Salamanca and Segovia

The second half of our trip to Castile began with a food find. We checked into our hotel behind Segovia's Mercado Central, put away a few things, then headed out to explore the neighborhood. We strolled around Plaza Mayor and off onto side streets, where we found an inviting sign outside a burger place: a beer and a hot dog for €1.50. Seriously?

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Seriously. The beer was not one of those little glasses, a caña, that you usually get in tapas bars, but a big frosty mug. And while the hot dog was small, there were several varieties with toppings like garlic mayonnaise, bacon, red pepper sauce, or guacamole. We liked The Good Burger so much that we made it back every afternoon for our beer and hot dog.

Toledo is touristy, Ávila is quaint and provincial, but Salamanca is a lively university town. I immediately fell in love with the energy of the place: lots of people, young and old, families and students and older folks like me, and lots of pleasantly bustling activity. The architecture is stunning, especially that of the university and the cathedral, and we were lucky enough that first afternoon to catch the warm light of the setting sun on the red stonework.

There was plenty to do and see to keep us busy for three days: palaces and convents, an incredible Art Nouveau collection, tasty cookies made by nuns, parks and a Roman bridge, even a film projector museum.

From Salamanca we went to Segovia where our luck with the weather ran out. It was pouring rain at the train station, raining when we got on a city bus, raining hard when we got off the bus at Plaza Artilleria under the aqueduct, and raining as we walked to our hotel.

Then our luck returned. After we unpacked a few things and relaxed for a while, the sky cleared, the sun came out, and we were ready to discover Segovia. Our luck got even better as we realized what was going on: Titirimundi, the International Puppet Theatre Festival. The streets were packed with families enjoying the street performers and the squares filled with people finding a good seat for the scheduled shows.

Like every other city in Europe, Segovia has food specialities, and I found two of them to be especially tasty: cochinillo (roast suckling pig) and ponche segoviano (a kind of sponge cake with pastry cream filling and a thin marzipan frosting). Segovia has beautiful churches and the famous Alacazar castle, and of course the Roman aqueduct that defines the city.

We would have enjoyed Segovia in any case, but it was an unexpected pleasure being able to stop every block or so to watch a clown, a juggler, or a puppeteer entertaining a crowd. Most impressive were Los Animóviles, fanciful mechanical contraptions made of scrap odds and ends. A kid or two would hop on one of these clackety beasts and be pushed round and round by a grown-up.

Lazy, slow travelers that we are, we've gotten into the habit of staying near the departure hub airport the last night of a trip. The alternative is to get up really, really early and make it back to Madrid, Paris, or Milan, where the flights back to the U.S. generally leave just before noon. Instead, we can take it easy on our last night and get up at a reasonable hour in time to make it to the airport.

So we took our time leaving Segovia and boarded a slow train to Madrid, where we rode the subway to an Ibis hotel in the Barajas suburb near the big airport. Looking for a last meal, we walked to the little town square, which was fortunately ringed by tapas restaurants. We picked one, Lizarran, and had one of the best meals of the trip. Rather than simply displaying tapas on the counter, Lizarran has their waiters continually exiting the kitchen with trays of hot, freshly prepared tapas. They walk from table to table, proferring the little dishes, and each diner is free to pick one or not as they choose. After several tapas and a couple glasses of wine, I had one last sit in the plaza before the short walk back to the hotel.

There's many more photos and a couple of videos in the complete Flickr album: Spain May 2016. Next week, there's one more trip, of a different kind, and then we rest for a bit as the summer travel season begins.

Toledo and Ávila

I didn't think I would like Toledo. The tourist buses arrive in the morning and park in the lower town. The daytrippers head for the escalators and by 10 a.m. the upper town is awash in visitors. The entry point into the city is Plaza Zocodover (which boasts both a McDonalds and a Burger King) and the streets radiating outward are lined with gift shops selling gimmicky junk.

We checked into our hotel in mid-afternoon before wading into the crowds. As expected, I was not impressed and my mood soured. As we were being jostled along Calle Commercio, however, I stopped in a shop selling bocadillos jamón ibérico, a crusty bread roll filled with thinly sliced Iberian ham, for €3.50. I took one bite and thought, oh my, this is some good stuff.

Click on the image for a larger view on Flickr and more details.

Click here for the complete Flickr album.

My mood was now noticeably improved and we continued our exploration of the city. The more I saw of Toledo the more I liked it. To put it simply, Toledo is a beautiful place. It's a shame that so many people see it only as a side trip, a place to spend a few hours, when we found plenty to do for three days.

Another pleasant surprise was how inexpensive Toledo was. We had been to Madrid a few times, and Barcelona, and thought them to be pricey, but not so Toledo. We got into the tapas way of eating and in the evenings were filling ourselves with food and drink for less than €25.

From Toledo we took the bus back to Madrid then rode the train out to Ávila, famous for the intact medieval wall that surrounds the city. We arrived on the weekend marking the Coronación Nuestra Señora de las Vacas, the coronation of Our Lady of the Cows. In the 13th century, the Virgin appeared in a corral amidst some cows. What this means in the 21st century is that some young men have a lot of fun carrying Nuestra Señora around on their shoulders, accompanied by a loud marching band and everyone else in the town, with lots of loud fireworks and hurrahing.

Like Toledo, Ávila is beautiful. I was completely enchanted by the lovely streets, buildings, and parks. We walked on top of the medieval walls, outside the walls, up and down the length and breadth of the old town, to several sites outside, and out to the Cuatro Postes overlook for the panoramic view.

Also like Toledo, Ávila had plenty of things to do to keep us busy for our three-night stay. Among the usual local museums, churches, and convents, the Palacio de los Superunda was especially impressive. Once the home of the painter Guido Caprotti, it is now an elegantly restored museum exhibiting many of his works as well as two full-length portraits by Joaquín Sorolla.

Next up, a blog post with words and pictures about part two of our trip, to Salamanca and Segovia.

¡Vamos a Castilla!

We've enjoyed getting to know Madrid (first in 2010 and again in 2012) and frequently make connections at the Madrid Barajas airport. We've explored Barcelona. Now it's time to get out and about and see what else is in Spain.

We'll start modestly, as we usually do, and explore one region, Castile. We'll begin in Toledo then move on to Ávila, Salamanca, and Segovia. We've arranged our lodging and know the bus and train options to get from one to the other, but beyond that, we shall see what we shall see.

While you are waiting to see snaps from this trip to Spain, I offer to you my Flickr album of photos and videos from our recent visit to Chicago: Chicago April 2016.

We had a good time in Chicago, as we always do. The highlights this time were the Strandbeest exhibit at the Cultural Center, the Michigan Street drummers, and pizza at Lou Malnati's.

Since then we've had a bit of a rest so now it is time to fly away.