September 18, 1997 to September 21, 1997
Driving from Barcelona to Madrid
We cycled from our room to the Avis office on Friday morning to pick up our car - a nearly new station wagon, which easily accommodated our bikes much to my relief - and began our drive to Madrid. Our original concept had included a stopover in Toledo, but after much debate we dropped this plan in the interest of simplifying the trip and slowing down the pace a bit.
We drove north, first on the autobahn (which, we were surprised to discover, is an expensive alternative - costing I think about $7/hour at 120 km/hour); and then switched to quieter, less traveled and much more interesting secondary highways. From Zaragoza we took an indirect route to Madrid, through Tudela, west to the Duoro valley, and then southwest through Guadelahara to Madrid. We stopped over for the night in Almazan, a small, attractive town on the Duoro, at a quite elegant hotel. We enjoyed a short walk from the hotel across the river to the ramparts of a castle ruins on the opposite shore, and then returned for a shamefully large Spanish supper.
The drive from there to Madrid was especially attractive. Once away from the river, the road passes through quite mountainous terrain, with ridges topped by decaying old castles, and the valleys brightened by fields of sunflowers and other late summer crops. I was glad to get to see it, but also glad we hadn't chosen to tour it by bike - facilities are few and far between in this region.
Madrid is a madhouse when entered by car without an adequate map. We spent a stressful half hour or so working our way toward the city core, after which we fairly quickly located the Avis office. Happily we were barely in time to leave off the vehicle before the offce closed for the day at noon. Fortunately we were only a few blocks away from the hostale at which we had reservations; but unfortunately they weren't expecting us. I was met by blank stares at this place when we arrived, so we pounded the pavement and suffered three more rejections until finally succeeding in finding lodging for the next two nights.
Notes from our stay in Madrid:
- we walked to the Prado on Saturday afternoon, seeing our fill of Velasquez, Goya and El Greco - as well, of course, as the Garden of Delights and Breugel's harrowing Triumph of Death.
- On Sunday we briefly visited the Reina Sophia museum, famous primarily for housing Picasso's Guernica; but also having an intriguing collection of Dali creations.
- On Saturday night, for one of the highlights of our trip, we enjoyed an evening of flamenco. We stumbled on this site after fruitlessly hunting down all three of the venues mentioned in our guidebook, none of which seemed to still be active. Everything about the evening was terrific. We didn't miss a move or a twirled skirt from our front row seats.
- I lost my bike gloves in the course of searching for an open hostale. They must have fallen out of my helmet as I walked my bike down the avenue.
- We had an enjoyable tapas meal: pataes bravas, a shrimp-based conglomoration of some sourt, and a brochette.
- We saw a great film, for Love of Rosanna: dialog was in English, subtitles in Spanish, and filmed in Italy. We learned quite a lot about Spanish film theater customs: sit in the assigned seats, and tip the attendant!
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 0 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |