Friday, May 2, 2008
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Madrid
Just a short note to say we are still in the lands of the Iberian Peninsula. Currently in Madrid where we have been for three days now exploring art galleries and works of art we had been able to read about but to see them was just awesome. We did a couple of hours with a Picasso exhibition but it was the Master Painters Rubens, Goya, El Grecho (and lots of others) which really were well worth looking at. While we have ‘done’ the Galleries here, we ‘did’ the churches in Lisbon (where we spent five nights just before coming to Madrid) – both in terms of their art and their services as we were there during Easter week. Lisbon and Madrid have been really cold with a strong northerly wind coming straight south from the arctic, but with a bit of luck it will warm up a little before we head to Barcelona tomorrow morning.
Lisbon was a beautiful city to visit. The churches and cathedrals match those of Rome and a just staggering when you walk in and see the altars and chapels that line three sides of the buildings. Once we got used to the No28 tram (which for some reason we seemed to develop an affinity for) we were able to get around quite well. The Metro (as it is also here in Madrid) is just so easy to navigate and for very little cost we have been able to get around both cities very easily.
Seville was just lovely. We were accommodated a little way from the town centre and once we discovered the appropriate buses it too was easily accessible. Every day we were there (from Palm Sunday to Holy Thursday – Holy Week) there were huge parades which thousands of people, visitors and locals alike turned out to see. Every day there were 9 different processions, each starting from different parishes around the city, and each with its long lines of hooded penitents and ‘floats’ of the Virgin and another of. Usually, a scene from the Passion. This is what they call Santa Semana (Holy Week) but they (the Sevillians) are proud of and show off their Catholic heritage.
We loved the warmth and ever-present smell of orange blossom in Seville and we have come to like their cafe con leche (coffee with milk) which we have been having as a fix each mid-late afternoon. Spanish don’t go to bed early and they don’t get up early: restaurants won’t start serving food until 9.00pm and breakfast (at this hotel as an example goes from 7.30-12.00 noon) is late too. There’s not much point getting up and going early as most places are shut until about 10.00 am and shut again between about 1.00 and 3.00 – hence the later nights.
We’re struggling with language but trying to use as much as we can. Our Spanish vocab is a bit wider than our Portuguese was: ‘Obrigado’ and ‘Ola’ got us through Lisbon and around its attractions, but our Spanish runs to at least four words and we can even count up to four!! (Well, at least we think we can.)
So that’s it: still very much enjoying our travels and its been a really interesting experience being in two countries (Spain and Portugal) which have Catholicism in common (and which we could recognise in Masses and in their art) but at the same time not being able to understand their language: but people here are so accepting of tourists and we think some of them even like to practise their English on us. On our flight to Madrid we sat next to a young Portuguese woman who suggested our best route and Metro stop to find our hotel and on the Metro (on the way to the hotel) Shelley bumped into a man with her back-pack: must have been a Spanish introduction because he got off at the same Metro station as us and then took us up to the street to help us find our way to the hotel. People do like to help.
Must go and pack: our bus to Barcelona leaves at 10.00am tomorrow and is an eight hour ride. The idea is to stay awake for as long as possible so we can see the countryside and we need some sleep (after going out for a late meal, of course!)
Lisbon was a beautiful city to visit. The churches and cathedrals match those of Rome and a just staggering when you walk in and see the altars and chapels that line three sides of the buildings. Once we got used to the No28 tram (which for some reason we seemed to develop an affinity for) we were able to get around quite well. The Metro (as it is also here in Madrid) is just so easy to navigate and for very little cost we have been able to get around both cities very easily.
Seville was just lovely. We were accommodated a little way from the town centre and once we discovered the appropriate buses it too was easily accessible. Every day we were there (from Palm Sunday to Holy Thursday – Holy Week) there were huge parades which thousands of people, visitors and locals alike turned out to see. Every day there were 9 different processions, each starting from different parishes around the city, and each with its long lines of hooded penitents and ‘floats’ of the Virgin and another of. Usually, a scene from the Passion. This is what they call Santa Semana (Holy Week) but they (the Sevillians) are proud of and show off their Catholic heritage.
We loved the warmth and ever-present smell of orange blossom in Seville and we have come to like their cafe con leche (coffee with milk) which we have been having as a fix each mid-late afternoon. Spanish don’t go to bed early and they don’t get up early: restaurants won’t start serving food until 9.00pm and breakfast (at this hotel as an example goes from 7.30-12.00 noon) is late too. There’s not much point getting up and going early as most places are shut until about 10.00 am and shut again between about 1.00 and 3.00 – hence the later nights.
We’re struggling with language but trying to use as much as we can. Our Spanish vocab is a bit wider than our Portuguese was: ‘Obrigado’ and ‘Ola’ got us through Lisbon and around its attractions, but our Spanish runs to at least four words and we can even count up to four!! (Well, at least we think we can.)
So that’s it: still very much enjoying our travels and its been a really interesting experience being in two countries (Spain and Portugal) which have Catholicism in common (and which we could recognise in Masses and in their art) but at the same time not being able to understand their language: but people here are so accepting of tourists and we think some of them even like to practise their English on us. On our flight to Madrid we sat next to a young Portuguese woman who suggested our best route and Metro stop to find our hotel and on the Metro (on the way to the hotel) Shelley bumped into a man with her back-pack: must have been a Spanish introduction because he got off at the same Metro station as us and then took us up to the street to help us find our way to the hotel. People do like to help.
