Sorry for my Absence

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Forgive my not having blogged for nearly two weeks. My adventures will have to be condensed until I get back on track. I´ll pick up in Madrid, our first stop on our five-day sojourn back into Spain.

I was not prepared for Madrid´s charm. It is a beautiful city with a vibrant street life and exceptional culture (what little we were able to see of it). Fortunately, our hotel turned out to be very well situated for reaching what we wanted to see in the three days we were there. We were able to walk everywhere, allowing us to enjoy the numerous street musicians (all excellent), wonderful mimes, and exquisite architecture. It reminded me very much of Paris. We were able to visit two excellent museums: the Museo Thyssen-Barnemisza and the Prado. Both had extensive collections of paintings from the 13th through the 20th centuries. We attended our second flamenco dance and found it not that different from what we´d seen in Granada, except that the dancers/musicians were older and more sophisticated. I definitely want to return to Madrid and spend at least a week there.

We flew on to Sevilla for a two-day visit. We had visited the city earlier on one of our tours, so had some knowledge of the area we wanted to spend some time in. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that includes three elements right next to each other. The first is the Giralda and cathedral with Giralda being the now bell tower for the cathedral. It was formerly the minaret for the mosque that stood on the site. The cathedral itself is huge, ranking third in size behind St. Peter´s in Rome and St. Paul´s in London. The second site is the Real Alcazar, a magnificent palace first built in the 10th century and still used by the royal family of Spain. The third site is the Santa Cruz District, also known as the old Jewish Quarter. The streets are tiny and plazas small, but intimate. It is now an upscale neighborhood and is charming.

Our visit to the area took a difficult turn when we stopped at an outdoor cafe for a late lunch the day before we were to leave to fly back to the Algarve. I´ve always been very vigilent about my personal belongings, but somebody made off with my purse which was at my feet next to the wall of the restaurant. Don and I were shocked, but neither the waiter nor the police officer he called seemed a bit surprised.

As you can image, the incident started a stressful period that isn´t over yet. The police officer was undercover and unable to take a report. He directed us to a local police precinct several blocks away, where we filed a report with someone who spoke English. She directed us to the main police station to pick up the report that was a mile-long walk away, even though they made it sound like it was just a few blocks.
We got the report and were able to call a taxi to go back to the hotel and start calling my bank and the credit card companies. The good news is that they only got about 25 euros and there weren´t any new charges on my credit cards. But except for the police report, I had no name and no country. It felt very strange. Thank heavens Don was with me and very supportive all the way. The next day I found my name on an airline ticket, so I knew I still existed, and airport security accepted my police report in lieu of a Passport.

We flew back to the Algarve for a final week´s stay in a hotel in Vilamoura. This is a highly developed village just west of Faro, but there were no dreaded concrete high-rise hotels. The developer had the good sense to limit the height of the buildings. The hotel was very comfortable except that their Internet system was down and there weren´t any Internet spots in the village, so I couldn´t blog last week either.

We spent most of our time recovering from the trip to Spain and soaking up the sun, which by now was out in full and glorious force. We did have to drive to Lisbon and back (7-1/2 hours) to get a temporary replacement Passport for me one day. Getting into my own Embassy was quite an interesting experience. They probably don´t want me to talk about their security measures, but they are considerable. Two days of last week we spent in and just out of Faro, the main city on the Algarve. There were huge storks sitting in nests on church steeples, light standards, building ledges, trees, you name it, in the city and out in the country. We visited two bird preserves and chartered a boat out to an outer island that protects the dunes. It was a great week of rest and relaxation. But, no pictures as my camera was in my purse and with everything else is gone.

Yesterday we flew to Lisbon, picked up another car and have driven out the coast to the west. We are staying in a hotel in Carcavelos, just across from the beach. Don is down there now taking photos while I catch up on my e-mail and blogging. We hope to find a computer store that has the kind of device that will allow me to publish pictures in this blog again. He´s lent me one of the two cameras he brought, so I will have my own pictures to share again. Just not any of the 150 I took in Madrid and Seville.

From here on, for the last three weeks of the trip, we´ll be moving around a lot as we explore northern Portugal for the first time. Given the Internet options in the hotels we stay at, I´m not sure how much blogging I can do. Will try my best!

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Comments

[Ramona]

Nice to hear from you again
Hi Marry--I'm catching up on your travels--what an interesting trip. Things are heating up at TallShips--it will be good to have you back again. I'm still going in on Wednesdays. Keep up the blog--I do check it from time to time. Safe travel! Ramona