager to be flying again so soon but it is exciting to be going to Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. Plus this time Sam is traveling with us. She has wanted to go to Spain for years and years. Right out of college she toyed with the idea of moving there.

Since she was coming with us, this trip took more preparation. We had to find somebody to watch her dog Leia. We had reservations for her at the vet’s but she has never been boarded there by herself. She has always had Kona with her. I wasn’t sure how well she would do on her own since we lost Kona in May. However, Doug talked to our neighbors who have a daughter who is a senior in high school. She agreed to house sit and dog sit for us. Leia took to her right away which is unusual for her but I was glad. I think Avery has just become her new best friend. Of course, getting the house ready for somebody new to stay there was stressful. Doug scrubbed for a couple of days on the calcium deposits in the shower. I scrubbed and cleaned everything else possible. This morning I got up extra early and washed our sheets to that she would have clean ones to sleep on. Avery will be sleeping in our bedroom because that is where the doggie door is. Also Leia is happiest sleeping with people and the bed in the guest bedroom is too high for her to jump onto anymore. She is ten so not as spry as she use to be. So our bedroom was the best choice.

On top of cleaning there were doctor appointments, drives to MacDill, etc. that had to be done. I was hoping to get the green light on my foot but no such luck. I came back from Africa to a message that my podiatrist was no longer working in the office I went to. The other doctor refused to see me as he wasn’t a foot specialist. I figured for sure he could look at an x-ray and tell if the bone had healed or not. I guess I was wrong. With only two weeks, I knew I didn’t have time to get another referral and get another appointment before we left for Spain. So It was going to be another trip in the boot. Oy vey!

Even though I no longer had to go to MacDill to get a foot x-ray, I still had to go to the clinic there. Before Africa I had emailed a medical form I needed completed for our trip to Antarctica to my PA at the clinic. She was suppose to fill it out so I could pick it up on Oct. 11th. We drove the hour to MacDill only to be told that it hadn’t’ been done. There was some “miscommunication.” The young airman promised it would get completed by early the next week and he would call and let me know when it was ready. The trip wasn’t a complete waste of time though as we did have lunch with one of Doug’s former co-workers.

Fast forward to Friday. I hadn’t heard from the clinic and it had been four days. The form wasn’t that difficult! I emailed my PA through their new message system and heard back from the clinic almost immediately. The airman I talked to this time was a young woman who was unaware of what was going on. She promised to get it taken care of. Five minutes after she called me, my PA called and we discussed the form. A few hours later I got a call that the form was waiting for me at the front desk. Yes! When we went Monday to fetch it, the airman at the front desk had to search a bit. It had been misfiled. Apparently somebody didn’t know their alphabet song 🙂

All of that drama just broke up the monotony of housecleaning:-) I got my bags all packed and helped Samantha. She hasn’t traveled overseas in years. She was a bit rusty. Plus with her cystic fibrosis, she had all of her medications to pack as well. I always stress out because I’m afraid we’ll forget a medication (and we have!). She stressed over deciding what the wear on the trip. Young people!

For a nice change we didn’t have an early flight. We didn’t have to be at the Tampa Airport until 11:20 AM. We arrived there just in time for our prepaid parking time (actually, we had to wait five minutes until 11:20 or we would have had to pay extra). We unloaded what looked like luggage for a year (Sam has two bags just with medical gear and drugs) and made the trek from Economy Parking to the Terminal.

Now we were flying Business Class but Samantha didn’t know this. We’d kept it as a surprise since she has a birthday in a few days. Even though we went through the priority line to check in and went to the lounge to wait for our flight, she never figured it out until we were actually sitting in the lounge. She was so excited! I was excited for her.

Of course we did have a bit of an adventure before we got to the lounge. We had a wheelchair but nobody to push it so Sam was pushing me. Doug and I have Global Entry so we had TSA-Pre. Sam does not. Even though she was pushing my wheelchair, they would not let her go through even though there was absolutely no line at TSA-Pre. The man wasn’t even nice about it. He waited until she scanned her passport before telling her she couldn’t go through. It was ridiculous but what can you do. If he had just been nice about it, it wouldn’t have irritated me so much. She and Doug had to haul her medical bags over to the long regular line and wait. I got myself through security and then waited for them to clear my wheelchair and send it through.

While we were waiting for Sam, Doug took me on to the lounge and then went back to help her. She actually made it through security faster than I thought. Her gear always takes a good deal of time. However, this time, security didn’t check any of it. It went straight through x-ray. Usually they have to check her vest for bomb residue. This made for a nice change.

In the lounge I tried to get a mimosa but it cost extra. That was a first. You could get hard alcohol for free but no champagne. Oh, well. I settled for orange juice and vodka. I got Doug his Bloody Mary. When Sam and Doug arrived we all got little snacks as we knew we would get fed on the flight from Miami to Madrid. We only had about an hour in the lounge before we had to head to the gate.

Our next adventure was at the gate. First they announced that only the first 25 carryon bags would be allowed on due to the size of the plane. Everybody else would have to use to complimentary check-in. Yikes! Just between the three of us we had four carryons needing the overhead bins! I was suddenly glad I was in a wheelchair and would go on first! Then when we pre-boarded the lady told Doug that Sam’s shake wouldn’t fit in the overhead bin. Now this is a $16,000 piece of medical equipment she was talking about. We never, ever check it. She told him to leave it at the door of the plane and they would take care of it. He ignored that and took it onboard. Miraculously, it did fit in the bin on Sam’s side of the plane. It wouldn’t even come close on the other side.

Typical of Miami flights, we were no sooner up than coming back down. Sam barely had a chance to enjoy the larger seats in First Class. We bustled off of the plane with all of our bags and at the end of the jetway found my wheelchair. My driver was a lovely older gentleman. I felt badly that he was having to push me around. He did a bang up job of it though. He took us to the flagship lounge and got us VIP passes! Hot dog!!!

Now we had been at one of the lounges here in Miami when we went to South America earlier this year. We hadn’t rated this lounge though. They had sent us to a different one. We weren’t special enough then. Of course I wasn’t in a wheelchair with a boot of my foot then either. This flagship lounge was very nice. Sam said she didn’t even feel like we were at the airport. We all got champagne as we entered and then grabbed some snacks after my lovely driver left us. We enjoyed the ambiance in the short amount of time we had.

All too soon, my next driver was there to fetch me. She was an older lady which again made me feel badly. She was great, too. She got us on the Skytrain and to our gate quickly. We had about 20 minutes to wait before we could start boarding. This time there was no issue with carryon other than getting her vest into the overhead bin which is Doug’s job. I’ve done it before but that thing is heavy.

I was disappointed with our seating arrangements. According to our original flight documents, Sam was suppose to sit across the aisle from me. Somehow she ended up four rows behind me. It was no big deal but I had wanted to watch her excitement at flying Business Class for the first time. Although she doesn’t like champagne at all, she got a glass so we could do our traditional “champagne” photo for her grandmother. I knew she would especially enjoy this one with Sam.

After that we settled in for our 7.5 hour flight. They fed us as soon as we were at cruising altitude. I had pre-ordered my beef dish a few days ago online. Sam got the chicken and she enjoyed it. She has like airline food since she was little. After dinner was finished and I had enjoyed the last of my hot fudge sundae, I worked on getting caught up on my blog.

Yes, I know I have been REALLY bad. All of those days without WiFi in Africa got me behind in posting although I kept up with my writing. Well, I was a couple of days behind on that as well. When we got home, I tried hard to get caught up but life got in the way (as well as cleaning and a couple of good books—librarian, remember!). So I made myself finished writing and proofing the last of the Africa trip before I allowed myself to sit back and relax on our long flight.

For a change, I didn’t feel like watching a movie when I finished my work. I had just started a new novel by J.K. Rowling writing as Robert Galbraith and I was itching to read it. Even though this series is completely different (it is an adult series) from Harry Potter, her writing is still engaging. So I read until I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. It was passed midnight Florida time.

I tried to sleep but just couldn’t so after an hour, I gave up trying. We were landing in just a couple of hours anyway. I went back to reading and passed the remaining time thoroughly engaged in Strike and Robin’s adventures detecting. In some ways I was sad when the captain announced we would be landing shortly. I knew that as soon as we touched the ground, my reading days were over.

