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Published: February 13th 2007
blog by Bronia & Dave REMINDER: Every blog has between 40-80 pictures yet usually only 20 are displayed on the first page. To see them all - make sure you click the "NEXT" button at the bottom of the page. Alternatively double-click on a picture to see the slideshow. To all you readers that have followed our journey around the world over the last year you will have probably realised that Jan 29th we flew back to England and ended our world trip.
But you may have also noticed that we haven't finished our blogs. So here is our penultimate blog that follows our last few days in Europe before we flew home to London and the trip ended.
Enjoy.... Flying back to Europe
Well, we have just completed a gruelling leg of the trip.
In THREE days (including TWO
very very long nights) we flew from the southern to the northern hemisphere landing in
five countries,
five capital cities and
three continents.
The end result were two weary zombie like passengers emerging at
Madrid airport early morning of Jan 21 to the freezing winter temperatures of 2 degrees Celsius. Brrrrrr !
That, after having last been in the hot 35 degree Celsius temperature of
Buenos Aires, was a great shock.
We left
Buenos Aires, Argentina on January 19th flying to
Santiago, Chile. There we waited a lovely 6 hours in the airport until our overnight flight to
New York, USA. It stopped in
Lima, Peru for a few hours and then set off again at 2am.
We arrived in
New York on January 20th and waited a further 8 hours in the airport before flying overnight again (our second night sleeping upright in a chair - lovely) to
Madrid, Spain whereupon we landed back again in
Europe. Going through customs in
Madrid with our European Union passports meant that for the first time in a year of travel we were able to stand in the
Citizen lineup through immigration, rather than the
International/Visitor line as we have been so used to doing for the past year. Normally they don't stamp your EU passport anymore but we asked the immigration officer if they would do the honours to complete the round-the-world set.
I'm sure we heard tutting from impatient travellers behind us in the queue as the EU
stamp was located but we didn't care. This was a significant moment for us and it was a moment to relish as it marked our re-entry on to home territory. There was a real sense for us that our trip really was ending, but there was a bit left to enjoy before the final curtain.
Madrid, Spain
(written by Bronia)
Madrid is simply beautiful. Okay - I know I've said that about alot of cities but it really surprised Dave and I. It's not that we thought it would be ugly and drab but rather that we haven't heard many people state that it is a great destination or choose it as a weekend city break in the same way that they do
Prague, Barcelona, Paris etc. And to be honest, we don't know why they don't.
With only three million people,
Madrid has a smallness and intimacy that is perhaps more lacking in bigger cities like
London, and yet is has all the cosmopolitan bustle and historical beauty that a capital city should have.
Our hotel was near the
Puerta de Atocha train station and the stunning
Retiro Park. The
Atocha train terminal
is
Madrid's main terminal into which all trains from across the European continent pull into and where
Madrid's underground metro connects. This is also where on March 11 2004 ten bombs exploded on four packed early-morning commuter trains, killing 191 people and leaving at least 1,800 injured. A memorial to that day is currently under construction.
The main building of the station is a lovely arching construction of glass, iron and brick (see pic) that stands imposing and grand with an enormous fountain in front of it, now in the middle of a roundabout, around which, cars swirl.
You can just imagine what it would have been like back in the 1800's to descend from a carriage amid the swirling steam of the engine and the scent of coal and to exit from the station to grandeur of this royal city. A long drive now filled with cars, known as
Paseo del Prado, leads from the station up a gentle slope lined with trees, now leafless because of winter, with pedestrian paths and cherubic fountains on either side.
We walked up the
Paseo del Prado nearly every day past the
Botanical Gardens that are right next to
the famous
Prado Museum and on past grand buildings with shops on the lower floor and wrought ironed balcony apartments above.
At the top of the drive is yet another imposing fountain of
Neptune, god of the sea, standing in his chariot with horses leaping out of the water. The old
Stock Exchange, the
Hotel Ritz built in 1910, a couple of churches, the old
Bank of Spain and the
Palacio de las Comunicaciones (post office) surround the fountain that stands triumphant in the middle of yet another roundabout. Modern city life surrounds and embraces all the history.
