Just Putting Around: 2015

We end our European adventure in the city of Madrid. We have already seen the Madrid airport three times since the beginning of the trip, needless to say we're starting to know our way around there quite well. We say goodbye to our rental car and take the train into the city. First up on our "To Do List" is a bull fight. The fights only occur on Sunday evenings during the month of June so we have to do it our first night there. We get to the city, drop off our stuff at the hotel and head straight to the fight. The stadium, La Plaza del Toros, is absolutely spectacular. You can't miss the Muslim influence on the architecture. Once inside, Pepe loved being the center of attention.

We grabbed some mini beers, that actually weren't so mini after all (they were the largest ones available for purchase) and took our seats. Being that the seats in the sun were a third of the price of the seats in the shade, we opted for the sun. Luckily, there was a good amount of cloud cover so we weren't just baking.

We tried to convince our friends, Celia and Cristina, to come join us for the fight, but they kept claiming that bullfighting wasn't really their thing. I quickly came to realize that it really isn't mine either. For those of you who have been to a bullfight, you understand the nature of the event. For those of you who haven't, I ask you to do some research beforehand and make sure that this is something that you can stomach. I do not think that it is for everyone. I had an extremely hard time, meanwhile the lady in front of me was balling her eyes out. That being said, I am going to tell about the parts I did enjoy and as much as I feel is appropriate to share. I'm sure Ray will include more gory details, so if thats what your into, check back for his experience. To start with, the entrance/ beginning, where all the matadors and picadors, along with the horses enter the stadium and parade around in front of the crowd is spectacular.

Pepe pretended to be a bull while the matador was warming up.

Then enter the bull. What a display of power, strength, and beauty! For me, the best part of the bullfight (if I can even say that there is a best part) was right when the bull enters the ring. Alert, angry and full of strength, the bull begins charging at the matador. Lets just say from that point on, I found myself cheering for the bull and not the matador. I also spent more time staring at the empty dirt in the arena since I couldn't bring myself to watch what was actually happening. The entire process was much more gory than I was expecting, though I'm not really sure what I was expecting in the first place. Being an animal lover, I had to keep reminding myself that this is a major traditional and cultural aspect of Spain. Although, I'm not really sure if I am glad I went, but I do know that I will never go to another one again. I definitely understand why our friends didn't want to go with us.

I was pretty disturbed at the end of the first fight, that I turned to Ray and said I was ready to go. At this point, I wasn't really sure how he was handling it, so I didn't want to make him leave if he wanted to stay. We stayed for one more fight (just to finish our beers). Most of which I spent staring at the dirt again and then made our way out of the stadium, along with all the other horrified tourists.

Following our traumatic experience at the bull ring, I am in desperate need of a pick me up. Luckily, I was able to talk to my parents for a bit and wish my dad a happy father’s day. It was well needed to get my mind thinking about happier things. Later, we met up with Cristina and Celia at a rooftop bar. The view was amazing! You could see the entire city.

We had a great time catching up with them and discussing our travels since meeting them in Córdoba.

The next day we did our last walking tour of this trip to see the sights in Madrid. We started the tour in Plaza Mayor right in front of the “stinky statue”. Apparently, when this was originally built, the people started to notice a foul oder encompassing the statue. Come to find out that the horses mouth was open, allowing our birds friends a passage into the belly of the horse. However, being that it was too dark once inside, they had a hard time finding their way out again. Fortunately now, the mouth has been sealed so there are no more funny smells.

We stopped by the oldest continuously running restaurant in the world, Casa Botin, which has been operating since 1725.

Then we made our way to the once tallest building in all of Europe. Can you guess which one?

We passed by the Almudena Cathedral… Totally different looks from the front to the back.

We stopped for lunch at Museo de Jamon. What’s better than ordering a cañas and having it served with a small tapas. Earlier we had learned the history of tapas, which I found rather interesting. Tapas means "to cover". According to legend, King Alfonso XIII ordered a glass of wine at a famous tavern in Cádiz and being that Cádiz is a windy place, the waiter covered the wine with a slice of jamon. The King fancied it so much that when he ordered another glass of wine, he ordered it "with the cover" and thus the idea of tapas was founded.

After walking around the city for 6 hours or so, we were exhausted and headed back to the rooftop pool at our hotel.

