Teleférico de Madrid, Spain

El Teleférico de Madrid is a cable car or aerial tram.  

It's departure point is on  Paseo del Pintor Rosales, close to the Templo de Debod and soars over houses, the river, the railroad tracks, the highway, and parks to Calle Cerro Garabita in Casa del Campo. 

It was one of the things I seen in my research on fun things to do in Madrid, that I wanted to do.

And it was fun, first, you have to understand that I have issues with heights, they make my knees go all wobbly, and cause my heart to race and my vision to narrow.  But I like to force myself into situations involving height so that I remain in control.

So we decide to go to the  Teleférico  one afternoon and take off mid day from our hotel.  We walk and stop and sightsee along the way.  One of the things we came across was the Templo de Debod.

We get to the  Teleférico  location and find we have an hour to wait for them to reopen.  Their hours are quite difficult to figure out and change frequently due to season.  So off we go again to explore.  We found a great little neighborhood restaurant/bar and went in.  It was great, we shared a meal, had a few beers, and got back to the  Teleférico  and bought our tickets.

We get into the staging area where the cars come and go; we stand behind the black line till our car stops and the attendant motions us in - 

we enter the car, sit, and what do I see, we are in car number 

Not to worry, I am in control!

All the drama aside, the ride was awesome, amazing views - 

this is an amusement park on the Cas de Campo side

 

and on the Casa de Campo side there is a snack bar that makes great smoothies, 

walking trails, and wildlife. 

A very fun afternoon!

El Templo de Debod

In my research about fun and interesting things to do while in Spain, I came across information about a Teleferico (cablecar) in Madrid.  Tom and  I  went in search - and as frequently happens when you go wandering you find things.  We actually came across several interesting things on our way to find the Teleferico, this is one of them.

El Templo de Debod   

We were out walking, enjoying the day, looking for the Teleferico and came across what appeared to be Egyptian buildings.  Now I knew about the Roman occupation, but Egyptian?  

Seems that back about 1960, when the Great Dam of Aswan was going to be built, there were several historically significant monuments that would have been lost due to the flooding.  Spanish archaeologists provided  assistance to the Egyptian state in helping to save the temples of Abu Simbel, and to show their gratitude the Temple of Debod was donated to Spain in 1968.

The temple was relocated and rebuilt in Madrid's  Parque del Oeste, which is near the Royal Palace of Madrid; It opened to the public in 1972.

We stopped at the temple during its closed hours, and had fully intended to return to go in to see the temple, but you know how it is when you are out on walkabout.  you never seem to go back the way you came!

The temple itself  is a small room/chapel originally dedicated to the god Amun, it was later dedicated to Isis of Philae.

17 July, la Rioja, España

Vitoria-Gasteiz is, among many things, a European Green Capital,

http://www.vitoria-gasteiz.org/we001/was/we001Action.do?idioma=en&aplicacion=wb021&tabla=contenido&uid=u_381301f_12c0b0a6541__7fdf

read all about it. You'll have to cut n paste the link, I can't make it work.


We were up at 2:30 this morning to get to the airport in Porto, to make one of two daily flights to Bilbao. At that time of the morning the Metro doesn't run, and the only way to get to the airport is a taxi, a taxi ride that costs just about 30€, and takes 15minutes. We did have a great driver that gave us a good dose of info on both port, it's production, the restrictions imposed on the growers, and of course the economy of Europe.

Oh, one thing, when you travel between European Union countries you don't have to do any Customs, or Immigration stops. You just show your id or passport for checkin and Security.

So flight to Lisbon, one hour+\- layover, then to Bilbao. Upon arrival in Bilbao we headed to the Tourist Info kiosk and started gathering info, maps, and pamphlets.
Then we caught a bus from the airport to the main bus terminal, we got there just in time to catch the bus, less than an hour travel time, to Vitoria. Once the bus started going through Vitoria we weren't sure where to get off as we had no plan yet, other than getting here.

So we're driving down a big boulevard, and it looks to have restaurants and hotels, so well we got off - Right in front of a Barceló Hotel, so I tell Tom we'll go in, use their internet and reconnoiter.

I pull up a webite with hotels for the area. We've been staying in what could be considered budget hotels, no problem, we haven't needed much out of them. This night we decided to splurge a little. The Barceló Gasteiz is just at 80€ a night, we decide what the heck, its just one night.

The hotel, and the room look nice enough, on the surface. But once you've let yourself in you see all the flaws the poorly applied makeup are trying to cover. It's dated, a bit shabby, scratched and scruffed. And our aire conditioner isn't working. Well its running, but its not cooling. So here it is 11pm, we just got in from dinner, we drank a botte of wine, and we need to go to sleep. But wait, we now need to wait on a repair person.

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So we are here in Vitoria to start our wine excursions. Looks like tomorrow we head to Logroño where we should be able to tour/visit several wineries.
Tom is all giggly! Well he was earlier, and I'm sure he will be again tomorrow!