DAY 2: MADRID

Although it was nearly 8 AM, it was still pitch black outside. I couldn’t believe how dark it was at this time of the morning. I dragged my weary body off of the plane and the three of us walked about a million miles to Passport Control/Immigration. We zipped through that with no trouble and then walked a million more miles, took a tram, went up and down escalators, and finally reached baggage claim. Sam and I hit the toilet while Doug gathered up the three suitcases, all of which made the trip. These days with air travel, that is no certainty!

Our real adventure started when we walked out into the Arrivals Hall. Now as a bit of background information, I should tell you that I belong to the Friends of OAT/GCT FaceBook group. It’s a great source of information on trips. There had been a thread a while back about people purchasing transfers (to/from the airport and hotel) and not being picked up. We do our air through OAT so we don’t have to pay for transfers. We’ve never had an issue although our Australian trip leader was a few minutes late picking us up when we arrived in Sydney. Anyway, I was telling Sam to look for somebody holding an OAT clipboard as we walked out. We saw Gate 1 and other tour groups but no OAT. No problem. Maybe we were just not seeing them. Doug walked around and checked out every sign being held. Nope. No OAT. So we waited thinking maybe they were running late. We ended up waiting for nearly ninety minutes. They never showed up. Our final documents have a “local” number so Doug borrowed a cell phone (we don’t have international calling) and we discovered that the local number was in Portugal. And they weren’t answering. Well, darn! Finally we gave up and got a taxi to the hotel. That was very simple. The lady at the taxi kiosk even arranged for one large enough for all of our luggage. We only had to wait about 15 minutes for the taxi. He whisked us off to the hotel. We had survived our first learning and discovery (OAT is into learning and discovery which is why their trips are so educational and why I like them so much).

At the Princesa Plaza Hotel we hit some good luck. Although it was only a bit after 10 AM, our rooms were ready and we could check in. We weren’t expecting that. I was very glad because Sam could get her cold medicines into the fridge in the room. Traveling with her is always a challenge but I am so happy to have her with us. We got settled into our rooms which are larger than I expected although the bathroom is tiny. They did manage to cram a bidet in with the toilet though. AND I have a bath tub which I knew I was going to enjoy soaking in tonight!

Because of our issue with the transfer, we were definitely concerned about our return transfer to the airport. We couldn’t afford to sit around waiting for a pickup that might not come. So once I connected with WiFi, I sat down and emailed our trip leader Victor. When I opened up my email, I saw that he had emailed us and wanted to call at 6 PM. We had had questions when we had emailed him from home and he wanted to discuss things with us. Anyway, I quickly emailed him our woes, crossing my fingers that he could work magic on our transfer. He, at least, knew who to call about it.

Now we had our second learning and discovery for the day. We discovered that our telephone didn’t work. I wanted to make sure we would get Victor’s call so I picked up the handset. No dial tone. I texted Sam and she tried to call us. Nothing. Ultimately we learned that you had to press the power button on the phone. What? Whoever heard of a plug-in phone with a power button. It was crazy but at least now we knew we could get Victor’s call.

After that we set out on our day. As much as I just wanted to crash and burn on our comfy bed, I knew I’d never get to sleep tonight if I did. We’ve learned to just keep going, no matter how hard it is. And today, for me, it was SO hard. I hadn’t slept in over 24 hours. I was running on empty. But somehow I managed to dredge up some energy and we headed out the door, me hobbling along in my faithful boot.

Our first mission here in Madrid was to find the metro and buy and a 20 trip pass. Doug had researched it and we could all share one card. The fates were smiling down on us now and the metro was just a short distance from Princesa Plaza. Doug found a kiosk and bought the card and put 20 trips on it. Then came the fun of trying to figure out where we needed to go. We went up steep stairs, some with no railings so Sam had to help me as boots and stairs don’t go together very well. We went down stairs, up escalators, down more stairs. Eventually we found the platform we needed and only had to wait a couple of minutes for the train. There were no empty seats in our car so we had to stand. A nice lady gave me her seat. I think she saw the gray hair and the boot and felt sorry for me. I wasn’t going to argue.

Our first real sightseeing stop was at Puerto del Sol. The name means “gate of the sun.” These days there is no gate. That has been gone a very long time. But when it was there, it had a rising sun carved into it, hence the name. The gate marked the edge of the eastern edge of the old city. I’m assuming they just liked the name and kept it after the gate was gone.

What should have been a feast for the eyes was a cacophony for the ears. The entire square was ripped up. They were doing a major renovation job and you couldn’t even get to the center of the square or hear yourself think. With all of the construction equipment going, it was loud. All of the people were fenced in to narrow walkways around the perimeter of the square so it was a mess and so disappointing. Things weren’t improved by the scores of people zipping through the square. It was jam packed with tourists and locals. Yuck. I could feel my people claustrophobia kicking in.

Puerto del Sol SHOULD have been a fun place to explore. It is the most popular spot in the city with the locals. You come here to been seen and to see who else is out and about. But there is plenty for tourists to enjoy as well, when there isn’t construction, that is. Over the construction fencing we could just make out the statue of a man on a horse. According to our Rick Steve’s guide on Spain, this statue was of Carlos (Charles) III. We were going to see and hear a lot about him this afternoon.

My knowledge of Spain is next to nothing, I freely admit. Doug read a book on Spanish history before we came so he was much more knowledgable. Sam surprised me with how much she knew. I was the odd duck out. Today I was too tired to care :-). It turns out though, that Charles III was one of the most important kings of Spain. His statue was placed here because he created Puerto del Sol and made it the hub of the city. He was known as the “best mayor of Madrid.” After being mayor, he went on to become the king of Spain. He turned what had been the small dusty city of Madrid into a place a beautiful city with fountains and parks. He established the world-famous Prado Museum, established the public school system, mandated underground sewage systems, and made the Royal Palace a showcase. Learning all of this about Charles III made seeing the statue (one of many men on horse statues here) much more interesting.

Uphill from Charles was the symbol of Madrid, a statue of a bear clawing a tree. Weird, I know. However, back in medieval times many bears lived in the royal hunting grounds outside of the city. They loved getting berries from the madroño trees so a statue of a bear trying to get berries works. We saw this symbol all over Madrid today, even on sewer covers.

Bear and tree which is the symbol for the city

Doug was very disappointed because the one thing he most wanted to see in Puerto del Sol was the marker for “kilometer zero.” It marked the symbolic center of Spain and each of the six major highways radiate from this area. It was in the construction zone. We tried peering through the fencing but the ground on the interior was all dug up. I assume they will replace the plaque when they finish construction.

Despite that disappointment, we did see the sign with Tio Pepe who was selling a local sherry. Fortunately he was on top of a building or he, too, would have been lost to construction. He was on a huge neon billboard and has been there since the 1930s. Tio Pepe is a jaunty bottle of the sherry sporting a sombrero and a guitar. Hey, maybe I found Sam her Spanish husband! 🙂

We also took a gander at what use to be the post office in Charles III’s time. He had it built in the 1760s. It is no longer a post office but the county governor’s office. In fact the “president” of greater Madrid makes this building his home. I pity him having to listen to all of the construction racket. The building was also the headquarters for Francisco Franco’s police. During his era an amazing number of detainees died who tried to “escape” by jumping out of the windows. It rather reminded me of the jail in Johannesburg where so many prisoners died “accidentally.”

It was obvious that our guidebook had been written a few years back. It mentioned how there were two plaques on the post office building. One honored the death of people who rose up against the French invasion in 1808. French soldiers gunned them down. The second plaque memorializes the citizens who helped their fellow man after the terrorist bombings on March 11, 2004. The newest one not mentioned in the book was for the victims of COVID. Doug thought it was interesting that there was a plaque for COVID but not the Spanish flu that killed millions of people.

On the corner across from the old post office was a swanky bakery called La Mallorquina that was established in 1894. They are suppose to make the best Napolitana pastries in town. You can get all types of savory Napolitanas and sweet ones filled with chocolate or vanilla. We decided to walk in and give it a try. Plus there was a tile inside that Doug wanted to see. It depicted an 18th century view of Puerto del Sol.