Along the
Paseo del Prado, stalls dealing in old and second-hand books, line a pedestrian path. We loved passing by in the mornings and seeing the sellers lining their books on display on trestle tables with their little booths full of teetering piles of books that smelt of old leather and libraries as we passed by. Such an evocative smell.
The
Prado Museum was one of our highlights. It was originally built in 1795 to act as a
Museum of Natural Sciences, hence the
Botanical Gardens still in existence beside it, but in 1818 it became an art gallery
and displays to this day vast collections by
Goya, Velazquez, Murillo, Ribera, Zurbaran as well as other famous European artists such as;
Rubens, Raphael, Poussin, Rembrandt, El Greco, Botticelli. The list of names is humbling.
Interestingly, the art you see at the
Prado (which is alot!) is only 10%!o(MISSING)f their collection. The rest remains stored in warehouses and basements and there are plans afoot to turn a few of the buildings surrounding the museums into extensions of the gallery itself in order to be able to exhibit more of the stunning collection they have available.
The
Prado collection is almost considered the royal art gallery since most of the work is owned by the current
Spanish Royal Family. That would be
King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia with their children;
Prince Felipe (b1968),
Princess Elena (b1963) and
Princess Cristina (b1965) for those that don't know.
King Juan Carlos became king on November 2 1975 after
Francisco Franco (yes, the same dictatorial
Franco who suppressed
Spain's development for decades) died. In his first message to the nation,
King Juan Carlos expressed the basic ideas of his reign, to restore democracy and become King of all Spaniards, without
exception. And so, democracy began and
Spain in its present form that we know today, emerged.
Madrid feels like a regal city, in much the same way that
London does. One of our favourite places we found during our few days in
Madrid was the
Retiro Park. Once private royal gardens built for
Philip IV (1605-1665) becoming a free public park in the 1800's every inch of this green space is beautifully manicured and planned out.
Pale sand coloured pathways criss-cross the park with avenues of trees on either side. Statues of kings long gone stand guard with fountains everywhere you turn and man made lakes round each corner.
The main lake, with a grand stage like statue commemorating
Alfonso XII fronting it (see pic) was once the location where theatrical mock naval battles were set up for a royal audience. Now however you can rent modest row boats and paddle around this rectangular pool. Old royal buildings, conservatories and exhibition halls have been built and preserved within the grounds. The
Crystal Palace greenhouse, a fragile beautiful creation, was built to house a tropical plant collection from
Asia many years ago and still stands resplendent in the
winter sunshine (see pic).
We passed through the park numerous times and at different lights of the day, strolling in the sunshine, watching football players on a spotlit field at dusk, or seeing the lake at nightfall with lights reflecting off it (see pic).
Runners, cyclists, rollerbladers, children with tricycles and balloons, couples wandering hand in hand, business men in suits using the park as a short cut, all passed by us as we sat on a bench and took in this peaceful oasis in the middle of Spain's capital city.
We ate tapas in a traditional bar, walked up and down narrow cobbled streets dipping in and out of shops, had a
"cafe con leche" (latte) when the rain came down and did our last
"Mannings Walking Tour" (see previous blogs for detail) round the town to visit the main sights.
We saw the
Royal Palace, unfortunately closed due to a meeting of ambassadors, and moved on to the
Catedral de la Almudena. Before we left the
Royal Palace we luck out and saw a spectacular show of the Royal Military march past us in their traditional red and blue uniforms, caps and brass band.
The sound was wonderful and it enhanced the atmosphere as we took shelter from the rain under a tree.
The
Catedral de la Almudena (see pics) was beautiful. It was built in 1879 but has a distinctly Moorish Arab feel. Rather than traditional columns and a crossed nave there are rounded arches everywhere. It is a warren of columns and small prayer chambers. We loved it.
We stood in the huge and imposing
Plaza Mayor (main square) which since its inauguration in 1620 has been the prized example of
Hapsburg Madrid. The
Hapsburgs were the Austrian branch of the royal family who intermarried and brought their culture and architecture (i.e.
Plaza Mayor) to
Spain.
The
Plaza's archways, under which restaurants and cafes abound, narrow streets wound away leading us to different parts of the city. Off one of these streets we found
San Miguel Market. It was charming with its wrought iron architecture and glass with fresh fruit and veg stacked in pyramids.
