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Spain, Rhine & Danube

September - October 2019
A 39-day adventure by Spydah Read more
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  • SpydahSpain, Rhine & Danube
    Day 1

    Getting there. Part 1

    September 11, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    We thought that the 2017 trip would be our last major overseas expedition, but here we are again, still healthy enough to travel and continuing (with their encouragement) to spend the kids’ inheritance. Yes, a SKI Holiday.
    Aside from packing, the worst thing about these trips are the to/from flights. That said, the flights went according to plan. The Emirates flight took off at 2100hrs as scheduled, and we were lucky enough to score a spare seat alongside us for the first leg to Dubai. As we discovered last time, DBX is a soulless place. It was a brisk 20 minute walk between gates, but since we had three hours to kill, that wasn’t a problem.    Read more

  • SpydahSpain, Rhine & Danube
    Day 2

    Getting there. Part 2

    September 12, 2019 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    We landed at Madrid as scheduled, but then had to find our way to Toledo, some 50km away. According to Mr Google nothing could be simpler. Jump on a train from the airport to Madrid’s Atocha station then get a high-speed train from there to Toledo. That’s fine, except when you discover that a key tunnel is closed for six months due to a network upgrade and you have to change trains just to reach the city. Fortunately there were plenty of helpful railway staff around to get us (literally) on the right track. Aside from a 90-minute wait at Atocha for the Toledo train, it all went to plan. The Spanish trains are very modern, and are certainly the smoothest and quietest that we’ve ever experienced.
    We’d seen advertising signs for Uber everywhere at the airport and the railway stations, but when we tried to call one up at Toledo station a message appeared saying that the service was unavailable in the area. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be too many taxis around either, so we decided we’d leg it. The area was flat and Google Maps told us that our hotel was only 1.4km away. The first 1km was easy, a nice flat run, but that’s when we discovered a serious shortcoming of Google Maps. It gives linear distances but provides no clue as to how far one has to move in the vertical plane. The weather was quite muggy, and that last 0.4km up a steep cobblestoned road wasn’t a heap of fun with our backpacks and suitcases, We were happy to finally reach our hotel. Later, on discovering that most of the hotels were some distance further up the hill, we realised that we’d been comparatively fortunate. By that stage we hadn’t seen a bed for about 48 hours and had managed just a few hours of not very deep sleep on the flights. We decided that overall we’d handled things pretty well.
    After unpacking, showering and snoozing we headed out for dinner. Brian decided to try a couple of the local specialties, so had a soup-like entree contains beans and partridge followed by some venison. Mary’s choices were a little less successful, but both of us were more interested in hitting the sack and catching up on our sleep.    Read more

  • SpydahSpain, Rhine & Danube
    1
    Day 3

    Henry Higgins lied

    September 13, 2019 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    By the morning of our first full day on terra firma we were ready for some serious sightseeing. The old city ofToledo is certainly picturesque, with many interesting and attractive historic buildings. According to the Henry Higgins character in Pygmalion (and My Fair Lady) the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain. Well, it certainly didn’t for us. After the previous muggy day, the weather changed overnight to give us a grey, overcast showery day. Still, we weren’t going to let that slow us down so we headed up the hill - the hill that we’d largely avoided having to haul our luggage up - to explore the old walled town.
    We couldn’t help comparing it with Carcassonne in Southern France which we’d stayed in two years ago. Both are ancient walled cities, each on the top of a steep hill, but there the similarity ends. Toledo has an incredible rat’s nest maze of really narrow streets, and is far less touristy than its French counterpart. The shops and restaurants cater more to the locals than they do to the tourists, which for us was a plus. One downside though is that few people speak more than just a smattering of English. We tried to rely on Google Maps for our navigation but it struggled to work reliably in the area so we found ourselves doing a bit of backtracking each time that we tried to walk between any two places. Nevertheless we found the place interesting and enjoyable. The lady at the local Tourist Bureau had given us a map showing many interesting places to visit and it was clear that we weren’t going to get round all of them in the time available.
    We started with the Museum of the Visigoths Council and Culture, which covered a significant period of 12th century history which neither of us had known anything about, Evidently, Toledo had been the centre of the Visigoth movement, and we learnt a lot from the visit. We then visited the impressive Toledo Cathedral, built between 1226 and 1493. Even by normal cathedral standards it’s a huge building, especially in its width. Even though there were a lot of visitors at the time that we were there, the massive space didn’t seem at all crowded. We were each issued with an electronic tour guide, but after a very interesting 90 minutes or so we were both staring to flag, so we cut out the last 1/3 or so of the tour.
    After a some rest back at the hotel we had recovered enough energy to face the world sgain. At about 8pm it was still light and we headed back up the hill on the 10 minute or so trek to the old town. The place was jam packed, with what appeared to be mainly local families doing their shopping and dining out. We found a friendly local restaurant where Mary had a paella entree and a local beef main course while Brian enjoyed an excellent Toledan salad containing local ham, orange and other assorted goodies followed by the house specialty, a pork and tomato dish. It was accompanied by an excellent local red. We’ve enjoyed all the local wines that we’ve tried, and have found food and drink prices to be very reasonable, about half of what we’d be paying at home.    Read more

