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Published: June 10th 2011
Rather than wax philosophical this evening, I thought I´d share my initial impressions of Spain as we have now entered the greater metropolitan area of Madrid, the capital of the country with a population of about three million. I warn you, however, that I am typing on an European keyboard, so any errors are entirely the fault of the keyboard, not the typist.
Bill and I have done a lot of people watching during the past two weeks as we sit in some of the lovely plazas of these ancient towns. And though I doubt that he has noticed the ¨Hello Kitty¨ phenomena, I certainly have. You know who Hello Kitty is, don´t you? It´s a logo that is quite popular among little girls in America and obviously among females of all ages in Europe as I have seen the logo splashed across women´s breasts in both Portugal and Spain. Don´t quite understand the fascination with that line of clothing. We have observed, also, that the Spanish seem considerably less reserved than the Portuguese though we have met only one or two who speak English as well as I speak Spanish, which is not saying much.
We have also noticed several other cultural differences -- here, many men carry purses, man purses, of course. Bill wonders what´s in them, I figure that men carry exactly what women carry -- stuff, mostly useless, stuff. While the men carry their purses, the women teeter and totter over cobblestone sidewalks, often up and down steep hills, in their oh-so-high stiletto heels, heels that perfectly match the outfit of the day. Older women, however, dress much more practically. Both men and women under the age of fifty seem glued to their cell phones and their, unfortunately, cigarettes.
Speaking of people, our host tonight is a 27 year old Brazilian man whom we contacted through Warm Showers. He shares a two bedroom apartment with two other guys -- a Chinese man studying for his doctorate and ann Argentine whose girlfriend is visiting now also. Though Raoni has limited space, he generously opened up his domicile to us -- it´s not the size of the space. it´s the size of the heart.
We arrived here around 2 p.m., chatted for a while, and showered then headed into the town of Getafe for dinner and people watching. Once again, the food was reasonably priced; the two of us always eat for less than 20 euros, and as in Portugal, the price stated includes drinks and taxes -- no tipping is expected. Beer comes with the meal though I ordered a Sprite this evening, which earned me a raised eyebrow from the waitress. In addition to alcohol, the Iberians do like their eggs. I ordered a tortilla francesca, expecting, well, a taco or a tortilla. What I was served was a delicious omelette in the shape of a triangle with the ubiquitous patatas fritas (french fries) and a tomato. Bill ordered pollo and was served chicken with a small side salad topped with the ubiquitous tuna, a hard boiled egg, and patatas fritas. Now, had we waited until a "decent time," say 9 p.m. or so, we would have had many more options as that is the typical dinner time in this part of the world. In fact, our host tells us that some places do not even open until after midnight. Hmmmm. . . . . . . . .
Time to talk about the roads. I must say that Lady and the Tramp are taking the changing pavements quite in stride. (Though Lady did succumb to a flat tire this morning on the way out of Toledo.) The road surfaces in Spain are generally much better than those in Portugal. They are smoother and often offer a nice shoulder for cyclists. In fact, the rural roads have been quite pleasant. We observed a number of what appear to be professional cyclists, all dressed up in their matching jerseys and shorts, cycling the back roads of Spain. Who knows, we may have waved hello to someone famous -- where is Miguel Indurain these days, any how? Cycling from one city to another, however, is NOT so easy.
Coming out of Toledo this morning, we could not find a cycle-friendly road -- several autovias (similar to our freeways and prohibiting cyclists) but no back roads headed for Madrid. We ended up having to go way out of the way, meandering through small towns in order to finally get to Getafe, about 10 miles south of the enter of Madrid. Once we got to Getafe, finding Raoni´s apartment was difficult but amusing. As in all the towns, the streets are labyrinthine, having evolved over the centuries rather than being platted out. Public transportation is obviously quite popular as buses run to even the remotest of small towns. Tomorrow, we plan on taking the train into Madrid and doing a little sightseeing; I really want to see Picasso´s La Guernica and whatever else I can find. On Sunday, we plan on biking into the train station in Madrid and taking the train to Santiago de Compostela, the beginning of the medieval pilgrimage route.
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Steve Chatterton
non-member comment
flat tires
Gerri We need to have a serious conversation about tires. You have a brand new Lady Liberty in your life and she needs high quality tires. I may be out of line with my opinion but I feel obligated to offer some unasked for advice. You need to try Schwlabe Marathon Plus tires. I have had 18,000 trouble free miles on the rear tire of my touring bike. They are not cheap but well worth the money. Other than that, I look forward to the description of your tour on a daily basis Happy Trails Steve