Going inside was a big mistake. It was crammed full of people trying to see and buy their baked goods. Everything look delectable but there was no way I was going to wait in that line for anything, no matter how good. Maybe tomorrow we can try again. Today just was not the day for it. We did find the decorative tile. It was near the ceiling so the mass of humanity couldn’t block it.

Our walk now took us out of Puerto del Sol and towards Plaza Mayor. As we walked towards the plaza, we enjoyed the architecture of the old buildings. I particularly liked the street signs. They were made of tiles painted back in the medieval times. They had pictures so that even the illiterate would know what street they were on. For example Calle de Postas which was the main road we ambled down had a stage coach being pulled by horses. Postas means coach or relay or staging area. There were many coach inns on this street back in the day. Another street had a picture of men shoveling sand. The name of the street—Calle del Arsenal— means the street of sand.

Calle de Postas was a pleasing mix of old and new. We saw MacDonalds cheek and jowl with the Museo of Jamon. Jamon is Spanish ham which is sliced exceedingly thin and dried. Spaniards LOVE their jamon. This “museum” was actually a chain store selling jamon. We also saw Burger King and a plethora of Starbucks.

A short walk through a covered area brought us into Plaza Mayor which I loved. It was quiet and not crowded. It was also big. In some ways it reminded me of Catherine’s winter palace in St. Petersburg. The perimeter of the square was outlined on all four side by four-storey burgundy buildings. It was impressive. In the center was another man on a horse. This time it was Philip III. I didn’t know who he was until I listened to the Rick Steve’s audio on my phone (he has a lovely app with all kinds of audio tours. We had downloaded several before we came). Philip’s father was Philip II and he actually founded the city of Madrid. Philip III had this square constructed in 1619. So it pre-dates Puerto del Sol. Originally it had been a marketplace. Philip III transformed it into a Baroque masterpiece.

Relief showing history of inquisition executions in Plaza Mayor

Not all of the square’s history is happy. During the inquisition many people were tried right here and executed. The supposed guilty were parade around the square wearing signs listing their sins. Bleachers were even constructed for bigger audiences. The wealthy rented balconies so that they could watch the executions in comfort. The heretics were burned to death. Later, the square was still used for executions. The condemned criminals were slowly strangled (a garrote was used) while they held a crucifix. One of the decorative light posts with seating attached had reliefs on the benches that depicted this tragic piece of history.

Most of the buildings circling the square are apartment buildings. You can pay up to 2€ million for a 2,000 square foot apartment. All of the buildings are the same burgundy color. The citizens actually voted on the color. It seems like they have a penchant for voting since they became a democracy. They vote on everything.

We didn’t spend a great deal of time in the square but we did take a quick peek inside the La Torre del Oro Bar Andalu. This bar was more like a museum to bullfighting. Just in the glimpse I got walking by I saw several bull heads displayed on the walls. Suppposedly there was the puntilla or the knife that was used to kill the bull in the center beneath its head. Neither Sam nor I cared to investigate this place any further.

We retraced out steps back out of the square and started walking down a quiet street which took us to the church and convent of Corpus Christi. Frankly, I was surprised that it was a church. It didn’t look like one at all. The building was built in 1607 of red brick. You could see the coat of arms of the rich family who built it over the massive wooden doors. Back then the rich liked to build and maintain churches and convents. I guess they thought it would help them get to heaven.

The convent associated with the church is well-known for their cookie baking. You can even purchase their sweet treats. However, the system for doing so it quite unlike most shopping experiences. I am kicking myself now because we didn’t do it (we were all too tired). Apparently you ring the bell and say “dulces” when the nun answers. Then you get buzzed in. After entering you follow the signs to the torno or the lazy Susan that lets the nuns sell their baked goods without being seen. You announce your choice to the nun who you can’t see and place your money on the torno. The money is wheeled to the nun who replaces it with your cookies and wheels it back to you. Maybe we can go back there before we leave and buy some galletas which are shortbread cookies.

A short way from the church and convent was Town Hall. It was built in the Castilian Baroque style with steeples and slate roofs. Each end of the building was capped with a symmetrical tower. I noticed the bear and the tree symbol on one of the three coat of arms on the building. That little bear gets around. This square was quite important during the medieval years. It was the ruling center of Madrid at that time. It was a sleepy little town when Philip II decided to turn it into the capital of the Spanish empire which was the largest empire in Europe at that time. He was pretty smart. Madrid is geographically close to the center of the country. It also united the kingdoms of his great-grandparents—Ferdinand and Isabel.

The square was pretty but not overly ornate. There was a lovely garden with hedges cut like a maze. The hedges were only a foot or so tall. The other buildings were a mixture of brick and stone construction. Each looked a bit different than the others. It was a nice hodge-podge of styles. Walking out of the square I even spotted a mosaic of the bear and tree on the walkway.

By now it was well after two and we were hungry. We spotted a little shop selling the tortillas we had seen on the Madrid episode of “Somebody Feed Phil” and decided to give it a try. Now Madrid tortillas are nothing like what we think a tortilla is. It looks a great deal like a puffy omelet. In fact it is basically a potato omelet.

We all ordered the tortilla although Doug was disappointed that they were out of tortillas with onion. We also tried one of their craft beers—El Aguila. It was suppose to be new. It was pretty tasty. However, the tortillas was just okay. For me the potatoes had a strange consistency. It may have been better if the tortilla has been hot. Ours were lukewarm at best. Of course, this place wasn’t the one where Phil ate his tortilla. Maybe we will have to travel to the Salamanca District and hunt down Casa Dani’s.

Fortified with food and beer, we set off to finish our explorations. Just across the street was the ginormous Almudena Cathedral. The church was consecrated in 1993 by Pope John Paul II; however, it had taken them 100 years to build the massive church. It is 110 yards long and 80 yards high. It was suppose to be very nice inside but Doug and I have seen the insides of so many churches and cathedrals that we decided to skip this one. Sam was agreeable.

We stopped next at the Assassination Attempt Memorial. Back in 1906 King Alfonso XIII had just married his bride, Victoria Eugenia. As they paraded by this spot an anarchist across the street at #84 stood on the balcony. He threw a bouquet of flowers at the couple. Attached to the flowers was a bomb. He missed the couple but did kill 28 other people. The king and queen went on to rule and produce children. The current king, in fact, is their great grandson. The memorial itself is small. It features an angel weeping as it looks down. Once you know the history, it is quite poignant.

Poignant or not, by this point, I was just about out of steam. I was running on empty. We still had things to see though so I soldiered on to the Royal Palace. This palace has been the seat of Madrid’s power since the 9th century. Now it is only used for special events. We were suppose to tour it today but they closed it for such an event. We have tickets now for tomorrow.

Anyway, what we saw of the outside today was very impressive. It was back behind a black wrought-iron fence. Navy blue and gold lights reminded me of the square in Paris where they held executions at one time. Off to the side you had nice views of the city. I also spotted a Smart Car in the nearby parking lot. We didn’t tarry here long as we would be back tomorrow. Hopefully then I would be more energetic.

Right next to the palace was the Plaza de Oriente. Probably the most interesting fact about this place was that after Spain joined the European Union, they began the process of building underground roads and creating public spaces above them. This is one of those places. As we stood in the plaza, we couldn’t hear any of the traffic rushing through the underground road. It was great. You were left in peace and quiet to enjoy the Visigothic kings statues that decorated the plaza. The Visigoths ruled from the fifth to the eighth century. They were ousted by the Moors when they invaded in 711. In the plaza we ran across a water fountain with a man on a horse atop it. It was Philip IV. His horse was reared up with only his two back hooves on the ground. There were also lions guarding it and Greek gods lollying about.

Philip IV was facing the Royal Theater or Teatro Real which was built in the mid 1800s. It was rebuilt in 1997. It hosts ballets, operas concerts, and zarzuela which are the Spanish form of light operas. Too bad we didn’t think to check and see what was showing. It would have been neat to see a production in this antique theater.

A short way down the street was Plaza de Isabel II. Isabel II was forced to abdicate in 1868. She was very conservative and the people wanted a democracy. They revolted in 1868 and Spain got their first experience with self-rule. Isabel had to live out the remainder of her life in exile. But her theater, the Royal Theater, still stands as a lasting memorial to her.

