I’ve been a little slack on the blogging so far, poor internet speed hasn’t helped….not a good start, so let’s get this happening.
The flight to Dubai was uneventful (always a good thing on any flight), a little lumpy but nothing severe and I had the row to myself so was able to lie down (kinda sorta) and get some sleep. Not having been to Dubai before I had a few firsts – seeing the city lit up as we flew in at 5am including the Burj Khalifa (tallest building in the world), watching the sunrise and seeing the Burj Al Arab Jumeirah (the sail shaped building) and the Palm Jumeirah (palm island) on the flight out….very cool.
The flight to Madrid was as smooth as. I was fortunate enough to look at the flight map and notice that we had done an odd dog-leg over Saudi and appeared to be flying straight up the Red Sea (apparently issues with air-space). I figured we were going to fly close to Sharm El Sheikh but was blown away when we flew directly over the top of it (for those who don’t know, I lived there for 2 years). The place has grown so much but I was still able to pick out some of the reefs.
I didn’t have any expectations of Madrid and the only reason I came here was to tick off part of a bucket list item – to see the Top 10 Art Galleries in the world – Museo del Prado being one of them.
The architecture is stunning, so many different eras and influences. The people seem nice and if they don’t speak English, for the most part, we are making ourselves understood with my hopeless Spanish. I may not be speaking in full sentences but at least occasionally a word is coming to mind that saves the day. Maria’s Spanish lessons and persistence has paid off. There are also lots of paseo’s (walking paths) and plenty of green spaces.
By the time I got out of the hostel on the first day, it was early evening so had a fairly short wander but needed to sleep. Yesterday, I was intending to go to the Prado but the line to get tickets was humongous and I don’t do lines, so I bought a ticket for the hop-on hop-off bus. I haven’t been one of those since Craig and I were in London in 1993. We got on, did a lap and got off where we started and I can’t say I’ve been a great fan of them but I’m really glad that I did it. Had I taken the Metro to some of these sites, it would have been much cheaper but I would have missed out on seeing a lot of the city and hopping off at a few places that I wouldn’t have otherwise gone to.
In brief yesterday was a stroll down the Paseo de Recoletos, checking out the Palacio de Cibeles Centro, Catedral de la Almudena, Palacio Real and Plaza Mayor. In comparison, today was the Museo Nacional del Prado and to the person who said that you can’t see the Prado in a day, I call bullshit. I saw the whole thing in a few hours (it’s not a big as the Louvre), sat in one of the paseo’s and watched the world go by until I thought I might actually fall asleep and took myself off for a leisurely late lunch…..in typical Spanish style.
I have promised myself that I will try to keep these relatively short because I know previous blogs have tended to be more like a mini thesis. So I will wrap this up.
The weather has been warm, in the high 20’s with clear sunny days. I haven’t been doing much of an evening except crashing and catching up on all the sleep I missed out on the last few weeks when my sleep patterns went haywire.
On a sad note, I heard that Dave, the cook at work, died suddenly a couple of days ago. He had just turned 60 and was looking forward to going on a cruise in November. He was a grumpy old bastard but had a heart of gold and will be fondly remembered. His passing just instills that we don’t know how long we have and to do the things we want to do and has made me more determined. Stop waiting, get out there and do it.
Tomorrow, I catch the train to Pamplona, spending most of the day there and catch the bus to Roncesvalles in the evening. From there I start the Camino…..oh shit, this is really happening.
Thanks for the update, Lindy. Have fun. Take care.