That night, we continued walking around the city in hopes to find this one restaurant we had heard about. We knew it was located on the top floor of a shopping mall in the Gourmet Experience. We looked and looked, and couldn't find it. We were getting hungrier and hungrier. We then stumbled upon a a sign pointing us towards a restaurant we had tried while in Amsterdam. We had absolutely loved this place and were so excited to have found another one. There is only one in the states and it happens to be in NYC so we haven't been to one since our last European trip. It wasn’t the 3 Michilin star restaurant we had been looking for but it was still very tasty. After we ate, we continued our search for Street XO. Finally almost an hour later, we realized we had been in the wrong area all along and found it on the top of an entirely different mall than we were originally. I must admit that its strange having three places on the 7th floor of a shopping mall, of all which have michelin star chefs. Now, that we had found it, we knew that we would be back the following day. On our walk back, we saw the beautiful sights of the city all lit up at night.

The next day we made our way to the Parque de Retiro. What a cool place! I felt as if I had traveled far from the city and had been planted in this beautiful park, when literally we were right outside, sometimes even hearing a car horn or exhaust go by.

We spent some time admiring all the boats out in the water and laughing at the teenagers who managed to get stuck right beneath the fountains, unable to get away from the spraying water.

Pepe loved seeing his friends swimming around, unfazed by all the chaos around them.

Ray even stopped to get some exercise, he has really missed riding his bicycle. Guess this will have to do until we get home.

“I like flags!”

For lunch, we head back to Street XO for one of the most amazing meals I have ever had.

We take a seat at the bar and are besides ourselves by the amazing show going on around. Pepe loved watching the food come out.

Every dish looks absolutely delicious. We have the hardest time settling on what we want to try. With some recommendations from the chefs, we decide to start with the razor clams… yummy!

Next was the pork belly

Then the club sandwich, which really wasn't much of a sandwich at all. It was a dumpling with cheese, herbs and a quail egg on top.

And ended with the gyoza art display.

We both thoroughly enjoyed our meal, but were disappointed that we didn't have room to try everything on the menu.

Later we walked around a bit more to finish up our shopping. While on the way, we crossed the very first Taco Bell we had seen since being in Europe. We had seen plenty of McDonald’s, KFCs, Burger Kings, Subways, etc… but absolutely no Taco Bells. Apparently it was Taco Tuesday so in we went for a taco and a large beer for only one euro. Great way to cap off our fantastic michilen star worthy meal, with some fast food. But who could turn down that deal? Plus, I was craving some mexican food (which this really isn't mexican but its the closest I had come since we left). Cristina had warned us that eating is one of the main things people do in Madrid and we couldn't agree more.

Before leaving the city the next morning, we had one more thing to try…churros con chocolate.

They were delicious! A perfect meal before getting on a plane back to the states.

Salamanca is absolutely stunning! I loved walking around the city seeing the cathedral right across from our hotel…

The Nuevo Catedral and Viejo Catedral…

We even found the Underground bar, guess the one in Hermosa is a chain.

Come to find out that Salamanca is the Nashville of Spain, I say that due to the amount of bachelor and bachelorette parties we saw.

We enjoyed some cañas and tapas at Lilicook, recommended by Carlos, which turned out to be an excellent choice.

We then head to Plaza Mayor to meet up with Carlos. What a cool plaza!

He walks us around the city, showing us his favorite spots. We go by the Nuevo Cathedral again, this time paying close attention to the intricate details on the outside of the cathedral. Ray had seen a postcard with an astronaut on it and so he was determined to find it. Turned out to be a little harder than we had originally thought so its a good thing Carlos knew where he was and right next to it was a gargoyle eating ice cream. You definitely wouldn't expect to find these carvings on such an old building right? These two littles guys were added in 1992 by the craftman in charge of doing some of the restoration. Apparently the astronaut symbolizes the 20th century and the gargoyle represents the students.

We then walk through a really spectacular garden with a huge artichoke…

to the Roman bridge.

Although it was hot, I convinced the team to walk across with me, despite Carlos saying there was absolutely nothing on the other side.

Pepe had to get a pic with the Bull, looks like he is missing something.

Earlier, Ray and I had walked into a Jamon store to gaze at the various ham legs and chorizo. While in there, it was impossible not to notice the fantastic pastry smell, permeating the whole place. We saw what the workers were making, but couldn't figure out quite what it was. We figured we’d ask Carlos when we saw him. So of course, when we end up passing the store again, we have to try a hornazo. Its a Spanish meat pie, traditionally eaten in Salamanca.