We walked down a few other streets passing things like the official retailer of the Real Madrid futbol team and Ferpal which is an old-school deli. By this point, I didn’t care about anything we saw. Put a fork in me, I was done. And fortunately so were our explorations for the day. It was going on 5 PM and we had to be back at the hotel by 6 because Victor was calling.

The metro ride back to the hotel went by in a blur. I could barely stay awake. We had some adventures finding the hotel as none of our brains were operating at peak efficiency. Fortunately I had a map app on my phone and I had downloaded the city map and pinned our hotel on it. It got us there. I collapsed on the bed as we waited for Victor’s call.

It came just a few minutes after six. He told us that he had called the local office and they made sure we had our airport transfer. We have to meet our driver at 8:30 AM on Monday morning. Whew! Victor was also going to help us get our refund for the missed transfer. He answered our questions from our email. And we found out that he is currently on tour. They just left Madrid a few days ago. He gave us some suggestions for places to eat and told us where a supermarket was located near our hotel.

After we hung up we headed out once more. We had plans to eat at the hotel restaurant but the limited menu wasn’t very appealing. We tried a few other places but even though there were people inside, the doors were locked. In Spain the locals typically don’t eat dinner until 10 PM at the earliest. We were trying to eat just after six. I wasn’t really surprised.

We ended up at the place that Victor had suggested—El Pimiento Verde or Green Pepper. It was fancier and more expensive than I was in the mood for but it was open. We tried the grilled pepper starter and it was very good. I got ajoarriero cod cooked in oil, garlic, and pepper sauce. It was suppose to be a tradition dish of the mule drivers of Navarra. It was one of the least expensive dishes on the menu. Doug got the special which was sea bass. Sam went with mature beef sirloin. Hers was NOT one of the least expensive items :-).

All of the food was good, just not quite what two of us expected. Sam had ordered her steak well done. Obviously that doesn’t mean the same thing here. It was a perfect medium rare. I was drooling over it. She was disgusted. She can’t stand the slightest bit of pink. But she gamely ate as much as she could. I thought she was going to gag on the first bite. She didn’t eat it all but she did eat enough to fill her up.

Doug enjoyed his sea bass. It was a huge fillet so the fish itself must have been a giant although I’m not sure just how large sea bass get. It looked really good and he had lovely potatoes to go with it.

My cod stew, on the other hand, was different than what I thought it would be. It was chunks of fish in a sea of smushed tomatoes. I thought it would have veggies in it, some potatoes. Nope. Just tomato and cod. The cod did taste good and I ate as much of the tomato goop as I could. And Sam let me snitch a couple of pieces of her steak which was excellent.

The meal put a cap to our excruciatingly long day. Sam and I headed back to the hotel while Doug went to the market to get some milk for Sam. She has to drink or eat something with a good bit of fat in it to take one of her pills. She likes taking it with milk. I crashed on her bed while we waited for him as he had the key to our room. I was out like a light and truly disoriented when I woke up a bit later. I had no clue where I was.

Back in my own room, I took a bath, enjoying the hot water. I’m surprised I didn’t fall asleep and drown :-). I didn’t though. Clean and ready for bed, I shot off one email to a friend, letting her know we had arrived safely and had had some adventures. Then I was ready to hit the hay for real.

Tomorrow we are touring the Royal Palace as well as touring the city on the Hop On, Hop Off bus. It should be a shorter and an easier day. Hopefully it will be an informative one as well.

DAY 40 & 41: LAST DAY IN CAPE TOWN & TRAVELING HOME: I DREAM OF AFRICA

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Mostly today has been a lazy day. We didn’t even bother setting an alarm as we had nowhere in particular we had to be. That was nice although I still woke up before 7 AM. That was just wrong! We read email and messed around in the room and then headed down for breakfast. I’m going to miss the cappuccinos but it’s a good thing we are heading home as I only have two packets of stevia left and one bag of tea that I brought from home.

After breakfast we finished packing and then headed out for one last stroll on the promenade next to the ocean. We had decided to do this instead of trying to make it to the museums. I think we were both done. Secretly I was hoping we would run into the basset hound we had seen being walked. We left about the time we had seen him two days ago. I wasn’t very hopeful though. I mean, what are the odds?

Obviously the odds were really good because all of a sudden Doug stopped and said “There’s the basset hound!” He was up ahead of us being walked by a dog walker along with a few other dogs. Actually there were two dog walkers with groups of dogs. We caught up with them and I explained that we had bassets and asked if I could pet this one. I think they both thought I was nuts but I didn’t care. I got to pet my basset. I’ve been going through withdrawl:-). I do miss my big Kona girl. Anyway, I got to love on him and talk to him while Doug got pictures. I truly never expected to see a basset here in Africa of all places. And getting to pet him was just the icing on the cake.

He was a good boy, too, as most bassets are. I think he was still young as he wasn’t very big. He looked a bit confused as to why this stranger was interrupting his walk and petting him but he didn’t complain. He just looked at me with those sad basset eyes. Doug asked what his name was but it was something African so we didn’t really catch it. We petted him for a few minutes and then reluctantly let them go on their way. I didn’t even think about it until we walked away but the other dogs were really well behaved. None of them tried to get attention. In fact I completely forgot that they were there. I’m not even sure how many dogs the walkers had altogether. I was single focused 🙂

That encounter completely made my day. We kept walking and enjoying the beautiful day though. We saw lots of dogs playing on the beach getting wet in the waves. They were having a blast. Further along in the park we saw hang gliders landing. That was neat. They were coming off of the rump of Lion’s Head Mountain, I think. They looked like they were all having a great time. I saw one crash and burn when I was a teenager so hang gliding has never appealed to me.

Many of the beaches are rocky with little sand

I didn’t want to push my foot too far, plus I was starting to get hot so we turned around. We ended up walking for over an hour. I kept my eyes peeled for my basset friend as we made our way back to the hotel but I never saw him. I counted my blessings that I had gotten to pet him once.

You Canada tell from this tree how windy it gets here

The rest of the day we read, wrote, took care of email, got lunch at the hotel…Basically we marked time. And of course, dealt with load shedding. I will NOT miss that at all. When we got back from the walk there was no power. The A/C would have felt really good but it was out, of course.

Late afternoon we both showered and finished packing. We went down to the lobby extra early to wait for our driver. He showed up 20 minutes early so we got to the airport early. We were several miles from the hotel when my Apple Watch buzzed me with a message. It told me that I had left my iPad back at the hotel. What! Instant heart attack. Once I calmed down a few seconds later, I knew my watch was wrong. I had a distinct memory of packing it up and putting it in my backpack. I checked and sure enough, there it was. I have no clue why my watch told me that. I’ve never gotten that message before so it was just bizarre. What a way to start our trip home!

At the airport I was glad we were flying Business Class because the economy check-in line was long already at four hours before our flight. Goodness knows how long they had been lined up. We only had two people ahead of us. Of course we had to wait until exactly 7:30 PM before KLM would start checking anybody in although people were there ready to work. They were all just gossiping with each other with the long lines of people waiting. It didn’t make sense to me but there you go.

It was while we were standing in line that we got some startling news. Our flight was no longer a non-stop to Amsterdam. We now had to stop in Johannesburg to refuel. Apparently there is a fuel shortage here. So instead of having a 3.5 hour layover in Amsterdam which gave us plenty of time to get to our gate, we have an hour. Oy vey! The joys of traveling. You just never know what is going to happen.

We zipped through security and Passport Control and made our way to the lounge. It was actually a nice lounge for as small as it was. We had plenty of places to plug in to recharge if we needed to. We visited with some other people on our same flight to Amsterdam. They are in our boat except worse. They arrive in Amsterdam 30 minutes after their next flight has left. The airlines really should warn people when they do things like this. As soon as we got to the lounge I texted Samantha and let her know what was going on. I wanted to give her a heads-up as she is suppose to fetch us from the airport.

The four hours went by fairly quickly. We loaded up the plane and got settled in. It was an older plane and I wasn’t crazy about the set-up but it beat the heck out of flying economy so no true complaints. I took off my boot and settled in for some movie viewing although it was midnight and I was tired. I was surprised when they fed us dinner on the leg between Cape Town and Jo’Burg as it was only an 1.5 hour flight. They did it though. I can’t say I was impressed with the food. It didn’t trip my trigger. The food they were serving in coach sounded better :-). Ours was too fancy shmancy. I did enjoy my sparkling wine though :-). After I finished eating, I began my traditional movie marathon.

