9 28-30 A Sojourn in Madrid

 Our original plan was to spend the last three days of September in Toledo.  It - like Bilbao is a hilly city and our Airbnb was not close to the historical areas.  So we bailed on that because of my broken toes and decided to visit family in Madrid.  It turned out to be a very good thing.  For some reason unknown the chair in the kitchen in our Airbnb in Bilbao declared war on my right foot toes.  Most of the time when it attacked me I was wearing shoes - so it lost.  But - the last day we were there I let my guard down and was in my stockings only.  That battle was brutal and I lost badly.  So now both my feet hurt.

Our drive from Bilbao to Madrid was uneventful.  It was stressful in the fact that Michael had not slept well the night before and it kept raining off and on.  Just a couple of shots taken as we were driving along the highway.  I don't know if the signs seem different than in the U.S. You can see some of the landscape.  I am so used to seeing signs that say the speed is 120 - but that is in kph not mph.

Once in Madrid, our first task was to pick up daughter, Alexis from the Madrid airport.  We were a little early and so pulled into the express parking lot.  Only to discover that it was actually the uber drop off/pick up lot!  But they did take our credit card and it was great because it was so close to the arrivals area.  

After a successful pickup of daughter we needed to find our Airbnb.  We already knew there was no parking available near our apartment.  We finally made it down the long lane to the cul-de-sac in front of the apartment building at 1pm - every spot was full.  We unloaded all of our luggage and I waited with it while Alexis and M went in search of parking.  We were told we could drop our luggage off at 2pm and have access of the apt at 3pm.  As I waited and watched cars come in to the cul-de-sac and then turn around and leave - not a single car parked there when I arrived had moved!  About an hour later they returned they had found a parking garage where they could leave the car the whole time - and come and go as they pleased.  Michael's first comment was - the car is staying here the whole time - we'll just take Ubers!

My niece, Rene Michelle has lived in Madrid for a few years.  She has an apartment in a nice suburb with easy public transport to downtown or any where she needs to go.  But sometimes it can take an hour+ to get anywhere.  She came to our Airbnb and we just hung out here.  My granddaughter, Jojo, just started University in Madrid about a month ago.  She informed us that she had some kind of virus, but was feeling ok at the moment and wanted to see us.  She uses her parents uber account and was able to make her way to us.  We found a pizza place close enough to walk to.  The pizza looked great, but was pretty mediocre - but it was something RM could eat as a vegetarian.  Later we went to a bar - actually next door to the pizza place for drinks. and called it an early evening.

Monday was more of the same - family hanging out eating and drinks.  This time Alexis, Michael and I took an uber to RM's apartment and enjoyed time talking and then she served us a great Spanish meal.  I did not take photos - but it was delicious.  From there we all took an uber to Jojo's apartment.

First order of things was to take a selfie of us all!  After a tour of her room and apartment we all walked to a nearby bar.  

We found a bar across from the Opera House.  The neighborhood was quiet, but a bit more expensive.

Look at Alexis in the first photo and RM in the second.

Jojo - still not feeling so well, but wanting to spend time with us.

The Opera house is the one with the orange roof in the background.

We decided to order some tapa's with our drinks.  And ordered too much as usual.  But that didn't stop us from eating it all.  First up - above - Teriyaki chicken with popcorn dust.

Spanish Tortilla with 1/2 loaf of French bread.

Croquettes.

The translation of this dish was called "broken eggs" - It was anything but.  The fried eggs were dipped in batter and fried.  the dip was a cream with herbs and truffles and some ham.  Interestingly the eggs were still very runny when cut into.

We thought we had also ordered grilled vegetables - when we didn't get them we asked and it seemed the order never went in.  But they came out in record time and were a great counter to all the fried food.  RM left to take the public transit home.  Jojo walked back to her apartment.  And the rest of us got an uber (a Chinese car - don't know the make - but the entire roof was a sun roof) back to our Airbnb.  I took photos out the window of the car.

I believe this is Peurto de Alicla.

On the highway underground in our Uber.  Many of the main highways are underground in Madrid.  

Tuesday, our last day in Madrid is a chill day.  RM arrived at our apartment a little after noon.  We found a restaurant that had vegetarian options.  Spain is awful at offering up anything but meat dishes.  Of all places it was an Irish pub called The Irish Temple!  They had a ton of options on hamburgers, a few other sandwiches thrown in for good measure and a section for vegetarians.  The burgers were all so big - I opted for the children's choice and got 40 grams less of meat!  Three of us had burgers, one vege and Alexis had a salad.  We all enjoyed our choices.  Service was slow - seemed to be only one server doing everything.  RM had to leave before we got the check as she needed to get to her Spanish language class.  

The evening was chill with some pre-packing and organizing.  Tomorrow we drop off Alexis at the Madrid airport for her flight home to Malmo Sweden.  Michael and I will point our car in the direction of El Campello and a four hour drive.  Can't wait to get there to relax.  Oops - we have family coming to visit us there every weekend.  Hopefully it will be warmer weather than we have had so far!

9-27 Bilbao's Casco Vijo (Old Town)

 I was excited to go see the Old Town today.  I usually can find lots of interesting things to take photos.  

