30th June

Last day of June, last day of the financial yr, only 7 more days left in Europe.  We checked out eartly and caught a taxi to the station.  I’m feeling quite fragile after little sleep with fever and chills.  Had to find a blanket at 3am and then double it over at 4am even though the temp in the room reads 24 deg.  Not sure what is wrong but after a sleep on the train I do start to improve.  Can’t tell you a thing about the trip, I missed most of it.  We checked in to the Barcelo Costa Vasco Hotel then in the afternoon caught a bus to the city centre and orientated ourselves.  Once again there is an old centre (Parte Vieja) that was once surrounded by walls and then the newer part that has grown up around it.  We did a discovery walk through the old centre where we found narrow streets filled with bars and shops, the beautiful Constitution Square(with all its numbered balconies for the days when it doubled as a bullring) and a number of churches.  We left Sandy watching local kids playing 5-a-side soccer in the square and continued up Monte Urgull which gave us great viewpoints of the bay below.  On the way up is the 12^th century Mota Castle which once provided the town’s defence and at the very top is the imposing Sacred Heart Monument.  After the challenge of walking that hill we look for refreshment and discover San Sebastian is the home of Pintxo bars (I still don’t know how to pronounce that).  It’s developed as a Basque version of tapas where the bar is laden with quite complex finger food and you select what you want; stuffed smoked salmon rolls with roasted peppers, goats cheese with caramelised onion, etc. There are more than 20 different selections on offer at every bar.  Very yummy!  But we are looking for a real dinner after not really eating properly all day and we cannot find a restaurant in the whole place – just more and more pintxo bars.  Eventually we leave the old area and find what we are looking for, then catch the bus back to the hotel. 

29th June

Our last day in Madrid.  Eric and Sandy head to the very opulent Royal Palace while I go to Atocha Renfe Station to buy the train tickets for tomorrow’s trip to San Sebastian and we plan to meet up later in Plaza Mayor.  We had agreed to travel on the 1pm train but the only seats available are on the 8am one so it will be an early start in the morning.  I caught the metro to Plaza de Colon and then walked down the centre of Paseo de Recoletos, a wide boulevard with a central walkway where there is a great public art display, cafes and shady Plane trees, to Plaza de Cibeles.  I know this busy intersection, it’s the 5 lane roundabout Eric had to negotiate a few days ago.   From here I tried to contact Eric to say I was on my way to Pza Mayor but discovered my phone had died.  What are the chances I’ll be able to bump into him in this city of more than 6 million people?  Not good.  So to console myself I explored the shops between Puerta del Sol and Pza Mayor, then headed home to recharge the phone.  I found Eric had arrived just 10 mins before me, so in fact there was a chance we could have bumped into each other, each taking photos of the beautiful facades, artists and living statues who perform  in the square, but it didn’t happen.  We ventured out in the local neighbourhood for lunch then Eric got a haircut.  He certainly got good value for money; I’ve never seen it so short, even in the RAAF days.  Then we spent the afternoon watching Tomic play Djokovic in the Wimbledon QFs.  He did well.

In the evening we all went back to Peurta del Sol to see Carmen performed as a Flanenco ballet.  When we booked we thought we were going to another straight flamenco show but this turned out to be the complete Carmen story performance.  It was not what we expected but none the less very passionate and professional. After dinner in the area we made our way home and packed for an early start tomorrow. 

28th June

While Sandy took a train to Toledo we headed to Puerta del Sol which is the absolute centre of the radial road network that makes up the city.  Every New Year there is a terrific crowd here as this is where the official clock chimes the hour for eating of 12 grapes to mark the New Year, a tradition we took part in many years ago when we had a Mexican exchange student sharing our camp on the Murray River. She convinced us we also had to shoot tequila, no mention of that here in the guidebooks. There is also a fairly small statue of a bear and a tree which is the heraldic symbol of Madrid, but we found it a bit hard to find amid the protesters’ camp and lots of people and shops in the area.  We checked out another Flamenco Show schedule and some shops then caught the metro to Plaza de Espana where I bought a hat to replace the one I lost in Italy at a small market. There’s also a fabulous bronze statue of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, a tribute to Saavedra, the famous Spanish author, poet and playright. 