Our
"Mannings Tour" with Dave at the helm one final time took us past the most beautiful architecture full of history that I simply couldn't begin to write down. Or I could -
but I'd bore you all and this is meant to be a blog, not a history book!
(Now she tells you ! - Dave) Dave and I kept turning to one another and saying
"This is it - only a few days left and then it's all over."
It still felt surreal that the end of our world trip was so close.
In short, our time in
Madrid was wonderful. Being winter it was cold and we did get rained upon several times, but we were also treated to spectacular blue skies and crisp sunshine in between. We were left with a feeling that
Madrid was definately a city that we would revisit - and we can't think why we haven't been before.
So for those of you in
England looking for a short weekend break... might we suggest
Madrid to you?
We hopped on a plane on Jan 24 bound for
Lisbon, Portugal. We had five days left and we were spending them with my (Bronia's) dad Robert & his partner Sue.
Lisbon,Portugal
(written by Dave)
We considered the last leg of our trip to
Portugal to still be part of the world trip, despite the familiar territory and the friendly faces that greeted us
at the airport.
Speaking of which, Robert (Bronia's dad) and his partner Sue had gone to great lengths to ensure our arrival would be memorable. I had already asked Bronia whether she thought they would do something unusual for our arrival (having been greeted my first visit to Portugal with them dressed up as pirates - another story), her theory that they would indeed do “something” was confirmed as we emerged into the arrivals hall.
Here we were met by Robert kitted out in a tour guide t-shirt, a bush hat, a coiled length of rope over his shoulder (mountaineer style), some khaki shorts, a pair of huge hiking boots and a
Vulture Voyages sign which was their adopted logo in competition with my now famous
Mannings Tours company. Sue was dressed in an Indian smock with elephants on it, a straw hat and also some clonking great hiking boots.
Not content with simply greeting us with costumes they then unfurled a piece of red carpet in front of us which Bronia walked on and proceeded to read out a clever welcome poem they had written for us.
The looks we had from other people at
the airport waiting to greet travellers was memorable. We reassured ourselves with the fact that they were just jealous, not that they thought we all should be locked up with straight jackets.
Once we'd recovered from laughing, we jumped into the family mini-van and made our way to their home, a lovely 400-year-old converted farmhouse in the countryside about an hour north of the Portuguese capital,
Lisbon.
When we arrived in their small hamlet of
Formigal, after first popping to the local market in the nearest town of
Caldas de Raina (literally “The Queens Baths” so named for the local hot springs) for some refreshments, we were treated to a pseudo Christmas. Robert and Sue had put some Christmas decorations up over their big pine kitchen table below which were an array of gifts. It was a strange but fantastic feeling to be exchanging presents and cards with Christmas decorations around us and the unusually cold Portuguese weather helping create a festive atmosphere. It suddenly felt that we had come home.
Next, it was time to meet the dogs. A few years ago Robert and Sue took in three puppies after they had been abandoned in a
building site nearby. Since that time they have grown into big sturdy dogs that are a handful at the best of times but are actually as soft natured as can be.
They bounded up to us and welcomed us with wagging tails and sniffing noses. Despite their curiosity they were clearly wary of us new folk and it took a while for them to fully relax. They aren't really used to strangers but they soon got accustomed to the pair of us being around and apart from the occasional warning woof, we became good friends for the duration of our stay.
As Robert and Sue knew this was still part of our world trip, they told us that they had arranged a few outings and visits to give us a cultural side of
Portugal that we had not necessarily seen so far. Our first official outing was to the walled town of
Obidos, where we had been before, but this time it was to see where Robert and Sue run a shop called
Loja do Oeste which sells produce (wines, jams, herbs) and creative pieces from the local region, called
Regiao do Oeste (western region), almost like an
English county or a Canadian province.
Obidos is a really beautiful medieval town which is enclosed within some spectacular castle walls. This town, which was once the traditional gift that each Portuguese queen received upon taking the throne, sits proudly on a raised hill some 100km north of
Lisbon. Its narrow cobbled streets heave with tourists during the festivals in high season, and there are many shops in the whitewashed buildings that line the lanes and alleyways all vying for passing trade. There is a castle at the top of the hill, now a
Posada (expensive hotel) and the wall can be climbed and walked around. It really is postcard beautiful.