I slept through portions of “Kramer Vs Kramer” which I saw way back in my twenties. It was still good. You just have to love Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep. I did watched the majority of “Jurassic World: Domination.” Then I went on a streak of sad movies. I watched Ann Hathaway in “One Day” where she dies in the end. Then I watched a newer one called “All My Life” which is about a couple that get married despite a cancer diagnosis. It was based on a true story. Although it ended with him dying, it was uplifting because it focused more on how glad she was to have had time with him rather than on how much she missed him. I liked it.

We landed in Amsterdam 2.5 hours late because of our fueling stop in Jozi. As a result we had to hustle to make our next flight. There wasn’t a wheelchair waiting on the jetway but we did see one once we were in the terminal. And glory be, they had my name :-). However, they wanted me to ride in the cart but we had to wait until the cart was full before we could go. Meanwhile the clock was ticking. There was also a lady there with a wheelchair. They agreed to let us have the wheelchair if Doug pushed it. That seemed like a better way to go than waiting on the cart.

We made it to our gate with 30 minutes to spare even though we had to go through security where I even had to take my boot off for them to inspect. We were lucky because there was literally no line there. Then we just had to hustle to our gate. Since we had been worried about making this flight, it was a relief when we made it to the gate with plenty of time.

We boarded right on time which was great because we had another tight layover in Boston because of changes in flight times. This flight was a Delta flight and the cubicle was more to my liking. I didn’t have to unbuckle to reach the entertainment screen on this flight. Plus I had been able to chose my lunch a couple of days ago. I knew what I was getting although at first the flight attendant told me I hadn’t chosen a meal. She went back and rechecked. I knew I had. And I had.

By this point we had been traveling for well over 12 hours. Plus our flights hadn’t started until midnight. I was so tired even though I had dozed on and off on our twelve hour flight. I slept through the new version of “Father of the Bride.” I woke up enough to watch the first four episodes of “1883” which is the prequel to “Yellowstone” the TV series. It was good enough that I had no problems keeping my eyes open.

I had just started watching the fifth episode when it was time to land in Boston. The race was on once again. We had about an hour and a half here. That would have been okay except we had to go through customs, get our luggage, recheck our luggage, all of the typical returning to the U.S. things. If it took took too long for us to get our bags, we could miss our flight.

However, Fortune was on our side. I was met right outside of the airplane with a wheelchair. She wheeled me to the Global Entry kiosk. Five minutes later we were on our way to the baggage claim area. Our bags were off fast and we zipped through rechecking them. It was at that point that our journey to the gate slowed way down. We had to go from E Terminal to A terminal which you could do either by walking or taking the bus. My chair driver suggested the bus as it would be faster. It would have been faster if one had ever shown up! We saw all kinds of buses but not the one we needed to get us to A. We finally quit waiting and just hoofed it.

I’m glad we had her with us because it was a bit complicated. She got us there though. We went through security and then she wheeled us a million miles to our gate. We made it to the gate with five minutes to spare. I texted Sam to let her know that we would make our flight so she could pick us up. Then we boarded.

For this flight we were traveling Economy Plus or whatever Delta calls it. It was only a 2.5 hour flight so that was no big deal. I did miss getting my pre-flight sparkling wine though :-). We did get snacks and water so we didn’t starve. I watched the fifth episode of “1883” and then dozed for the remainder of the flight. It went by much faster than I figured it would. I was afraid that the time would drag.

Once we landed in Tampa, everything went smoothly. Our luggage even came out fast. Usually it takes forever here. Sam was waiting for us with Leia. It was SO good to be home. I had loved the trip but I was happy to be back to my happy family.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I think I have pretty well covered Southern Africa, so instead of final thoughts, I will leave end this fabulous journey with two myths I learned in South Africa. One is how the crocodile got its bumpy-textured skin and the other is how the snake lost its legs.

Once upon a time, the crocodile had beautiful,l smooth, golden skin. He would only come out at night in order to protect it. During the day, he would stay in the muddy water. No sunburn for the croc! However, the crocodile grew addicted the admiration of his fellow creatures. He craved their praise so he started coming out during the day to show off his beautiful skin. The more they praised him, the more conceited he became until he thought he was above everybody else and would boss all of the other animals around.

Now the other African animals did not take this change of personality lying down. They started ignoring him. And the more the crocodile’s skin was exposed to the sun, the more bumpy and ugly it became. Eventually it turned into what appeared to be armor. The crocodile was humiliated. He fled into the muddy water to hide his now hideous skin. Even today he will flee into the murky depth if others show up with only his eyes and nostrils above the level of the water.

As for the snake, once upon a time in Africa, he had legs. However, he, too, like the crocodile above, was arrogant. When the moon warned the mantis that a horrible drought was coming, Mantis warned all of the other animals that they must move from the area because it would soon become a desert. He, his family, and all of the other animals packed up and trekked away to far off places. However, the snake was lazy. He didn’t believe Mantis so he told him, “Your drought will not worry me. I’m staying here.” Soon, though, no rain fell and all of the grass withered and died. All of the fat frogs hopped away. The snake had nothing to eat. He decided that he better follow the other animals after all.

However, by the time he decided this, the land had become a desert and with each step the snake took, his legs sank deep into the sand making it difficult to walk. Out of desperation he cried out to the moon, “I am ashamed of myself. Save me from the sun and I will change my ways!”

The moon took pity on him and shrank the snake’s legs to nothing. Now with his gleaming skin he could glide across the hot sand without sinking into it. Did the snake really change his arrogant ways? We will never know. However, since there is a general distaste for snakes, I think the answer is “No.”

DAY 39: HOP ON, HOP OFF BUS IN CAPE TOWN: I DREAM OF AFRICA

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It was our last full day in Africa today. We had nothing planned other than riding the Hop On, Hop Off bus and doing the free downtown walk. So we enjoyed a later wake-up and leisurely breakfast before walking down to the bus stop to catch our ride.

It was the perfect day to ride the bus as the sun was shining and there was a cool breeze. We sat up top and enjoyed the familiar scenery from a new vantage point from the topless second level of the bus. We had beautiful views of the promenade and the waves crashing on the shore. It was beautiful and relaxing.

As we rode we learned various tidbit of information. We learned that the phrase “Women and children first” came from Cape Agulhas when a military ship hit a rock and began sinking. One of the officers organized the the crew and passengers to abandon ship. He made sure that women and children were the first on the lifeboats. Not a single one of them was lost.

I learned that the San people were hunter/gatherers while the Khoi were farmers. As much as I had learned about these two tribes, that fact had escaped me until today.

Down at the harbor there was a spire with a ball on it. Much like our ball drop on New Year’s Eve in NYC, here the ball drops every day precisely at noon. Why? Well, back in explorer times, the navigator onboard ship used the ball drop to sync the time. In order to calculate longitude, you have to know the correct time. The ball drop facilitated that.

I also learned that the water in Camps Bay is warmer in the winter than in the summer. Strange. This is because the summer wind blows the warmer water of the bay back into the ocean allowing the cooler water near shore to rise up to the top.

As we were riding, I did spot something disturbing. During our time here, we did see many homeless. They tended to sleep on the promenade. Today I saw a homeless man stop by a trash can that had a paper cup sitting next to it. He picked up the cup, grabbed something out of it and ate it. Now, I’m not stupid. I know for the homeless this is a matter of survival. You get food wherever you can find it. You can’t afford to be picky at all. It was just a startling reminder. It made me so sad.

We didn’t ride this particular bus for very long though, just until we hit the waterfront area. This was where we picked up the walking tour. The tour was free but we had to wait a little bit for it to start. It gave me a chance to enjoy another cappuccino:-)

We had two young men taking us on the tour. One was a trainee whose real job was Customer Service with Quantas. He was very good at guiding, informative and entertaining. The real guide was good, just not quite as personable. They both knew their stuff which was good.

As we walked, we saw the Old Town House which served as a watch house, a senate, and a main city hall until the Cape Town City Hall was opened. It was a beautifully preserved building, its facade pale yellow with white trim. It was fenced off so you couldn’t get near it. Since it is now a museum, hopefully there was some way to get inside.