We crossed the road and walked through the gardens to the Temple of Debod , an ancient Egyptian temple which once stood near Aswan but was gifted to Madrid after Spain helped save some of the monuments and archeological sites when the Great Dam of Aswan was constructed in 1960.  All the internal walls are etched with Egyptian carvings which include the Roman Emperors Augustus and Tiberius.

After lunch we visited the Museo del Prado, considered to be among the world’s greatest museums and with the finest collection of European art.  It is massive! The collection contains around 7,600 paintings and 1,000 sculptures, not to mention the drawings and prints.  I’m overwhelmed by the number of galleries to visit even though they have dispensed with any artworks later than the 19^th century.  I retire to the cafe for a cup of tea while Eric continues to the next floor. 

On our way home we wandered through a small portion of Park del Retiro. A park dedicated to the retirees of Madrid with a lake, kiosks and tables for playing chess, dominoes and cards.  Beautifully laid out with shady tress and walkways but it’s a bit too hot to enjoy this afternoon.  One last stop on our way home was to admire the CaixaForum post-modern art gallery, just from the outside.  It is an interesting building which appears to float above the ground, the rusted red top floors contrasting with the green of a vertical garden bordering the square.  Once home we immediately turn on the air-conditioning and relish the cool shower.  We went to the lively Chueca district for dinner and finished with a mystery nightcap they offered us. Their only explanation was that it was herbal???? 

 

27th June

After a great sleep we woke early, eager to see if anyone was available to chat on Skype.  Just to add to our continuing frustration with technology since we left home we couldn’t sign in until I had uninstalled and reinstalled the program.  By now it is time to head out for breakfast and ride one circuit on the touristica bus.   We found this helped us get our bearings in Barcelona but this one is not so clearly marked on the very sketchy map so it wasn’t really that helpful.  It did take us past most of the beautiful landmarks in the city though which were lovely to see from the open top deck in the morning sunshine.  We are astounded by how many beautiful buildings and sculptures adorn this city.  The last picture in this post was the post office, how beautiful is that?  We have circled the points of interest; shopping areas, museums, parks and palace etc for return visits. While Sandy then went shopping Eric and I headed towards the Museo del Prado but unfortunately it is closed one day of the week.  Guess what, that would be Mondays!  Not to worry the beautiful, but very formal, Botanic Gardens are next door so we ambled through them and on to Museo Reina Sophia.  This is regarded as the city’s best contemporary art museum.  We particularly appreciated how cool it was inside this old building that began life as a hospital in the 1700s.  Outside in the square it is well over 30 degrees already.  We saw works by Picasso, Dali and Kandinsky to name a few.  Time passed quickly and by 2:45 we are well and truly ready for lunch. We certainly are getting used to the Spanish daily meal times. 

We had planned to meet up with Sandy at 5pm to do the second loop on the tour bus but due to the poor layout of the map we missed each other and just decided to each do it separately and meet up after.  Perhaps we should have done it even later because at 5:30 it was 38 degrees!  Too hot to enjoy!  Once we had completed the lap we headed for the cooler subway and home for a cold shower and refreshment.   We returned to the streets at about 9pm to find dinner and ended up down near Atocha Station again.  Food and wine are still amazingly cheap by our standards.