  • SpydahSpain, Rhine & Danube
    Day 4

    Another marvellous day in Toledo

    September 14, 2019 in Spain ⋅ 🌧 17 °C

    The weather seemed to have improved a bit, so we headed out towards the old Jewish quarter which contains a number of interesting places we’d been recommended to visit. Our starting point was the Synagogue of Santa Maria la Bianca, hardly a traditional name for a synagogue one might think. It was built in the 12th century but in the 15th century it became a church. One can imagine the turmoil which led to that change, but it does explain the name. The building itself is impressive with Moorish architectural influences, but the displays inside the building weren’t all that interesting. Furthermore, no English language translations were available, which made it hard for us to understand the history of the place.

    A couple of hundred metres along the road was the Sephardic Museum, aka the Synagogue of El Transito, which we also visited. That was far more interesting and we were provided with sheets containing English language translations, which made the visit far more interesting and relevant.

    Finally, we visited the El Greco Museum. The 16th century painter is a favourite son of Toledo. At first the building was thought to have been El Greco’s own house but more recent research suggests otherwise. Even though it is located in the same short stretch of street as the two synagogues, El Greco certainly wasn’t Jewish. Many of his paintings have religious themes centred around Christ and his disciples. For us it was a very interesting and worthwhile visit.

    By this time, which was mid-afternoon, the wet weather had really set in. Fortunately we had brollies and other wet weather gear but it took us a good half hour to get back to the hotel where we could dry ourselves out. The cobblestones are really slippery when they’re wet, so we were walking very carefully on the steep streets.

    With it being so wet we decided to eat dinner nearby rather than venture back up the hill in the pouring rain. The place we chose was pleasant enough though we got a bit of a laugh from the fact that all the dishes, no matter what else they contained, came with chips. Hardly a traditional Spanish style. We are deliberately avoiding tuning into any news from Australia or any mother part of the world, but purely by chance we discovered that there has been flooding in northern Spain. Clearly we were on the very edge of it, so can count ourselves lucky that what we experienced was fairly minor.    Read more

  • SpydahSpain, Rhine & Danube
    Day 5

    "We operate every day of the year"

    September 15, 2019 in Spain ⋅ 🌧 20 °C

    Oh no, you don’t, but more of that in a moment. Originally we were planning to forget about Madrid and concentrate our efforts on Toledo. Somehow though it seemed all wrong to have come all this way and to have seen nothing more of Madrid than the airport and a couple of railway stations. The Madrid weather forecast was for a possible thunderstorm but otherwise fine throughout the day. We decided to risk it by heading to the capital on the wonderful high-speed train then getting tickets on the hop-on, hop-off bright red double-decker buses which every attractive city in the world seems to have these days.

    The helpful lady at the tourist information centre at Atocha Station (Madrid’s equivalent of Melbourne’s Spencer Street) told us exactly where the ticket kiosk was and gave us a brochure which included a map showing all the hop-on, hop-off bus stops. We emerged from the station only to find the main roads barricaded off and hundreds of police everywhere. The footpaths were crowded with happy Madrid citizens enjoying a Sunday afternoon in the city. So, what about the bus tours? Despite the first sentence of the brochure clearly stating that the tours operate every single day of the year, it’s clear that it wasn’t the case for Sunday 15 September 2019. Apparently there had been some big bike race around all of Spain, and it was finishing right there and then in the centre of Madrid.