Cape Town has a LONG history of the slave trade. We explored that portion of downtown next. Greenmarket Square was the heart of the slave trade in Cape Town. The square was built in 1696 when a burgher watch house was constructed here. A burgher watch house is basically a police station. The burgher house itself was replaced in 1755 by a much fancier building built in the Rococo style. It housed the Burgher Senate or town council until the new City Hall was built in 1905.

Over the years Greenmarket Square has been a vegetable market, a slave market, and currently a flea market. We did briefly browse the stalls here. In the center of the square was an old pump that was used to bring water up from the underground river that runs beneath the city. Slaves used the pump to get water to take back to their masters’ house. During Apartheid, Greenmarket Square was the scene of political protests.

In 1989 protesters staged a sit-in and the police retaliated with tear gas and water canons which were new. The water in the canons had purple dye so that the police could identify people who had been protesting. However, protesters commandeered one of the canons and sprayed the police with purple water. So that backfired. The next day graffiti sprang up saying “The Purple Shall Govern.” Eleven days days later 30,000 protesters marched through the city with no police intervention at all.

We walked a bit further and came to St. George’s Cathedral. This is the Anglican cathedral in Cape Town. It has been a focal point for protests and prayers for human rights. Desmond Tutu was the archbishop here from 1986 to 1996. It is said that in September of 1986 that he hammered on the door of the church and demanded to be made South Africa’s first black archbishop. He got his wish. He led a protest from the cathedral to City Hall where he proclaimed, “We are the Rainbow People!” He went on to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Another icon on St. George Street is the Slave Tree. We had to admire it from across the street as there was a tour group at its location. The tree is actually gone but there is a marker that denotes its location. Oral traditions tells us that slaves were auctioned off under that tree. I believe they were also punished there for “misbehaving.” When the city widened the street in 1950, they cut the tree down.

The Slave Tree was in the median of the street. Near it was a piece of the Berlin Wall which was interesting to see here. It had graffiti on it but not German graffiti. Most of it was South African graffiti which was a shame.

Near both the Slave Tree and the Berlin Wall chunk, we explored the square that was the memorial to the slave market. In fact this area WAS the old slave market. It was a simple memorial with black granite blocks of differing heights. Some had the names of slaves engraved on them. These names incorporated where they came from into their name such as Leonora van Madagascar. Other blocks had the names of slave ships. Others had the name of the port where the slaves had come from. It was simple but well thought out.

I found it interesting when our two guides informed us that people would go to the nearby church and then come out and attend the slave auction. That just boggled my mind. How you can call yourself a Christian and then go buy and sell your fellow human being or beat them and treat them like animals? It just…well….I just don’t understand it.

Just across the street from the Slave Market Memorial was the old slave lodge. I believe now it is a museum. Built in 1679, it held slaves for the Dutch East India Company which was the largest single slaveholder in the country. It was a stark building with paint peeling from its bland exterior walls. I can only imagine how awful it was back it the days of its original use.

It is interesting to note that while Cape Town had this thriving slave market, the slaves were not local tribes people. In fact the Dutch were prohibited from enslaving the Khoi and the San people. Instead, they brought 63,000 slaves before 1808 from East Africa, Madagascar, India, and Indonesia. It was the largest cultural mix of any slave society.

Amid the history of this district was the juxtaposition of the modern. A beautifully well-maintained historic building housed a KFC on the ground floor. I had to shake my head.

A bit further down we came across a building that housed the “best bakery” in Cape Town according to our guides. It’s called Charley’s Bakery and it is in another beautifully restored building. The exterior of it maintained the flourishes it originally boasted as well as cute paintings of surfing cakes and futbol playing cookies. The exterior was charming.

Inside we learned the history of the bakery which, by the way, has its own TV series called “Charley’s Cake Angels.” We saw the film vans outside and clothing hanging on racks for the “stars” to wear. They weren’t filming when we went inside though.

The original Charley was a 16 year old boy who lived in a small town. He was looking for work and found a job in a bakery with a master German baker. He swept floors, made puff pastry, and washed dishes. Once he proved himself reliable, he graduated to cakes. A beautiful woman came into the bakery one day and he fell in love. They ended up moving to Cape Town and having two beautiful daughters

They had several thriving food businesses in Cape Town. People stood in line for their quiches and eggs Benedict. Their business grew so large that they couldn’t manage it all. So they sold and started a “small” bakery. Their daughters joined them in this endeavor. It, like their other businesses, flourished. Then in 2012 Charley became ill and died. However, his family still continues his mission to create magic in the form of food. I enjoyed the story and the ambiance of the place. It was too difficult to decide what to buy so we left with empty hands. Other people in our group bought cake though.

A short walk from Charly’s brought us to City Hall where a statue of Nelson Mandel stands on a balcony, This is where he made his famous speech after his release from prison. The statue was quite life-like. I could imagine him standing there and talking to the people of South Africa as they crowded into the Grand Parade area adjoining City Hall. Table Mountain made an impressive backdrop for the building.

One of the last historic buildings we saw was the District Six Museum. It’s the history the place encompasses that is important, not the building. This museum documents what happened to the impoverished community of 55,000 mostly colored people. In 1966 it was declared a White Group Area and homes were bulldozed. All that was left were churches and mosques. The people living here were forced to move out which I have talked about before. A few of the original residents now live here again after intense negotiations. They want to develop a low-cost housing area in the district. However, much of District Six remains empty land.

As we made our way back to the Hop On, Hop Off station, we walked through a thriving flower market. Talk about beautiful flowers! We saw all manner of proteas in bloom. We even saw the king protea which is the country’s flower. What an amazing profusion of colors and smells enveloped us as we ambled through! It was a delightful way to end a fascinating city walk.

We made it back to the station with enough time to buy sandwiches and chips before hopping on the bus. We managed to get seats in front on the top level. It had a windshield which kept the wind from blowing our food away. We were on the Red Line which would finish the loop we had started this morning and take us back to the hotel. Originally we had thought about taking it back to the V & A Waterfront and trying out the milkshake place Abe had told us about but I decided it wasn’t worth redoing the entire bus ride. It would have been 90 minutes of riding the bus over the same route we had just taken. So we just rode it back to our hotel stop.

After finishing our sandwiches, we moved to seats further back so we could enjoy the cool breeze of the day. As we drove we enjoyed the scenery downtown. I saw once again the Bridge to Nowhere. It still went nowhere! Originally it wasn’t suppose to be a bridge but an overpass. They constructed both sides at the same time but somebody made a mistake. The sides were not going to meet up! So they just left it as it was, hanging in space. Now the homeless like to sleep beneath it.

As we drove we enjoyed the lovely Cape Dutch architecture. Then we arrived at the stop at Table Mountain. Of course most people got off here. We didn’t need to since we had already been to the top. While we waited for travelers to hop on, we enjoyed the majestic view of the famous mountain. It was impressive. Our drive took us around to the far side of the promenade. The wind here was wicked. It blew in from the ocean and then bounced off of the tall buildings. The pricey areas are where the wind is less fierce. There aren’t too many places on this stretch where the wind doesn’t blow you around.

The views, however, were spectacular. Not much beats looking at green, rocky mountains, vivid blue water, and white sand. We also had phenomenal views of the Twelve Apostles. The bus ride was worth it just for the scenery. There is just something mesmerizing about watching waves pounding on the shore.

All too soon, we were back to our stop and we hopped off and made our way up to the hotel once again. By now it had become a familiar path. In the room we started packing for the trip home tomorrow night. Although we had time tomorrow and Abe and OAT had arranged for us to have a late checkout at 7 PM, we still wanted to have most of it done.

I showered in a rush to beat load shedding. Then we made our way down to the bar for our last Happy Hour. While we were gone, Abe brought gifts to our room. He had gotten me a cheetah T-shirt and Doug a leopard T-shirt. He knew those were our favorite animals. And we just learned on this trip that if you have made 20 or more trips with OAT, the TL is suppose to give you a gift. Personally I didn’t think they should have to but I do love my T-shirt. Abe did great. I was just sorry that we had missed him. He also emailed and told us that our ride to the airport would meet us in the lobby at 7. It was five hours before our flight but that was okay. Hopefully we could get checked in and spend the time in the lounge.