26th June

We packed up this morning and for the first time thought it was a good thing Sandy was without her bags as it made the trip to Madrid more comfortable in our little car.  I’m not sure we would have all fitted in!  I drove the first leg - a stategic move that meant Eric copped the busy Madrid end. Barcelona was enough for me last week.  While it was a pity to be leaving Juseu and its million dollar views we are looking forward to new adventures.  Not to mention Sandy being eager to reconnect with her luggage!  Our trip on the A2 highway skirted Huesca and Zaragoza and after 5 hrs we arrived in Madrid.  The drive was really interesting, the countryside changing continually but reminding us of open spaces, landscapes and colours of Broken Hill, Coober Pedy etc.  We passed lots of statues of bulls all the way and many wind farms too.  With about 10 mins to go to our final destination at Atocha Station the GPS (commonly referred to as Felicia to this point) ran out of battery power – cigarette lighter fuse was gone - and we were in deep shit (pardon).  Felicia let us down badly at the critical stage and language was not polite. The quick thinking Sandy used her smartphone mobile to access maps, pinpoint our location and direct us to the destination.  Thank goodness! And Eric navigated his way through some pretty torrid intersections including one roundabout where we had to go left with 5 lanes of traffic flowing.  How good it felt not to be behind the wheel!
At check in to the Catalonia Atocha Hotel we found Sandy’s luggage had been delivered. At last! It has been six days and she has coped amazingly well.  After unpacking in this pretty flash hotel (love the lobby) we had a quick bite of lunch then checked out the big Atocha Railway Station nearby where the car needed to be returned.  It was a relief to think our driving days were over.  While we couldn’t have done without a car this last week it has always been a bit of a challenge driving here, so now we can relax and just be passengers again on buses, trains and planes.

This evening we ate at a local restaurant and then returned to our rooms to catch up online with email, news – and blogs of course. 

25th June

Oh dear!  Might have tried too hard to empty the Sangria bottle last night.  Needed to stay in bed a little longer today until my head feels better.  This morning light is so strong!  While it is hard to sleep in we are blessed with another crystal clear view of the mountains.   We opted out of the usual morning walk and made a joint decision not to drive to Serraduy to eat dinner at the Michellen rated restaurant as planned last night.  As it turned out we had to rush to Graus to get more supplies before the shops shut at 1pm.  That’s how slow our morning was.  We are eating up all the leftovers now as tomorrow we move on to Madrid.  Each day as we head off out of town we have been dropping our rubbish in the bins and it gets embarrassing when all the bottles smash so loudly.  We keep thinking the locals must understand we are’ the Australians’, a rare thing here in Juseu.  We spent the afternoon either on the bed, in the rock room or in the garden room.  All positions offered cool, horizontal options in the heat of the day.  I did try twice today to get in to the church with its very special ceiling but locating the ‘key’ is too difficult as none of the locals speak any English although they do try to be helpful.  Including the lovely gentleman pictured below who was so pleased when we eventually established I was not a Hollander but an Australian.  Apparently my pronunciation of ‘llave’ (Spanish for key) isn’t even close.   

In the evening Weip and Kees joined us on our porch for drinks.  They have had a lovely break for a few days on the coast with their 10yr old son Milan.  We shared all our recent experiences; lost luggage, ant invasion in the kitchen, bird observations, visits to local towns in the region and explained how the ladder came to be in the rock room.  Eric and Sandy are now playing a very competitive game of Yatzee so I might just finish my blog. 

24th June

Woke to a lovely sunrise that developed into a clear sky, we can see the glaciers and snow again on the far horizon.  We are very conscious that all our colleagues in the NT are just finishing week 11 at school and about to start their holidays.  Walked on the salt trail towards Aguinaliu for about an hour in the morning and then retraced our steps home for breakfast.  Later we drove to this village, called the eagle nest because apparently it has an amazing village centre surrounded by ‘hanging houses’, but we didn’t find anything we hadn’t already seen in the other villages.  We drove on to Lake Baranosa Resort for lunch on the shores via La Puebla de Castro. The menu was simple – hamburgers, but that was fine on this sunny afternoon watching the other tourists sunbaking and canoeing.  At one point I did overhear myself call out “Look , 2 great tits” but I was referring to the feathered kind in the trees nearby, not the sunbathers. In either case, Eric responded as expected.