    Undaunted, we decided that we’d simply go to the Prado Museum instead. That was, until we saw the queue to get in. It was several hundred metres long and we weren’t going to be a part of that. Bike races aside, it seems that there are always big crowds in Madrid on a Sunday, made up mainly of family groups. While we were disappointed initially, the day certainly wasn’t a disaster. We wandered round, walking several kilometres admiring the interesting architecture and the interesting shops, The food shops especially grab Brian’s attention. There are shops specialising in ham of various types while others have amazing cakes, bread and sweets. By the end of the afternoon we were convinced that Madrid definitely requires a return visit. We can hardly wait.

    As a footnote, we happened to see quite a few of the cyclists heading down one of the major avenues at very high speed. They were largely ignored by the general population who were more interested in the shopping, strolling and museum visiting. Clearly they had better things to do with their time too.    Read more

  • SpydahSpain, Rhine & Danube
    Day 6

    Toledo-Granada, a potentially hairy ride

    September 16, 2019 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Brian was always apprehensive about this part. A different car - a manual at that - a foreign country, the wrong side of the road and a long trip. What could possibly go wrong? The good thing was that we’d faced this challenge several times previously in France, Portugal and Israel so knew what to expect. We collected the Skoda Octavia from Europcar in Toledo mid-morning and headed off towards Granada, The major worry comes from Brian’s tendency to steer too close to the right-hand side of the road and risk either going into the dirt or having Mary remind Brian that we’re headed straight for a line of parked cars.

    We were lucky this time as we were setting off on fairly quiet four-lane highways, which provided a good opportunity to get used to the aforementioned challenges. Something we commented on when we drove previously in Portugal was the excellent lane discipline shown by all motorists. Everyone sticks to the nearside lane unless overtaking slower traffic. They signal well before they pull out, and the moment they pass the slower vehicle they signal and then dive back into the nearside lane. Sometimes you almost feel as though they’re cutting you off, but it’s far less frustrating than having to contend with the poor lane discipline and stupidity of so many Australian drivers.

    The first half of the 390km drive was through flat countryside, but as we headed further south it gave way to quite hilly terrain. We couldn’t believe how many olive trees there are. There were lengthy periods when all we could see nothing but olive trees stretching in all directions to the horizon.

    Eventually we reached the Hotel Porcel Alixares, which we’d booked in for four nights. It’s a couple of kilometres outside the city centre but only a couple of hundred metres from the Alhambra Palace, which is why we chose it. Our room is a very generous size and the hotel itself is beautiful. It was just after we’d checked in that we were met with two unexpected challenges. The first was in the form of an email from Vuelling, the airline which was supposed to be taking us from Barcelona to Amsterdam on 24 September. They were informing us of a threatened strike of ground handling staff on 21 to 24 September and suggested that we might care to change our flight to another date while there was the opportunity. We therefore pushed it back by a day to the 25th, which means an extra day at the parador just outside Barcelona and one day fewer in Amsterdam. In the typical “heads you lose, tails we win” world of travel we have to pay quite a bit extra in Barcelona but don’t get a refund for the unused night in Amsterdam. Ah well.

    Challenge number two arose when we tried to book tickets for the Alhambra. By government decree it seems, daily visitor numbers are restricted. That’s sensible enough, except that we didn’t know. The hotel staff were very understanding and tried hard to book us on an escorted tour, but they too are fully sold out There are no tickets of any sort available until early November...except for one thing. On the stroke of midnight each night any cancellations get released to the website for online bookings. It seems though that they get taken up literally within a few seconds. Brian set his alarm on the first night and tried to make a booking but was unsuccessful. All he achieved was a broken night’s sleep. The hotel staff have suggested that he come down to the foyer each night that we’re here at about 1145pm and they will try to make the bookings. Evidently this is a nightly routine for them, so watch this space.    Read more

  • SpydahSpain, Rhine & Danube
    Day 7

    We explore Granada

    September 17, 2019 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    We decided to do a bit of a wander on foot to get to know Granada but then came across a little hop-on, hop-off train which takes tourists round the key spots of the city. Most major cities offer either the little trains or the bright re double-decker buses. Quite on the spur of the moment, and since we definitely weren’t going to be seeing the palace, at least on this day, we decided it was a good way to get a feel for the city. As it turned out we hopped off after a couple of stops, wandered round for a bit then hopped on for a second short ride. After that, we did it all on foot including the long steep climb back to our hotel.