My what a jumble this is, I'll have to try to put some order to it when we get home.

The weather

Before we left on this trip we were advised, by several, about how hot it was going to be in Spain this time of year. They were wrong! It's been absolutely gorgeous!

Of course this time of year in Mérida we are in the high 20's with VERY high humidity.

When in Southern Spain; Cordóba, Granada, Sevilla, it was in the high 20's, but with no humidity we barely noticed. Now, here in Portugal, well it's been low to mid 20's, a bit cool for me. Yesterday was our first less than perfect day, it was heavy sky and cool, I saw 19 on the news report. About 6pm it started misting, then actually raining, and a fog came in and obscured the landscape.

We came back to the room about 7:30 and didn't leave again till 10 to go get some dinner.

We're planning a trip on the Douro river, it's a 12 hour trip, I may need to go buy a sweatshirt, or maybe blanket! I could cut a hole and turn it into a pancho.

Tuesday, 10 July, traveling to Portugal

Tuesday, 10 July, traveling to Portugal

We left Sevilla, España at 3pm, about 4:30pm we passed in to Portugal and shortly therefter made a super quick stop in Castro Marim. Castro Marim has a huge castle which would be really cool to explore. Castro Marim sits along the river, and has a definite beach resort feel about it.

The ride so far has been quite enjoyable, the scenery has been lovely. The seats are a bit narrow, at least by our big butt American standards. There are plenty of open seats on the bus for us to spreadout should we so desire.

As soon as we passed in to Portugal we passed several small communities built on to the hillside and all houses are white with red tile roofs.

Oh, and no stop at Customs was required. We did have to show our passports to buy the tickets, but so far no one has asked to see them.

So apparently we are completely wrong about our bus route because we now see what appears to be the Ocean on our left. Ok, a sign just confirmed, we are passing Tavira, which is in fact on the ocean/sea.

We have made several stops. Quite tedious - should you ever find yourself in the bus station in Faro, don't, nuff said!

So a while ago we pull into a gas station restaurant combo, we think ok, refill. Nope, think again, 30 minute break, arrrrggghhhhh, just get me to frickin Lisbon. So we walk around abit then decide to see if he restaurant or the gas station has wifi, the gas station does so in we go, unfortunately we couldn't connect. BUT, we found, ok, hold your breath, Ketchup flavored Ruffles.

 

Yep, I know, who is the genius that thought this up. Of course I bought a bag, in spite of having to listen to Tom's derision, and the heavy price tag. 1.85€ yipes! But oh after that first chip flavor exploded in my mouth, heaven!

Back on the road, landscape has changed more rolling hills and open spaces than he hilly mountainous before. Lots more livestock, cattle, sheep. Before it was more agricultural. Still lots of sunflower fields, and olive trees have changed or citrus.

One thing I've noticed is how much I miss a vista, a view, the horizon. In Mérida, for those of you who've not been, we are flat. The peninsula is on a limestone shelf and for the most, there are of course the exceptions, we are very flat. I think that lack of physical view or vista translates into our perceptions as well, I feel more open. Like I now have more breadth. I don't feel like I miss out in Mèrida, I just feel like i become content in a smaller area, more content in my encapsulation.

Oh boy, we're starting to see fields of grapevines.

We made it! We're in Lisbon, in our room, ready for bed after eating a great meal, and drinking yet another great bottle of wine, white this time.

I'll have to add pictures later. Adding pictures with Blogsy is a real pain. But I'll do it, honest! Just keep checking back!


 

Friday night, 6 July 2012 - Zambra Flamenco, Granada

Friday night, 6 July - Zambra Flamenco, Granada

We went to a Zambra Flamenco show, this is not the traditional Flamenco we are mostly familiar with.

There seems to be a bit more of a bohemian, wildness to it. What impressed me, or made me take note was the emotion of the women as they danced, then once the dance ended it was like they reverted to their other everyday selves; as if during the dance they are transported and are channeling some long ago ancestor.

There was a guitarist, a fabulous guitarist. And five women, each performed as leads and as backup several times during the evening. The only other instruments were castanets, and the hands and voices. The clapping was pure percussion, and quite resounding, the voices were loud, and intense and full of angst, passion, emotion, and quite bad. I mean I am so sorry to say this but none of these women would make it on American Idol except on the Bad Reel.

 

The voices were really bad, but the songs, the singing, the passion and emotion that played throughout the performance was awesome. We really enjoyed the evening, and would definitely suggest that you go.

Ok, so here are some pics of the evening - oh, we went on a package from the hotel, they pick you up, you stop and get others, then as part of the drive up the SacraMonte you stop at an overlook for a few minutes view of the sunsetting over the city.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

San Lorenzo de Escorial and El Escorial!

I found the town of San Lorenzo de Escorial to be quite lovely, very neat clean, well maintained, lovely plantings, flowers everywhere. Andbsince it's built hillside the streets are cobbled and its good exercise getting anywhere.

 

This link will give you good history for 'el Escorial', I'll just show a few fotos!