Carlos then walked us to the main gate at the University of Salamanca. He explained to us the tradition of the frog, saying that students who attend the university must find the frog on the outside of the building before being able to graduate. Since this was where Carlos went, we of course had to check out the amphibian. Although he won't admit it, Ray cheated and had seen where the frog was located while looking at a postcard earlier that day. I looked and looked. Its probably a good thing that I didn't go there, since I needed some assistance in order to find it. And yes, I have a picture of the frog, but I don't want to spoil the fun for those of you who have yet to find it.

Back to Plaza Mayor for some tintos de verano. I must admit this might be my favorite drink of the entire trip. Its red wine, with fizzy lemonade. Refreshing, bubbly, and absolutely delicious. I guess theres another type, but I prefer the one con limón.

For dinner, we were at a place called Tapas 2.0. We all laughed at the English translated menu…

None of us chose the Kobe Bryant Burger!

We settled for some more salmorejo, sashimi steak and steak tartar. Somehow, I have never tried this tartar business, at least that I can remember. Again, I branched out and tried something new and was pleasantly surprised. Carlos mentioned this was his favorite and I agree it was quite good. At the end of the night, we walked back over to Plaza Mayor to see it all lit up at night. I can't even begin to explain how beautiful it was, surrounded by golden buildings showing off in the moonlight. I totally understand why Carlos says this is his favorite place in Salamanca.

Pepe wanted a pic too

Somehow the places I come to love, I also find a heart.

Unfortunately, all good things have to come to an end and we have to leave Salamanca. We say our goodbyes to our new friend and hit the road to Segovia, en route to Madrid, our last destination. Along the way, we cross a bike race and catch the tail end of it… I tried to get a picture, but it looks like my camera decided to focus on our bug ridden windshield, rather than the blur of bikes. You can somewhat see their helmets in the middle of the picture.

Quite ironic that today also is Father’s Day and my dad absolutely loves bike races from the Tour de France to La Vuelta a España. This must be fate!

Segovia, segovia, segovia! Before I begin with our time there, I must catch you all up on a back story that has been going on since our last trip.

This book was used during our last trip, all throughout Ireland, Scotland, England, Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Italy and Spain. As you can imagine, I spent a lot of time staring at the cover, at this stunning fortress. But yet, I had no idea what it was or even where it was located. During one of our drives, I scanned the front pages for an answer and turned up with nothing. “Maybe its listed in the back?” I think. So I flip to the back, still nothing about the cover photo. I check the front pages again to make sure I didn't miss it. Still nothing. I check any pages that I would expect to have some sort of information about the cover page on it. No answer. At this point, I am determined to find out what and where this is located, which proved to be a challenging task to say the least, since I didn't even know what country it stood in. I attempted to guess, maybe Germany or Austria, maybe Scotland, perhaps France. Finally, I’m forced to look through every page for any hint of this fortress. At one point, I come across an alcazar in Toledo. “Looks similar. This has to be it,” I think to myself. And so for the rest of our trip and the next 8 months, I consider the elusive fortress to be Toledo’s Alcazar. Never thought to investigate any further since I was under the impression that i had already found it. About one week into this current trip, my whole world changed. Sounds drastic, but seriously, it did. Ray somehow discovered that this mysterious fortress wasn't in Toledo as we had thought. On the next page (of the book), was the Alcazar in Segovia. With only a description to go on (no picture), we learn the answer we had sought after for so long. Call it chance or call it fate, but at the moment we made this discovery, it just so happened that we had made plans to make a stop in Salamanca before heading to Madrid. And where does Segovia sit in comparison? Oh just a hop, skip and a jump between the two. I looked at Ray when he informed me of this and said, “Well, looks like we’re going to Segovia!” (end of side story).

So here we are, walking into the epitome of our European travels. Not sure how it happened, but this alcazar had become the most pivotal point of our trip. We pass right through an amazing Roman aqueduct. It was pretty cool but it wasn't the main event.

And a local car show…

Still I have one thing on my mind and that is seeing the Alcazar. We walk and walk, following the signs. Somehow we find ourselves all alone walking the streets, but yet we keep seeing signs pointing us toward Al. And then…

We catch a glimpse. I am absolutely elated. My step speed increases, despite the intense heat and uneven cobblestone ground. Until we are finally admist the shadows of this incredible structure. Pepe wanted the first picture.