Loja do Oeste is a brand new venture by Robert and Sue with sparkling shelves and gleaming fittings and is a great looking place that is just finding its business feet. The pair have built up a big supplier network and a rapport with the locals and we really think it will take off given time and expansion into website and online ordering.
It was fun for us to see the place having heard so much about it as they planned it and set it up.
Our next excursion, organised through
Vulture Voyages was a guided tour of some wine producers based in
Bombarral called
Sanguinal that Robert and Sue work with.
We visited
Quinta do Sanguinhal in the town of
Sanguinhal where Ana Reis, the grand-daughter of the man who founded the vineyard, still lives on site with her mother and grandmother developing the business. Ana gave us a personalised tour with her dog Camilla and the fact that this is her family business meant that the tour contained fascinating anecdotes of the various houses and land ownerships that they have had over the years.
We went in some of the barns on the property, one of which was filled with old copper vats (see pic). The copper vats and the steam boiler was the distillery where on one side they made
Aguardente Vinica by distillling the alcohol off the wine. On the other side, a row of copper tanks was where they made
Aguardente Bagaceira by distilling the alcohol from the
Bagas (or "the must" as we would call it) the grape skins and residue skimmed off the tanks after fermentation of the wine.
We had our wine tasting in
the next town of
Bombarral at the old processing office of the
Quinta das Cerejeiras which was next to a lovely old Portuguese home with Azulejos (blue tiles) on the exterior of the house and a wraparound balcony. Her aunt used to live there and has now moved out due to old age so they are turning it into a museum. Next to the house is a church, once the village church but purchased by her great grandfather for preservation. Mass is still held here at Christmas and the tile work and detail in the church was again beautiful.
Ana Reis’s family own several vineyards and Quintas (ranches) in the area and used to employ many from the surrounding towns for their work. We had a lesson in wine tasting, trying “vino verde” (green wine - green for youth) - a type of very young wine famous in
Portugal. A few wines later we sampled a sweet wine called
Vinho Licoroso - basically a Port wine - but here they can’t call it Port as only the region of
Douro, where the town of
Oporto is, can lay claim to that name. You can find
Vinhos Licorosos throughout
Portugal 
Plaza Mayor
Madrid, Spainand this one was delicious. They don’t market their “Port” wine. The marketing and production costs are too expensive. So this is a labour of love which they sell locally and to those who know where to find them.
Our next stop on our wine-route tour was to
Quinta dos Loridos still in the
Bombarral district. Another spectacular set of buildings and land. Here, not only do they make wine but champagne and we saw how the bottles are angled and then regularly turned to ferment the wine properly.
Quinta dos Loridos is owned by one very very rich Portuguese man by the name of Joe Berardo. His “holiday home” - one of the spectacular buildings on the property is, we are told, rented out by the week for guests. It comes equipped with servants, cook, butler and cleaning maid. Nice.
When we arrived a large portion of his property is undergoing, well, massive earth movement. He had the idea, and obviously the money, to create an “Oriental Garden” which will eventually be open to the public, for a fee of course. This new garden of the Orient is a mix of Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Buddhist and Hindu
art and will sit on 35 hectares with an artificial lake, bamboo forests and other Asian themes. Six thousands tons of stone statues are being shipped in from
Asia, mostly
China. When we were there we saw huge lions and buddhas larger than our mini-van being crane-lifted into place or waiting in the sidelines for a home.
You get the sense looking at the project develop that this is a man with a lot of money and plans that are on a par with the way royals and lords used to build manor homes and palaces.
Leaving
Loridos our next visit was a drive south over the
Serra de Montejunto (Serra = Mountain range) which is the highest point in the region and the contributory factor to the microclimate of the region which allows grapes and other fruit to grow so well. Wildlife watching abounds here and the views over little white Portuguese towns are stunning.
Along a winding road up the mountain we came to the
Real Fabrica do Gelo (Royal Ice Factory). This north facing site is the ruins of what once used to be where they made ice for the royal family in
Lisbon so that they could have ice in their drinks in the summer.