We haven’t decided exactly what we will do tomorrow. We might check out some of the museums we haven’t been to or just take a walk on the promenade. I’m good with either although just chilling sounds really good. We have been going pretty strong for 40 days. I’m tired. But tomorrow I’ll be heading home to Sam, Leia, and my own bed 🙂

DAY 38: ROBBEN ISLAND, CAPE TOWN: I DREAM OF AFRICA

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Yes! I got to sleep in this morning. Yeehaw! It felt so good not having to get up to an obnoxious alarm going off. As much as I love traveling, it does wear on a person after a while. It was great to have a little break in the routine this morning. We got to semi-relax and enjoy a leisurely breakfast before heading to the lobby to wait for our ride. I felt refreshed and invigorated.

Our ride was there actually twenty minutes early so I was glad we were already down in the lobby. Our driver was a nice gentleman who ushered us into the car for the short ride to the waterfront. He affirmed that he would meet us at 3 PM to pick us back up. Obviously he has had a great deal of experience driving people to and from the Robben Island tour.

As we drove along the promenade to the waterfront, Doug and I both kept an eye peeled for a basset hound as this area was popular for people walking their dogs. I didn’t have much hope of spotting one but you just never know. We HAVE seen bassets all over the world. I always try to be hopeful. We hadn’t gone very far when I heard Doug say “Basset!” Sure enough, there was a young basset being walked. We just got a glimpse of him and then we were passed him. I wanted to yell “Stop the car!” but I knew it wasn’t realistic. We had to get to the pier for our ferry ride. I was thrilled to see those beautiful long ears and disappointed that I didn’t get some bassets snuggles. But at least we saw a basset hound here in Africa, unexpected but wonderful.

We arrived just in time to line up and board our ferry named the Krotoa which held 200 people. I would be willing to be that it was filled to capacity. I didn’t see any empty seats. We were packed in like sardines. That was to be the theme of the entire tour. The ride over to the island was 30 minutes and was far bumpier than I expected. The water of the harbor looked smooth but we were bouncing around some. From the “Oohs” and “Aahhs” of our fellow travelers, you would have thought we were sailing in the Drake Passage on a stormy day. Maybe they hadn’t been on a boat before?

We were entertained on the ride over to the island with a video explaining the history of Robben Island. After its discovery by Bartolomeu Dias in 1488, the island was used by Portuguese navigators. When the Dutch came it was used as a refueling station. Sheep and other livestock were kept on it as they were safer here than on the mainland. Gradually the Dutch morphed it into a prison. It was named Robben (Dutch for seal) Island by the Dutch because of the plethora of seals found there.

Our ship was named after an 11 year old Khoi girl who was “given” to the Dutch to learn to be an interpreter/facilitator for Jan van Riebeeck who settled Cape Town. She was given to Riebeeck by her uncle Autshumato who was a Khoi chieftain. He is thought to be the first prisoner on the island. Krotoa married a Dutch surgeon in a Christian ceremony. She is thought to be the first Khoi to do so. Her husband then became the appointed superintendent for Robben Island where they lived. They couple had three children before he went off to Madagascar to rummage up some slaves to bring back to South Africa. He was killed there while undertaking this task. Krotoa turned to alcohol and ended up being imprisoned on Robben Island for immorality which was totally untrue. Eventually she died there.

Over the course of years, the Dutch imprisoned many people from the East Indies on the island, kings even, who went against them. Of course the East Indies were where the Dutch were getting their slaves so it is no wonder that the kings and leaders were not cooperative. That extended to people of different religious beliefs as well.

When the British took over, they continued the practice of using the island as a prison. African leader Makanda Nxele who led his tribe in the fifth of the Xhosa Wars was sentenced by the British to life imprisonment on the island. He drowned on the shores of Table Bay after escaping the prison. For a while it was also a whaling station but that made it easier for the convicts to escape so the station was closed. In 1812 they decided to use the island as an asylum for the mentally ill and moved the prison to the mainland. Then in 1843 it was used as a lepers’ colony as well as a place for the poor, the chronically ill, and the mentally ill. The conditions for these people on the island were abysmal but it wasn’t until 1931 that the isolation “hospital” was closed down.

During the 1940s it was used as a military complex. The government built new roads and new facilities there. Then in the 1960s, it once again became a prison. During the apartheid era, the government used the island to house political prisoners. It gained international notoriety for the terrible conditions suffered by the prisoners, most of whom were black. All of the big names from the ANC who were arrested ended up here from Walter Sisulu to Nelson Mandela. When Mandela and the others were released, the prison was shut down. After Mandela became president, the new government converted the island into a learning center so that its history would not be forgotten.

Robben Island is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site which I didn’t know. It was given that designation because the buildings on the island are a reminder of its terrible history but they also exemplify the power of the human spirit, freedom and the victory of democracy over oppression. It is a symbol for all of the black and colored people of South Africa of their courageous fight for equality.

Unfortunately our trip ended before the video finished. Doug and I both were hopeful that they would show the remainder on our way back. The video was very interesting and we had learned a great deal from it. But before we could finish the history, we had to see the island itself. And this is where my disappointment with the tour began.

All I can say is that it was a race of masses for the rest of the tour. The 200 people from the ferry crowded into cramped busses. Doug and I got two of the last seats on ours. We were cheek and jowl. It wasn’t pleasant. While touring the island, I couldn’t see anything because I wasn’t sitting at a window. I caught glimpses of what our guide was telling us but that was all.

I know we drove by the Moturu Kramat which was built to commemorate Sayed Abdurahman Moturu, the Prince of Madura. A kramat is a shrine that honors a holy person in Islam, particularly in South Africa. Moturu was one of Cape Town’s first imams. He was imprisoned here in the mid-1740s and died here in 1754. In 1969 the kramat was built and the Muslim political prisoners would pay homage there before leaving the island. I’m sure it looked nice but I couldn’t see much of it.

We drove by the lepers’ cemetery which looked unkempt from what I could see. It seemed sad to me that these people are still treated dismissively. They were victims as much as the political prisoners were. They should be accorded some respect.

I did get to see a tiny slice of the quarry where prisoners spent their days cutting blocks of stone out of the ground. In the center I noticed a pile of rocks. That seemed peculiar. Our guide explained its significance. The maximum security portion of the prison closed in 1991. In 1992 the former prisoners all returned. In the quarry they all placed a rock in the pile in memory of the struggle and what they survived. At least I managed to get a photo of that.

The quarry on Robben Island and memorial rock pile

And that pretty much ended our bus tour for which I was quite grateful. I was tired of being hot and crowded and not being able to see anything. We did have a quick stop for the toilet. There was also a snack shop where you could grab something to eat. Since it was noon, the place was packed so we didn’t even try. We only had ten minutes and the toilet wait took most of that. We walked out of the building just in time to be told we needed to board our bus for the ride to the prison itself.

It was a short drive and then we were there. The prison had a maximum security area and a medium security area which closed five years after the maximum security section. Of course the black political prisoners (there were no white prisoners in there) were all in the maximum section. Short guard towers marked the boundaries of the prison. Our guide informed us that the guards had orders to shoot to kill.

Our bus guide left us here and we joined our new guide who was a former prisoner. All of the people working here actually live on the island. Until 2011 there was even a school here for the children. However, that year they closed it down and now the kids have to take a boat to the mainland. They have a small store, church, post office. It’s like a tiny town.

Our prison guide was Ntando. He had been a member of the militant arm of the ANC. He joined at the age of 19. In 1981 he left the country illegally and received military training. Then he traveled to Germany where he was taught specialized guerrilla warfare. He fought in Soweto and was arrested at 24. Before being sentenced, he spent six months in detention. He didn’t talk about that period of his life much other than to say those six months were worse than all of his years here on Robben Island. After visiting the Apartheid Museum, I could understand that. Blacks held in detention were tortured mercilessly. Many were brutally murdered. They were dehumanized and brutalized. He felt like he was lucky to get out of detention alive as many didn’t. When he was finally sentenced, his term was seven years. The charges against him were leaving and entering the country illegally. He left the prison in 1991 when the maximum security section was closed down. He came back later as a guide.

Ntando took us to the medium security section and sat us down inside one of the bigger rooms. We were all stuffed in around the perimeter. By the time everybody got seated and more chairs and benches brought in, we had way more people than was on our bus. Plus a good 15 minutes were wasted in the little time we had trying to get seats for everybody.