    While there are a few interesting buildings to be seen and a lot of attractive small squares and parks, we weren’t as inspired by Granada as we had been by Toledo and Madrid. Alhambra Palace is the only show in town and we really hope that we can score tickets, though our chances appear quite slim.

    That night we decided that, rather than eat at the hotel we’d try and scout out a restaurant somewhere nearby. There weren’t a lot of close by and we didn’t fancy the steep walk down towards the city and then the stagger home afterwards. Purely by chance we stumbled across Jardinas Albertos just a couple of hundred metres away, and it was outstanding! A great outdoor dining area, impeccable service and fantastic tasty food. They offer some traditional Nasrid dishes, and ordered the chicken and the lamb, both of which were outstanding. The chicken is described as: “Chicken Medallions Stuffed with Spinach Nuts, and Honey Sauce with Rice and Sauteed Vegetables.,” and very flavoursome it is too. Mary’s lamb dish is, “Oven Baken Sliced Lamb Leg with Fried Breadcrumbs Baby Green Peppers and Yogurt Sauce,” and is every bit as good as it sounds. It wasn’t the cheapest meal we’ve had since we’ve been away but it was definitely the best. We might even get back for a return visit before we leave.    Read more

  • SpydahSpain, Rhine & Danube
    Day 8

    Further afield

    September 18, 2019 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    Our day started at midnight, well actually a few minutes before. As mentioned earlier, what happens is that on the stroke of midnight each night any cancelled tickets to Alhambra Palace get released online and there’s then a mad scramble for people to grab them. Knowing that he’d missed out the previous night, the reception staff recommended to Brian that he front up at the front desk at about 2345hrs with our passports and the hotel staff would do what they could to help us. Brian set the alarm for 2340hrs and woke from a beautiful deep sleep to head down to reception. The night manager told Brian that he was second in line and that a French gentleman had arrived there a few minutes previously. Anyway, from midnight on the manager kept refreshing the web page when suddenly a couple of minutes later some seats suddenly became available for 19 September. The manager ordered four tickets and then proceeded to fill in all the information - passport details and much more that the authorities require - for the four of us.

    That’s when we hit a snag. Spain has dual verification for all internet credit card transactions. So, when someone tries to make a payment they receive a one-time code on their mobile phone. That code then has to be keyed into the merchant’s website before the transaction can be completed. The problem was that neither the Frenchman’s credit card nor Brian’s was set up for such a system. The night manager then very kindly offered to make the payment from his personal card and we would then give him the cash. All that was fine, he completed the payment details and received the code. He then tried to enter the code, whereupon the transaction bombed out. We think that he may have been a bit slow in typing all the details and that our tickets got snaffled by someone else. Brian was willing to try the same routine again the following night but wasn’t at all hopeful. There it may well have ended.

    In the morning, headed back from breakfast, we were walking past the reception desk when Mary said,”Why don’t we talk to the staff and see if they can help.” Brian didn’t think much of the idea but agreed to give it a go. Amazingly, the website showed tickets available for every time slot on 19 September Again, it was necessary for the clerk to use his own personal credit card and Brian immediately repaid him the 40 euros in cash. We felt like we’d won the Lotto. Brian’s theory is that the various airline strikes in Europe have caused some groups to cancel, thus making places available to the likes of us. If so, thank you strikers and keep up the good work.

    Feeling quite thrilled we decided to head off for the day in our rental car and explore the Spanish countryside. We decided to head for Almeria, a town 170km away on the Mediterranean coast which is described as well worth a visit. Heading south from Granada, the scenery is outstanding with spectacular outlines of rugged mountains for most of the trip. It is a really good four-lane highway, with some really steep climbs and descents. It skirts the Sierra Nevada national park, and if we’d had enough time we’d like to have explored the region a bit more. Despite all this, we didn’t manage to get any photos en route, though we certainly enjoyed the scenic drive very much. Firstly, the air was somewhat hazy, smoggy even, and secondly those wonderful roads don’t offer any lay-bys where one can safely pull over and take in the scenery.

    Reaching Almeira, we managed to cause a minor traffic jam while Brian tried to parallel park our left-hand drive car in a steep narrow side street. Aside from that, Brian had managed to get beeped at only twice when trying to navigate complicated roundabouts, so he reckoned that he was well on the way to being able to drive like a local rather than like a tourist.