We reached Graus too early to buy groceries, the shops don’t re-open until after 5pm, so Sandy and Eric got ‘online’ at Lleida Hotel, while I walked up to the Basilica of the Virgin of La Pena, an imposing Gothic-Renaissance style temple built on a big rock called Pena del Morral. From here you overlook the township and rivers.  On my way back to meet them I found Plaza Mayor with its beautiful 19^th century painted facades so I encouraged the other 2 to move here, they were pretty frustrated with the wi-fi (locally referred to as wiffy) here anyway.  We sat outdoors at the Casa del Baron Restaurant, for drinks until the shops re-opened.  With another boot-load of food and wine we returned to our Casa for dinner and later another game or two of cards.  While we have loved it here we are all looking forward to having better access to wi-fi in Madrid.

23rd June

We had to move in off the patio last night because it started to rain, it was only gentle but later there was also thunder and lightning when we went to bed.  We played some hands of ‘Ricketty Kate’ but it is probably best left unmentioned....  The morning was overcast but good walking weather so we tried again to find the trail to abandoned Castatlenas.   With helpful gestures and commands of ‘directo’  from locals this time we found the right road and drove within about a half hr walk.  It was very pleasant to be cool while we walked and thrilled to spot partridge to add to our bird list.  The village is all ruins; looks like it was deserted 100 yrs ago but apparently the last 8 inhabitants left only in the 70s.  There is no evidence of power or town water supply here so life would have been pretty rustic by general standards of the day.  How quickly things fall to rack and ruin when not inhabited.  Spotted some lovely old tiles that would look good at Casa Arriba but thought better of bringing them back (one ladder is enough).  When we were at Barcelona looking at all the frescoes and painted altar pieces in the museum I was wondering where they were all from.  Why were they not in churches?  Now I think I know.  Every small village has at least one church, chapel or hermitage and once the village is abandoned the valuable relics would be desecrated or stolen.   This parish church was 16^th century. 

While we have been away Sandy has organised for her bags to be delivered to Madrid so she should be reunited with them on Sunday.  After watering the plants at Kees and Weips we drove to Barbastro  for lunch at our ‘local’ where the waiters know us.  Again we order something different from the menu and enjoyed it.  We drove to Alquezar which is built above a canyon with spectacular views from streets leading up to the imposing castle.   An Egyptian vulture (new sighting), was soaring over the canyon keeping an eye on everything that moves, including the boat-loads of tourists who were traipsing up the steps to the village from the floor of the canyon after white water rafting .  On the way home we called in to Barbastro to check out the shops, as they reopened about 5pm, but didn’t find them very inspiring.  A tasty potato and leek soup was all we needed for dinner.

22nd June

Well we woke to sunny skies, no sign of rain so we walked the beginning of the trail to Torres del Obispo.  It’s 2 hrs each way so we just did the first hr and then returned. It took us down to the valley floor and across the creek, we passed a number of drystone ruins and heard lots of birds in the dense trees, but mostly we couldn’t find them.  I did find an orchardist’s ladder by the side of the track at one point, must have fallen off a trailer sometime.  Seemed to me someone should make good use of it; so I carried it all the way home even though it was almost all uphill.  Eric thought I was mad but it looks good in the rock room.  Very authentic.

 When we got home we were greeted with the news that Sandy’s bags have been found.  Thank goodness!  But, they are going to send them to her Australian address!  Not much help.  Throughout the day she has been trying to establish how they can get them to us but they don’t accept our address and tomorrow is a bank holiday so apparently there are no couriers and all this means I don’t think we can get the bags until Monday - but we won’t be here by then.  What a saga!

Not to waste the day getting frustrated we drove to Roda de Isabena, another old village where there was once a monastery, now converted into a restaurant.  The whole village appears to be being restored and the restaurant had a lovely atmosphere.  It had been recommended by Kees and he suggested pork and chocolate sauce which sounds outrageous but you have to try these things once.  It was quite nice but rich and I haven’t eaten a thing since.  Once we returned home it was straight to the sun room for a relaxing read and siesta - as you do.