Finally everybody was situated and the tour continued. Ntando showed us a blow-up of what their ID looked like. It stripped the prisoner of their name and turned them into a series of numbers. The first set of numbers designated what number of prisoner the person was that year. The second set of numbers designated the year of imprisonment. Mandela’s number was 466/64 until 1982 when he was transferred. He was the 466th prisoner incarcerated in 1964.

Part of the display was the two blankets each prisoner was given. They could sleep on one and use the other as covers, sleep on both and have no covers, or sleep on the floor and use both as covers. They had no beds until 1969 and were crammed into sleeping areas much like the prison we saw in Johannesburg.

Ntando and the two blankets given to prisoners

It was interesting to note that the colored prisoners and black prisoners were fed different diets. Blacks, who were labeled “Bantu,” were given less meat, no jam or syrup, and less of everything else. It was eye-opening. Neither groups were fed well. I don’t know how they did hard labor with as little as they were given.

Food wasn’t the only difference. Blacks were only given shorts to wear and no shoes. Indians and colored prisoners got long pants and shoes. The goal of this differentiation was to divide and conquer. The Powers-That-Be wanted to make the prisoners fight each other, not the system.

However, to fight the system, on March 4, 1990, 343 prisoners began an 11-day hunger strike. Towards the end of the 11 days Ntando said was too weak to climb the ladder to get into his top bunk. He ended up sleeping on the floor. The strike was sparked by the release of Mandela. The black prisoners were wanting to strengthen the bargaining position of the ANC. It showed unity among the various political movements as they all joined in the hunger strike.

After telling us how he came to be a prisoner here and explaining a bit about the day-to-day life there, Ntando took us over to the maximum security block or B Block. This is where the majority of the high profile political prisoners were kept such as Mandela.

In max security the prisoners each had their own tiny cell with a bucket for a toilet. They didn’t have beds either, just blankets on the floor. There was a tiny table with a tin plate, cup, and spoon. That was it. Austere and mind-numbing. Of course they didn’t spend all day in there like our Death Row prisoners do. They spent all day out in the yard breaking up blocks of rock or in the quarry. I believe they were only allowed to talk with each other during lunch. The warden didn’t want these high powered political prisoners fomenting trouble. However, it was during lunch that they held their political discussions tucked inside a tiny cave out in the quarry.

Walking through B Block was a stark reminder of how grim life was here. There were no niceties like TV or radio although I believe they were allowed books. And if memory serves, they would have family visit all of twice a year. I’m nor sure how often their lawyers could visit. I do know that white lawyers were allowed straight in while black lawyers were searched. It was through a white lawyer that Mandela sneaked out his manuscript for A Long Walk To Freedom. He had it sent to London where it was published. I need to get it and read it.

Of course in our tour group nobody paid any attention to cells other than Mandela’s. It was next to impossible to get a picture of it. Everybody was bunched right in front. I managed to snag a fast partial photo and one through a glass window looking into the cell. I took a picture of another well as well so I could get a better representation of what the cells looked like. Mandela’s was no different except it was his actual items in the cell.

After we walked through the block Ntando led us through the center courtyard and to the gate. Our tour was finished. From here we hustled back down to the dock where the ferry was boarding. We were running late from our tour. We had been told that boarding would begin at 1:45 and the ferry would leave at 2:30. It was now 2:05 and we had to move fast as it was a bit of a walk. I don’t go too fast these days. We made it though with plenty of time. We found a couple of seats together and settled in for the thirty minute ride back to the V&A Waterfront. We were doomed to disappointment on finishing the historical video. They played something else instead. Darn! We’ll never find out that last bit of history.

While we sailed back to the mainland, I reflected on all I had learned about Mandela and his time on Robben Island. I have always thought of Mandela as an older man when he was here doing all of this hard labor but really, he was young. He spent 17 or 18 (I’ve read and heard both) years here before he was sent to Pollsmoor Prison and given the prison number 220/82 . His last year in prison was spent at Victor Verster Prison. Joyce and I actually got to see the outside of the prison the last time we were here on the day we went to Stellenbosch. I’m not sure why Abe didn’t take us there. I’d have rather done that than go to the third wine tasting. Anyway, there is a nice statue of Mandela just outside of the prison. It commemorates his “long walk” to freedom.

Now this is my own personal opinion, but I strongly believe that Mandela’s time in prison helped him become the great leader that he was for the country. It molded him into being the leader that the country needed in its first baby steps as a democracy. I’m not sure anybody else could have done it. And I’m not sure he would have had the wisdom to do it if he hadn’t had those years locked up with his mentor Walter Sisulu. We will never know.

We arrived back at the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront which is named after Queen Victoria and her son Alfred, not her husband Albert, right at 3 PM and our driver was there to meet us. He ushered us through the waterfront and out to his car. By this time I was starving to death. We hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. At the hotel I finished off my leftover chicken from dinner. It was as good as it had been last night. It helped that I was hungry. Doug finished off the bits and pieces we had left over from our two bagged breakfasts.

Around five we enjoyed a beer down in the bar, our favorite afternoon hangout when we are here in the afternoon. Then around 6 we strolled down to the swanky food court we had noticed last night on our way to Spur. It was a yuppy type of food court but it looked good. This way we could each get what we wanted. We had really enjoyed the food courts like this when we were in Malaysia.

We wandered through the big area. I scoped out the gelato shop. It was right at the entrance. Then we wandered around seeing what our options were. You could get everything from burgers to sushi. Doug decided on ribs. I chose the brisket at a different place. While he placed his order, I went to order mine. I was glad I asked if I could pay with my Apple wallet because I was told “No.” They only took cards. My cards were locked in the safe back in the room. Darn! So I went with my second choice which was teriyaki chicken with noodles. There I could pay with my digital credit card.

We found an empty table and were in the middle of eating when the power went for load shedding. They had generators which kicked in almost immediately. However, it did knock out the mics for the band that was playing. It took them a while to get up and going again.

After we finished eating, we strolled through the chaos of the place to get our gelato. As we walked, we noticed many of the food kiosks were dark now. They had no power so had to close. What a horrible way to have to do business. When we got to the gelato shop, they were only partially open. One small freezer had gelato that was available for purchase. Of course the only flavors we wanted were in the freezer that was shut down because of load shedding. Grrrrrr! So we headed to the other ice cream place where they flatten the ice cream and then roll it up like a piece of paper. It was completely dark. At that point I gave up on ice cream.

Doug was still determined so we stopped at a convenience store on the way back to the hotel. They had power but Doug couldn’t tell if the ice cream was chocolate or not. The gentleman working there didn’t speak English so we left empty-handed. We really didn’t need it anyway 🙂

Tomorrow is our last full day here in South Africa. To be honest, I am ready to go home. It has been a wonderful trip but I’m ready to watch TV with Sam and drink my morning latte with Leia on my lap. It’s the small things I miss when I’m gone. But tomorrow we have our last hurrah. We are going to do the Hop On, Hop Off bus and a free walking tour downtown. No early wake-up which works for me and mostly a laid-back day.

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Tales from the Trail

World Travel and Adventures

Monthly Archives: October 2022

DAY 8: BARCELONA & EMBARKING THE CORINTHIAN: IN SEARCH OF DON QUIXOTE

DAY 7: FIGUERES, SPAIN: IN SEARCH OF DON QUIXOTE

DAY 6: BARCELONA: PARK GUELL, SAGRADA FAMILIA, LA RAVAL: IN SEARCH OF DON QUIXOTE

DAY 5: TRAVELING TO BARCELONA, SPAIN: IN SEARCH OF DON QUIXOTE

DAY 4: MADRID, SPAIN: IN SEARCH OF DON QUIXOTE

DAY 3: MADRID, SPAIN: IN SEARCH OF DON QUIXOTE

DAYS 1 & 2: TRAVELING TO MADRID, SPAIN: IN SEARCH OF DON QUIXOTE

DAY 40 & 41: LAST DAY IN CAPE TOWN & TRAVELING HOME: I DREAM OF AFRICA

DAY 39: HOP ON, HOP OFF BUS IN CAPE TOWN: I DREAM OF AFRICA

DAY 38: ROBBEN ISLAND, CAPE TOWN: I DREAM OF AFRICA