tbaroundtheworld

Two days ago when we walked out of the archeology museum I noted some white dots off in the gardens and made a mental note to return. Thinking that they were some sort of lily, we went back today in search of the spring gardens in the Maria Luisa Park. There were none, and the Calla Lilies turned out to be white pigeons sitting on the top of the park benches. So much for long range vision. We spent the better part of today just roaming around. Being able to do this is an unexpected benefit of visiting a place for a second time. The first trip is dedicated to checking off all the boxes, seeing the things you have to see and learning your way around. The second trip has no schedule so you can do whatever you want. And today, like yesterday and the day before, was dedicated to just walking the streets and taking in the different sights.  The day began as always with coffee at Las Milagritos, our number one place next to the Giralda. It was empty and pretty much remained tha

Remember two weeks ago when we rolled the clocks forward and then felt crappy for a couple of days while we re-adjusted our internal clocks? Well, the other day before leaving, I checked the time in Madrid and was confronted with the fact that for some reason, Spain was only 7 hours ahead of us instead of 8. A little bit of research uncovered the fact that they had not yet made the Daylight Saving Time adjustment and wouldn’t be doing so until this weekend. Which meant we were going to get to do it again! And so we went to bed on Saturday night knowing that Sunday would begin with a deficit. It was too hard to lose that hour of sleep, better to give away an hour midday. And since we are not governed by clocks due to being on vacation, that’s what we did. The churches here start ringing the bells like crazy on early Sunday morning. I happened to be awake to hear one at 5AM as it clanged off its count. In the middle of that came another, this one ringing 4 which meant either some pr

My number one goal for today was to find some waterproofing for my shoes. Yesterday’s 5 miles in the rain was just enough to overcome the Dick’s Sporting Goods spray on that I had used just before our trip to Paris in February. I’m not saying it failed , but it sure didn’t work. And while I didn’t have water sloshing around in my shoes, the leather was soaked through. So with that in mind, and after an Americano at a street side café we took off up Calle Sierpes, the main shopping street, to see what we could find. The solution came quickly, I stopped in at a Timberland store and asked for “un producto para proteger mis zapatos contra el agua” which was far easier than trying to roll “impermeabilización” off my tongue. And as it turned out, they had it to the tune of 11€ which while expensive was probably worth it given the forecast. So I forked over and we headed on to Corte Inglés for some groceries, the ABC Prensa newspaper kiosk for the International New York Times and the

When I look back on all the trips we’ve taken over the years, one thing stands out – we have had very good luck with weather. Aside from a rainy day last year in Madrid, I can’t think of another instance of losing time wandering around due to the weather. Lately though, our luck has changed and starting with Paris, we seem to be drawing the short straw when it comes to the climate. It started raining in the middle of the night, thus confirming the forecast I’d read yesterday. They called it moderate rain with totals of about one inch. One inch? At home we’d be knee deep in mud and moderate would be the last word I’d be muttering under my breath. But such as it was, we had breakfast, and went out to try and solve our ticket problem. A month or two ago I got motivated and ordered tickets from Ticketmaster.es for the Alhambra in Granada figuring it was wise to get ahead of the well-publicized rush and assuming that they’d just mail them to me for printing out like Renfe, the trai