Day Trips from Madrid

Although exciting and full of things to do we also wanted to see some of the places just outside Madrid.  

St Teresa's in Avila

 

On Day 3 we decided to do a guided tour to Avila and Segovia.  

Avila is a medieval walled city (12th century) where St Teresa is from and started the new Carmelite nuns in the 16th century.  Having gone through primary school being taught by the Carmelite nuns and remembering Mum walking us to church at St Teresa's it was very interesting to go there and here about and see where it all happened.  We first went to St Vincent's basilica and then walked through the town towards St Teresa's convent and church.  It was quite different to the scout hall converted to St Teresa's that we used to go to.  Avila was a very pretty town and we would like to have the chance to go back and explore it further.  

We then we to Segovia and found a place for lunch then met for the afternoon tour at the Roman aquaduct, 28m high and 894m long with no mortar and still in pristine condition.  

We enjoyed walking the streets and went to the Cathedral followed by the alcazar (castle) where Queen Isabel sometimes stayed and where she had received Christopher Columbus at times.

On Day 5 we took the fast train to Toledo. Toledo was overlooked in favour of Madrid to be the capital of Spain as it was too powerful in the 16th century.  We enjoyed walking around this city with its Muslim, Jewish and Christian influences.  The Cathedral was spectacular and housed works by El Greco, Rubens and many others.  We also went to the synagogue which was also a place not to be missed.  We looked for the last remaining mosque but were unable to find it.  

Toledo

On Day 7 we went to El Escorial on the recommendation of Susanne.  This was home to a monastery and palace combined with an amazing basilica.  

This was well worth going to with the highlight being the "Crypt of Kings".  Only monarchs are placed in the kings' side of the crypt. Spouses have their own section. Isabella II is the only queen residing on the kings' side.  The current King's parents are waiting in the "rotting room "before being placed in there.  It was quite incredible.

Photo source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Escorial

 Thankfully being in Madrid for 8 days meant we were able to do these day trips and would strongly recommend all of them to anyone going there. 

More photos.

Madrid

School finished June 30 so July 2 we headed to Madrid for a week.  This entry will be about the city and we'll do a separate one for the day trips. 

Madrid was excellent, it reminded me of Fremantle but a city version.  It was great to wander around the streets, seeing great architecture, sculpture, people, eating wonderful food and the warmth!  We were staying on Gran Via which is the main road through the old part of the city.  It was a great location, we could walk almost anywhere (and we did) and there was also a metro stop near the hotel for when I was just too tired/hot.  The hotel had a rooftop pool with views over the old part of the city and I loved to look out at the Palace Real.  

The lifestyle seems very relaxed and we were definitely in the holiday frame of mind, up late, lunch at 3, dinner at 10 as the sun is finally going down.  We walked many of the streets of Madrid and followed Lonely Planet's walking tour and eating guides.  We also met up with Susanne a couple of times, a friend from school who used to live in Madrid, who took us to a few tapas bars as well as suggest a few places.

Madrid is known as the gay capital of Europe but what we didn't realise was that we had arrived during the biggest European Gay Pride Festival.  There were people everywhere and stages set up all around the city.  We had mojitos and watched part of a drag show.

On the Saturday night we went for a walk around the Latina barrio and had dinner at a great place in a piazza whilst Spain played in the quarter final for the World Cup.  Lots of people glued to tvs and walking back to our hotel we noticed that the streets had been blocked off, we thought it was soccer celebrations but when we got near our hotel we got to see the Pride parade going down Gran Via.  Their was loud music and lots of dancing and a carnival atmosphere.  We watched for a while and unfortunately did not find out until the next day that at the end of the parade just down the road was a free Kylie Minogue concert!!

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The Bavarian Forest

Last Saturday we drove two hours to near the Czech border to go to the Bavarian Forest.  We took a cable car to near the top of  the highest mountain, Grosser Arber.  We then walked down along one of the trails through forest.  

Afterwards we went for a walk around the nearby alpine lake, Arbersee.  It was another pretty walk to do and finished with the usual lunch of sausages and beer overlooking the lake.  

In the afternoon we went to Baumwipfelpfad,  a tree top walk, which has only opened recently and is said to be the longest in the world.  It is probably the longest due to the long spiral upwards (44m high) near the end.  It was a beautiful structure and the view from the top was amazing.

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Rainy Sunday Afternoon

Last Sunday we had rain yet again.  Ingrid had another set of reports to do but thankfully had most done on Saturday and finished the last few in the morning.  Sophie had organised ten of us to go for a big Dim Sum lunch, thankfully we hadn't had breakfast!  It was great to have such an array of food and different to the usual sausages.  Debra had chicken feet but we decided not to try that!

We had decided to leave museums, galleries etc.. for rainy days.  The nice thing is that quite a lot of the big galleries here only charge 1 Euro on Sundays and to our surprise they are not crowded!! 

Glyptothek

We went to the Glyptothek first.  This is one of Munich's oldest museums full of art and sculpture from ancient Greece and Rome.  The building was also amazing and had been reconstructed after the war.

After this we went to the Neue Pinakothek.  It was great to be able to get so close to such famous artists' works that back home we would have to queue and pay a lot for.  There were lots of German paintings as well as Van Gogh, Monet, Cezanne, Gauguin, Manet,  and sculptures by Rodin.

Overheard as we were leaving: "There were so Manet, it made such an impression I could hardly see them for Matisse* in my eyes. For 1 Euro, it was well worth the Monet. We will definitely Gaugin as we have nothing Toulouse."

                                                                            *thanks to Steve A.

Jazz and Joe Green

I had a very busy weekend of lots of report writing.  Thankfully we got to break this up with some great activities.  

Friday evening we went to Dachau Aldstadt.  Sometime ago we were told about a special night in Dachau - it was a "Chess Night".  Needless to say we weren't as enthused as the guy telling us about it until he produced a leaflet that said "Jazz Night".  It was a fantastic night with 8 different bands on stages set up around the old town - in alleys and piazzas with beer gardens (and sausage stalls) set up at each.  Unusually there was a cocktail stall which our friend Penny was very happy to find.  The "Amper Stompers" were a particularly entertaining collection of ageing gentlemen belting out trad jazz. At one point, the pianist wittily combined a well known Beethoven stanza with a piece of Richard Claydermen in a frenetic honky tonk piece. We continued the night sitting and listening to an amazing gypsy swing quartet lead by the guitarist, Joscho Stephan, who we will try and see again sometime whilst here.

Saturday morning we were invited to Sophie and Craig's place for pancakes.  Mmmm ..... banana pancakes.  After this I went back to reports :(  and Malcolm took Sophie for another check up for her knee at a very thorough German hospital!

Schloss Schleissheim

Back in August when we visited the Schloss Schleissheim we were keen to go to a concert in the beautiful hall inside.  Tickets selling out and prices stopped us doing this last year.  But this year....

In thanks for Malcolm's patient transfers, Sophie bought us tickets to see the Verdi concert for the Saturday night.  Except for the ordinary wine we were not disappointed.  

Being as cultural as we are, we then went to the Beer Garden in the Schloss gardens for beer and sausages!

More photos.

Goodbye,Yellow ....

The rapeseed flower spectacular now being over, I thought that I would post a couple of photos: one with the Haimhausen church steeple in the background, taken on the way back from Ingrid's school one morning and the other taken a few kilometres to the east of here, as we flew in to Munich Airport coming back from Croatia.

Summer is here......finally

Beautiful sunny weekend and we got to enjoy lunch on the balcony.