Must go and pack: our bus to Barcelona leaves at 10.00am tomorrow and is an eight hour ride. The idea is to stay awake for as long as possible so we can see the countryside and we need some sleep (after going out for a late meal, of course!)
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Lisbon
The bus to Lisbon took us through southern Spain's country side and sure enough, there was Ferdinand sitting in the cool shade of an olive tree in one of the hundreds of olive groves extending both sides of the road. The trip itself was largely uneventful until we arrived in Lisbon and at what we thought was our bus station terminal. No! There's another. Lisbon Big place intoned the driver, Portuguese and able to speak as much English as we spoke his language. Eventually we figured out there was another terminus for us and having negotiated the metro we arrived at our hotel (with some discussion under the street lights.)Again,as is our custom when we arrive somewhere new we wandered in search of an information centre, a dinner source and fresh bottled water. Lisbon town centre was alive: lights and people from all over. Found an information booth and bought a three day Lisboa Pass which gave us access to as many train, bus and tram trips as we could fit in for 62 Euros. The following day was Good Friday: there must be a local church? The Friday morning, until about 2.15 we spent in the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, one of the few places open on the Good Friday and went to the Good Friday vigil in the local parish church which like most churches around central Lisbon is steeped in its own history. No one had told us that the Veneration of the Cross required a donation in the basket at the foot of the cross - we were perhaps the only ones not to venerate in local tradition. Next morning, Holy Saturday, we were up to get maximum value from our card heading towards, we thought, the Monastery of Jeronimos. However, we had mixed up the instructions from the tourism info centre - and caught the 28 Tram in the opposite direction. Becoming a little suspicious that we were headed in the wrong direction around Alfama and some of Lisbon's narrowest streets we got off at Basilica da Estrela (decided we'd come back here another day) and caught a bus back to the city centre and onto a different tram. We found the Monastery, along with several hundred other tourists (we had been hoping to be there before the Spanish). Amongst the hundreds of tourists and tourist coaches we walked around the waterfront area: to the Torre de Belem standing watch over the Rio Tejo, to the Discoveries Monument carved like a ship with statues representing Portugal's history of sea-going navigators. And then it cooled really quickly and rained and we headed a pied to the Coach Museum which turned out to be a really interesting exhibition of royal (and not so royal) coaches that have been a part of Portugal's monarchy. Coming out from the Coach Museum we headed to the Centro Cultural de Belem - Shelley had inquired about a free Fado concert so we headed back to wait in another queue. This time we ended up with front row seats to listen to Fado and poetry: didn't understand one word but it was really something we both enjoyed as we were treated to a musical genre (the Fado) by two of Portugal's most renowned Fado singers.
We trammed back to central Lisbon snuck some sleep and got up the next day to another brilliantly fine day although a bit cold. Again we boarded the No 28 tram ( we knew where it was going this time) and headed back to the Basilica da Estrala and were rewarded with some stunning art and architecture in a mush more simply decorated church. Back on no 28 and back to the city centre (and wandered into a church just in time for Mass; and somewhere in this four day Lisbon experience we fitted in a trip to the Castle of Saint George with its old walls and paved roads on one of the many hills overlooking Lisbon; a walk through Alfama to the Se Cathedral, to the Pantheon Church of Santa Engracia; a ride on Ascensor da Gloria from Praca dos Restauradores to the ruins of the Camelte Convent again with views over central Lisbon.
Our last day in Lisbon was spent on a train trip to Sintra. On the way we stopped at the old Royal Palace with all its fine gardens and fine floors and chandeliers (the way the royal half lived); but Sintra was just something else. High up in the hills, an hour from Lisbon castles dominating the landscape: the 13thC Sintra National Palace, the ruins of the Moors Castle (in bitterly cold winds!) and the Pena National Palace. This was a must see and well worth the effort to get there - would recommend Sintra to anyone visiting Lisbon.
Now, four days later, having learned to say Ola and Obrigado (and not much more) and being able to navigate easily around a very travel friendly metro and bus service (despite the early hiccups) it was time to leave. A flight this time to Madrid - back to Spain (and Cafe con Leches).
We trammed back to central Lisbon snuck some sleep and got up the next day to another brilliantly fine day although a bit cold. Again we boarded the No 28 tram ( we knew where it was going this time) and headed back to the Basilica da Estrala and were rewarded with some stunning art and architecture in a mush more simply decorated church. Back on no 28 and back to the city centre (and wandered into a church just in time for Mass; and somewhere in this four day Lisbon experience we fitted in a trip to the Castle of Saint George with its old walls and paved roads on one of the many hills overlooking Lisbon; a walk through Alfama to the Se Cathedral, to the Pantheon Church of Santa Engracia; a ride on Ascensor da Gloria from Praca dos Restauradores to the ruins of the Camelte Convent again with views over central Lisbon.
Our last day in Lisbon was spent on a train trip to Sintra. On the way we stopped at the old Royal Palace with all its fine gardens and fine floors and chandeliers (the way the royal half lived); but Sintra was just something else. High up in the hills, an hour from Lisbon castles dominating the landscape: the 13thC Sintra National Palace, the ruins of the Moors Castle (in bitterly cold winds!) and the Pena National Palace. This was a must see and well worth the effort to get there - would recommend Sintra to anyone visiting Lisbon.
Now, four days later, having learned to say Ola and Obrigado (and not much more) and being able to navigate easily around a very travel friendly metro and bus service (despite the early hiccups) it was time to leave. A flight this time to Madrid - back to Spain (and Cafe con Leches).
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