These 40 square, stone, shallow pools (see pic) were built in 1741 and every October were filled with water. A man stood watch and when the water froze he called a team up the mountain who would then break up the ice and carry them to two nearby silos. The ice blocks were then drawn by oxen to the
River Tagus nearby and floated on “snow boats” down the river to
Lisbon. Bearing in mind that this site is over an hours drive away from
Lisbon gives you some idea of the distance the ice had to be taken, whilst it slowly melted, to reach the royal palace doors for their drinks “on the rocks.”
One of our more unique detours was a trip to a farm owned by a supplier of pear jam to Robert’s
Loja do Oeste. Here they make; pears with walnuts, pears with lemon, pears with hazelnut, pears with anise, and pears with chocolate all for spreading on toast! The Rocha Pear is famous here and everywhere you drive are pear trees dotted amongst the apple and many other fruit trees that
grow in abundance in this region.
We met the owner Alex Pimentel Fonseca and her mother and visited the cold store houses where pears picked in the autumn are kept refridgerated at -0.5 - +0.5 degrees to be shipped to places such as the
UK for various supermarkets’ shelves. In fact 13,520,000 kg of Rocha pears get shipped to
Europe each year. That’s a lot of pears. We left the storage house with a crate of pears that would take us weeks to eat through. Better find some pear recipes quick.
It transpired that this Rocha Pear supplier was also the proud proprietor of a horse training and breeding centre specialising in the famous
Lusitania horses. At an estate called
Casa Agricola Julio Pimentel Fonseca, Alex owns over 30 horses which she breeds, shows and sells to buyers all across
Europe. We were privileged enough to witness the 2006 World Champion and rider for the Portuguese equestrian team give us a private show of dressage in an indoor arena. Apparently rider and horse are going to
Windsor this summer to put on a show for the Queen with the hopes that she might purchase him.
Alex then
treated us to a tour of her horses and the young foals that have just been born on the estate before we went inside from the freezing cold and were treated to snacks and tea beside a roaring fire. This was just one more example of the Portuguese hospitality we experienced during our stay.
The rest of the time we basically just relaxed and allowed ourselves to wind down a wee bit after our return to
Europe. Free time would be spent stroking our new furry friends while reading newspapers and magazines, or sitting with a glass of wine, some cheese and good bread while we chatted away. All of this took place in front of the fire whilst our fingers and toes thawed out from the biting cold which had taken hold of this region.
On the penultimate night that we were there, we had hoped to take in a traditional festa (party) but soon found that we were out of luck as there weren't any events nearby that we could attend. We even crashed a wedding exhibition on the off-chance that there would be a party to enjoy, but again without success, so we drove round
and settled for a local restaurant. The food and wine was marvellous and we had a great night once again.
On our last day we spent the afternoon in the shop. It was fun to watch everything in action and we would occasionally go on a scouting mission to see what was being done in the other shops. We also made ourselves useful by pretending to be interested customers to entice other prospective buyers into the shop.
Now and again we popped into the cafe opposite for a coffee and a hot sandwich as well as exploring the rest of the town. On one of our walks a lovely white retriever adopted us (see pic) and he wandered with us as we looked round the medieval streets.
Later that evening we returned home to pack our things and get ready for our final flight to
London. Was this really going to be it? In many ways we were looking forward to the home coming; re-uniting with friends, family and of course pets, after what has seemed like such a long time but it was still a sad thought that it was all soon over.
The next
day - Jan 29th - we would be touching down in
Heathrow, London and drawing a line under what has been. the most fabulous adventure.
How time flies when you are having fun.
So now a short note...
This completes the end of our world trip nicknamed "bndxplore"
It is rather overwhelming to think that it has finished and that we now resume our lives as we left them, but a year on.
Our final blog which we plan on sending in a couple of weeks will be our last. It will be a reflection on our trip that we've done, hopefully with some interesting tidbits for you, as well as a summary of what it is like being back and reintegrating into daily life.
See you then!
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Ann Hulbert
non-member comment
Thanks
I feel like I travelled with you both. So sad now it's finished. Many thanks. Portugal looks great, never been there, only Spain.