Lleida - Madrid - Barcelona

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Driving towards Lleida had its own interest. In broad daylight, Good Friday, spaced at roughly 1klm intervals, by the side of a busy national Rd, nothing else aound - ladies of the night (or are they ladies of the day at that hour), sitting on plastic chairs with mobile phones stuck to their ears. That´s one tough gig. I thought how desperate they looked but then realised they were only half as desperate as the clients I assume must turn up. And what do they do with the chairs while they are fullfilling their job description?
LLeida was always going to be Logisticsville.
email - tick
washing - tick. Never thought I could get so excited about clean clothes.
car clean - tick. A story in itself. Remember Penny, FICHA means token and MONEDA means coin. 2 minutes later as the rather angry garage attendant is trying to dislodge the 1 euro coin from the token slot......
Lleida seems also to be the crane capital city of the crane capital country of the world. But then sitting in the shadows of the enormous church/castle perched on the hill in a neat little cafe, coldie in hand, cool jazz wafting out of the speakers, there were a lot worse places to be.
MADRID
After a long but quick toll free drive, we hit Madrid. Sunday afternoon arrival so we headed straight for El Retiro, an open area of parkland where Madrileños go this time of the week for some outdoor fun. I have a theory. Because so many Spanish seem to live in apartments, public spaces are just that, a space to be enjoyed by all and sundry and get out of those apartments for a touch of fresh air and green. I like it, buskers, music, cafes etc. I´m not so sure about hiring a dinghy to row around a man made lake of 100m x 200m although there seemed to be plenty of local punters lined up to participate.
We were also prepared for all sorts of pickpockettng tricks, so when something wet landed on Penny´s vest, we both went ino red alert for the old fake bird dropping ploy. Fortunately for us, it was a real bird, and judging by the extent of the aftermath, it must have been an Ostrich.
On the Monday we decided to visit the bustling Rastro market where my father was pickpocketted some years ago. We were ready for them. Unfortunately I didn´t read my guide book closely enough as Rastro only bustles on Sundays and in fact doesn´t exist any other day. But I was prepared to double dog dare any thief to give it his/her best shot. Don´t forget we´ve been to Quito and the petty crooks of Madrid are mere novices in comparison.
Madrid is also blessed with some of the world´s great art galleries. Not being a huge fan of the glory days of the likes of Velazquez, Goya, El Greco etc, we plumped for El Centro de Arte de La Reina Sofia and it´s wonderful collection of 20th century art, especially some of the local greats. All the Pablos - Picasso, Pazuelo, Gargallo. Plus a host of others, including Dali. If I had to see 1 painting before arriving in Europe it was Picasso´s La Guernica. It´s easy to find, just go to the second floor and listen for the noise and look for the crowd of heads in that direction. It´s popular but spectacular none the less.
If you are into portraits at any level, try and check out the work of Chuck Close. Up close with Chuck or at a distance, it is mindboggling.
Back in the real world and Madrid is surrounded by some beautiful satellite cities.
AVILA - fortified city where you are free to follow to the walls up high most of the way around.
SEGOVIA - another medieval city complete with the usual maze of streets, giant cathedral, Alcazar perched precariously on the edge of a steep precipice, plus one mighy great aquaduct 28m high, god knows how long and not a drop of cement holding it together. The Romans knew how to build big sturdy aquaducts, but wouldn´t some copper pipe have been a tad simpler.
TOLEDO - another medieval city following a similar formula to Segovia with a lot more tourist buses disgorging their contents onto the narrow streets. You suspect kitsch when the town has a motorised toot toot train to shuffle the tourists around its streets. You know for certain when seemingly half the shops sell suits of armour and other assorted medieval fightin gear. Maybe its´s simply a representation of the good old fashioned gladiatin that went down in Toledo back in yonder times.
BARCELONA
On the way out of Spain and we decided to give Barcelona one more chance, in fact Spain one last opportunity to give us just 1 day without rain. FAILED again. Rain, rain and more rain. Colvin and Yeates - drought breakers. Weather aside, a visit to the Science Museum is great value at 3 euro. Better than the asking price for Gaudi´s museum at 16.50 euro. ouch!!!
SPAIN
What to pack if visiting Spain in SPRING.
Tomtom
toothbrush
thick fleecy lined coat
1 mighty big umbrella
crash helmet - 106 road deaths over the Easter week and you can believe it. Some of these guys have no sense fo self preservation on the open road.
What not to pack
sunglases
swimmers
blockout
shorts and t-shirt
YEATESY

FAVOURITES FOR THE WEEK
*Picasso, Miro, Dali, Gargallo (who I had forgotten his name in Zaragoza)
*Navigating through Atocha station on Easter Sunday - bombed in 2003
* Madrid in general. I loved the architecture, parks meseums and tapas bars, plus the weather was slightly better than in Barcelona.
*Segovia, the aquaduct framing the city
*Toledo - a ´wow´ city, and rain free while we were there. A tad expensive however, probably catering to the large numbers of Japanese tourists that visit for the obligatory few minutes to capture their photos up on the hill overlooking the city.
*The smell of my clean clothes and getting particularly excited as the time drew near to collect them!! very sad.
NOT SO GOOD FOR THE WEEK
* No easter eggs consumed for Easter Sunday - travel day
* The mass of roads entering / exiting the freeways - very LA style. Traffic jams entering and exiting every city - thankfully we have Jane to navigate the ¨bare left, keep in the right lane, in 200 meters bare left, take the 2nd exit etc etc.
* Rain nearly every day while Paris enjoys 24 degree sunshine.
* Purchase of another 2 umbrellas that are getting plenty of use.
* Big bird pooh on my CLEAN clothes, could it not have poohed on me before they were washed!
AMAZING THINGS FOR THE WEEK
*The tourist map of Madrid advising the¨must do´s¨ including their tapas, have Catriona Rowntree (not sure on the spelling) from Getaway as the promotional photo! Go figure.
*Navigate Renfe, Metro and the Ferrocarril (all within the city centre) just to visit the Science Museum which is also in the city centre. Why 3 different train systems for such a short distance?
*Avila is the Stork capital of Spain. They nest on every high point in the city, especially steeples, which Avila has many. You would think the bells would drive them away, but judging from the number of babies in the nest, the bells must be conducive to mating.
* Gary answers more of the questions on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (Spain version) than the contestants do. We could do with some additional funds for the holiday.
SUMMARY FOR THE WEEK.
My fitness is waining, after climbing up and down the fortified wall in Avila, my legs have been aching.
Gary got very angry (yes angry) with me and started jumping up and down, when I didn´t get in behind him in a lift that we had to pay 20 cents for because he had been liaising with the guy in spanish on the intercom, and he assumed I understood the instructions. Parting with another 20 cents soon fixed the problem... and Gary is back to his old self.
PENNY

More images at:

www.colvinyeates.zenfolio.com

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Photos

Lleida
Cafe overlooking crane capital

Madrid
Centro de Arte de la Reina Sofia.
Even the foyer is impressive

Madrid
Plaza Mayor

Avila
Ramparts view

Avila
Main Plaza

Segovia
Reflecting on Segovia

Segovia
There has to be an easier way to channel water

Toledo
Holy Toledo - received our stamp of approval.

Barcelona
Bring
Umbrellas
Mate

Barcelona
Crowds rambling down Las Ramblas