Here in Bilbao, the Uber drivers seem to have their act together.  They all seem to drive black Toyotas - most say "Uber" on the drivers side.  And there seems to be only one drop off location at any given tourist destination where everyone gets dropped off and/or picked up.  Our drop off for the Old Town was next to the St Nicholas church.  What is shown above is the entrance to the most famous plaza of Bilbao Old Town, Plaza Nueva.  

I left my cheap U.S. sunglasses which I have had for 5-8 years in our Uber yesterday.  The ear pieces on them have been loose for years and yet they never break.  So sad to see them go this way!  I had asked at a tourist store where to find sun glasses.  At first the person manning the store thought I meant - do they sell sun glasses here.  Once she understood what I was asking she couldn't have been more helpful.  She said - bla bla bla which I understood to mean go 2 blocks to the left and then turn left and go a little ways and you will find them.  Of course there were a lot more words - which could have meant - don't go to the first store - the Farmicia because they will be too expensive go further on and get cheaper ones.  I went to the Farmicia and paid $30 for a pair of sun glasses that promises to protect my eyes from any kind of UV ray there is.  So maybe its worth it!  The weirdest thing was when I tried to look through the view finder of my camera - all I could see was a big blob of a plus sign.  I have to take off my sun glasses in order to see what I want to take a photo of?  This is really strange.

Now we are in the square.  I have tried to avoid all of the tourist groups crowded around someone who is explaining the history of this plaza.

Back out of the plaza to St Nicholas Church.

Inside St Nicholas Church.  

Across the street is a park with this bandstand.

Back along the street across from the park I saw the building below with this statue on top.

This is the renown Teatro Arriaga, built in 1890, Bilbao's main venue for Theatre and music.

There are bakeries and/or coffee places that sell sweets all over the place.  This one was interesting as it advertised "American Cookies!"

Well - this is a weird thing.  It appears to be a Mexican import of some sort of ice cream made with pineapple and nuts.  I thought it was some store named after me!

Then I saw this store.  How Weird is this - a large figure of someone pulling their pants down.  Turns out it is a store that sells Los Caganers.  There a ton of small figurines that you can buy that show different figures in the act of defecation.  They are to be placed in a Nativity scene.  They are popular all over northern Spain.

The next window over - sorry about the bad lighting.

Our next goal was to see the local Cathedral.  We apparently walked around the back of the cathedral and thought maybe the only good pictures were these reflections of the cathedral.

We passed some stores.

And finally made it to the front of the cathedral - only to discover that there was a wedding happening here.

The flower girl seems to be telling the young groomsman what to expect.

Finally the bride gets out of the white car.

And they proceed into the Cathedral.

Now that the crowd has finally broken up I can get a photo of the cathedral - but we can't go in.

The front of the food market.

So we head to the food market.  Across the way we had stopped at one of the coffee/sweet cafes.  Michael had coffee and cheesecake and I had the above sweet with cream inside along with a hot chocolate.  It was half way between the hot chocolate you get in the U.S. which is quite watery and the thick chocolate you get when you order hot chocolate and churros in Spain.  

Then on to the food market.  A long section of it had a lot of windows with reflections.  We did not actually go into the food market.  I have seen too many of them to find them of interest - and so seems to be the case with Michael.  This is supposedly the largest covered market in Europe - so maybe we should not have avoided it.

Still across the street from the food market - we noticed that the covered walkway had art on the ceiling.

Another church - we decided to go in.

From the entrance to the church - a photo of the side entrance to the food market.

Up the steps - but before you enter the church.  Michael walked in and started taking photos.  I got stopped by a women who insisted that I pay.  Another guest tried to explain you could get a ticket for 3 churches and get an audio guide.  But we had been in a couple of churches with no pay requirements so I was confused.  I finally said I would get my husband and we would leave.  But she kept insisting I needed to pay.  As we were leaving - she said to me - you can come back tomorrow morning when there is mass and get in free.  But we just left.  We have been is so many churches much more spectacular and not had to pay - so we definitely would not pay to see this church - hey we are jaded.

Outside of the church.

Along the river next to the church.

This bridge behind the church doesn't look like much of anything.  It was built in 1318 and for a long time was the only bridge in the city over the river Nervion.  There is much history here.

A close up of the two lions on the bridge.

At this point I realized how tired I was.  We went to a bench to sit down.  There were many black salesmen selling t-shirts.  They had them laid out on sheets or blankets which they could quickly roll up and move on.  As we sat on the bench we notice all of them were rolling up their merchandise and quickly moved out of the area.  Shortly after - two policemen showed up.  After a short time the policeman moved on.  And back came the t-shirt salesman.  An as we made our way back out of the Old town to the Church of St. Nicholas to be picked up - there they were again - setting up their wares.

Today Michael and I both realized how exhausted we are.  I especially am not used to doing much walking and my legs really ache.  After 9 weeks of waiting for my toes to heal and getting the message from my podiatrist that they had not healed and I needed to STAY OFF YOUR FEET!  I got the message so for 4 weeks I did nothing.  I know I need to Eaze into things - but its hard when my mo is to go full force when we travel!  Sigh!  It's just hard.

Tomorrow we will drive to Madrid were we will have about 3 days of time with family.  My niece RM and Granddaughter Jojo who live in Madrid and daughter Alexis who will fly in from Sweden.  After that we will drive on to spend a month in El Campello - where we will have more family, but also time alone.