We arrived late afternoon after an overnight flight from Edmonton to Amsterdam (direct) and a 3 hour layover in Amsterdam.
While we awaited our connection in Amsterdam, Gord was busy trying to get his and Dianna's cell phone under control so that Dianna could continue to communicate with her colleagues in India. Thank goodness for docking stations at airports!
Once we landed and were safely taxied to our hotel, we headed out for a walk to find a place to have tapas, like all locals and tourists do! After a wonderful meal with a delightful young waiter, we all headed to bed for a much needed sleep!
On Saturday morning we headed out for a hop on hop off bus tour of the city.
We caught the bus right near the home stadium of none other than Real Maddrid!
Along the way, we came across a demonstration in the city centre.
Dianna wondered aloud whether or not it was a demonstration against the vote on Sunday for the Catalonia referendum on sovereignty from Spain. A quick conversation with the tour guide on the bus confirmed her suspicions. As it turned out the vote resulted in street violence in Barcelona -844 injured - our final destination in two weeks.
As the morning progressed into early afternoon, our thoughts turned again to food.
Based on our morning breakfast, the menus that we viewedin restaurant windows, and this picture captured by Sonya, it is going to be a challenging trip for those of us trying to eat vegan when possible!!
We did find a lovely restaurant overlooking a hill side near the Cathedral, where we were able to find vegetables in the form of a salad and a mostly vegetarian pasta dish! A funny coincidence happened while we were at lunch - the young man that took this picture of us at lunch was actually right beside us on the plane from Amsterdam. In a city of 3.3 Million, what are the odds of this occurring??
After lunch it was off to the Cathedral. The Cathedral (short name - Our Lady of Almudena) started construction in 1885 and finally completed in 1993. As a comparison, The Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona (more in later blogs) started around the same time and is still not completed! Expected completion, 2026 - 2028. Among the many beautiful artifacts at Almudena is a 5,000 pipe organ (yes, you read that correctly!).
Beneath the main part of the church is the Cript, where there are more than 400 columns supporting the main construct of the Cathedral.
This picture gives a bit of the sense of the area where many people choose to lay their loved ones to rest. Sonya and I found it a bit eerie walking over the tops of their resting places, but here it is commonplace, it seems. Dianna was so unsettled by the thought, that she walked one foot in front of the other between them so as not to step on the individual crypts!
Sonya and I were both struck with how much Buenos Aires looks like Madrid.
This scene could be straight out of any of the many districts in Buenos Aires. Plus, many of the districts of BA have the same name as their counterpart in Madrid.
After finishing the tour of the city on the hop on hop off bus, we headed back to the hotel for dinner. However, in typical Spanish style restaurants do not typically open before 8 pm, and are not busy until much later in the evening. So when we went for dinner shortly after 8 pm, we had no trouble finding a place.
We found a restaurant that featured Paella, a classic Spanish dish. When we saw this, all four of us had to try it out to be sure!!
Yes, that big pan was just for the four of us! You can likely guess that we were all glad that we skipped the appetizers!
On Sunday morning we went to the Prado Museum. Ignoring all recommendations we went without advance tickets and chose to line up, because discount tickets for seniors are not available on line. Lucky indeed, as our wait was less than 5 minutes.
The Prado is, choosing only one word, overwhelming! With more than 3,000 canvases, the Prado is considered by many to be one of the greatest collection of paintings by the European Masters. There are dozens of sculptures as well, so it is easy to experience sensory overload. The artwork went from the beautiful, almost divine, to the bizarre, to the disturbing, to the grotesque and back to the divine again. The range of art and the accompanying emotions was almost dizzying.
We spent around 4 hours there before succumbing to this overload. We stepped outside the museum and found a nearby spot to sit down and decompress from the tour. Sonya immediately found some photo subjects after going 4 hours without being able to shoot inside the museum!
We then walked to the Puerta del Sol so that I (Paul) could get a data SIM card in order to be able to complete this blog!!
We returned to the hotel in time to freshen up and meet our travel director and traveling companions for a quick bus tour and a welcome tapas dinner. It seems that we will be travelling with some lovely people - New Zealanders, Australians, South Africans, and Americans. Not surprising I suppose, as we all share similar interests - seeing new places, learning new things and meeting new people.
Until next time,
Dianna, Gord, Sonya & Paul