    Almeira is a beautiful port town, with very attractive parks alongside the port and beach front. It was quite warm and there were a few people in swimming. If we’d thought to bring our togs we’d have happily joined them. Even so, it was great to relax there and just take in the atmosphere of the place. The waterfront park contains a large number of mature trees from all round the world, and we were admiring some especially spectacular specimens when we discovered that they were in fact fig trees from good old Australia!

    After a few hours, we decided to head home, this time taking the longer Mediterranean coastal highway to complete a grand circuit back to Granada. We have to say, that route was a bit disappointing. Even though the sea was visible for much of the trip, the air was really smoggy, which greatly detracted from the views. We got back to the hotel in the late afternoon, more than ready for a couple of drinks, the hotel buffet, and all this followed by an early night. In the two days that we have used the rental car, we’ve covered 750km, which has given us a great chance to see the landscape of southern Spain.    Read more

  • SpydahSpain, Rhine & Danube
    11
    Day 9

    Alhambra, the only show in town

    September 19, 2019 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    We made it! Let it be recorded that at 1030 on Thursday 19 September we managed to visit the Alhambra. Was it worth it? Most certainly.
    The grounds and out-buildings are open to the public any time and they are well worth a visit, but the royal palaces are the cream on the cake. As we hadn’t been able to score a guided tour we found an English-speaking guided group and tried nonchalantly to tune in to what their guide was saying. That was easier said than done because tour guides these days don’t have to speak loudly. They’re equiped with microphones and the bone fide tour group members all wear receivers with earpieces attached. It meant that we had to stand close to the guide while pretending that we weren’t listening to him.

    Anyway, the three palaces are each in their own way absolutely stunning. They all date back to the 14th century Nasrid period. We then took a walk round the extensive and immaculately maintained grounds. The weather was fine and clear, and it was good to seek out a bit of shade and sit down from time to time. Travel hint: lemon granitas in Spain are really the best on a hot day. Even more refreshing than an icy cold beer, and that’s saying something.

    After a bit of a break we visited the Alcazaba military area inside the Alhambra complex. Our hard-won tickets included entry to this area. It provides a great vantage point over the city, and Brian managed to get some good photos from there., By mid-afternoon we’d seen everything we wanted to, so headed back up the hill to our hotel. Another excellent day and our plans were to cap it off with a return visit to that treasure of a restaurant which has the Nasrid cuisine. However, it wasn’t to be since when we got there we found it was closed. We’re not sure why as their website indicated that it ought to be open. Not to worry, we discovered another excellent restaurant and had a great meal. Furthermore, they served great coffee, which is something that we have missed since arriving here. Spain is a wonderful, wonderful country, but a good coffee is very hard to find.    Read more

  • SpydahSpain, Rhine & Danube
    Day 10

    Things go pear-shaped

    September 20, 2019 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    We had an enjoyable seven hour train trip at speeds of up to 300km per hour and arrived in Barcelona on schedule at 10pm. Dramas followed when Avis told us that our debit cards were unacceptable and that they would only accept a credit card. Furthermore the only such card we had chosen to bring with us was in Mary's name, and that was unacceptable because it was Brian who was hiring the car. Eventually and reluctantly they relented knowing that we faced a difficult 70km drive to our hotel.

    The car was on the third level of a parking building which was deserted at that late hour. We put our bags on the floor by the car while Brian was moving the car forward to make room and was flipping the back seats down. Two young men happened to stroll by and one of them seemed to be asking Mary for some directions. While she was distracted the other one must have grabbed the backpack containing the camera, new iPad, iPod, Kindle and other bits and pieces including a couple of our payment cards.
    Fortunately Brian was carrying our passports, the phone and the two main debit cards that we use in his security vest (thanks Allan for nagging us to get one). We then spent the next couple of hours traipsing around central Barcelona, very angry, and trying to find some police who were even vaguely interested. Clearly the two characters had been watching us from a distance and had chosen the right moment to pounce.

    The main losses are our photos taken so far plus the lack of flexibility to take more good photos and write the travel blog which we so much enjoy doing.

    It was a long and tiring drive to the isolated but spectacular hotel, not that we saw much of it when we checked in after 3am.

    Sadly, our blogs from now on are unlikely to be as comprehensive, but we'll try our best.    Read more

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