I apologize for being so slow with reporting on the 24 days my wife and I spent in Spain this summer. This board was enormously helpful in planning our trip, and perhaps some brief reflections and comments will help someone else find something they value. At the same time, I want to avoid giving a breath by breath trip report and boring everyone; I’ll try to be as succinct as possible and will be more than happy to give more details of any particulars. Just ask.

By the way security was not a problem for us anywhere we went, but we are in our mid fifties and were not in the late night scene, and we were rarely around other American tourists or tourists at all if we could avoid them. Thanks for the tips on Plaza Mayor and Santa Ana. Our Spanish friends too warned us about watching our money, but then my friend left his open wallet in a restaurant in Santander and was pursued down the street by a running waiter. By the way I saw another pursuit when a woman left her purse in a Madrid ice cream shop. So for us, more people were pursued by Spanish folks trying to return money, than were accosted. I wonder if it is younger people who are more often targeted. I’m sure that staying away from American tourists keeps you safer.

Scope of trip: First A week in Madrid with day trips to Toledo, El Escorial, Alcala de Henares, and an overnight at Segovia. This week was particularly highlighted by a typical Spanish meal served in the room in which our host and friend was born in Madrid 50 years ago, with his 94 year old mother as one of the dinner guests. Second, a week by ourselves poking around the North starting at Loredo near Santander going as far west at El Fuente and as far east as Guernica.
Finally, a week being showed the beaches and favorite local spots in Santander and around Loredo by our Spanish friend who was raised in Madrid and has owned a summer place in Loredo for about 14 years.
I knew Madrid and surroundings thirty years ago, but I learned plenty on this site and on other sites suggested by this site. Thanks so much. Had we not paid attention to posters on this fine board, we’d have missed, among other things, the Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida, Goya’s gravesite and beautiful work there, the Madrid Teleferico, the caves section near Plaza Mayor( I had forgotten where they were), the Ribera de Duero wine and lamb of Aranda de Duero,

We visited too many places to mention, so I‘ll just select a sample. Here are some that I have not seen on the board or for which I have comments:

Madrid:
I thought the exceptionally large collection of armor in the Real Armeria in the Palacio Real was fascinating and it helped add a rich sense to my reading about Charles V. We liked 432 separate kinds of roses in a garden just below the entrance to the Teleferico and the wild parrots and other bird life in the gardens below the Palacio Real. Cuevas de Guitarra had more college students singing in dress at 2 AM than any of the other caves.

Alcala de Henares. The apartments I had lived in thirty years ago were there, but turned into larger pensions with only one landlord. Not much else was the same. I don’t think there is one, single shop, bar, or restaurant that is the same as it was then, and almost every place we walked had been totally renovated or was scheduled to be so. The dusty central square was now all flowers. I could not find (as was my fantasy) 12 year old Maria Jose all grown up and still making fresh potato chips in olive oil at her family shop. I did find the Spanish soldiers bar where we used to eat good bean soup. It is a Cyber cafe. We sent out e-mail from there! What a Rip Van Winkle experience that was!

I was also stunned with the renovation at La Granja and glad I stopped on my way to Segovia. What a change from the dirty old run down palace it was!

And all the times when you guys were praising El Corte Engles on this board, I thought you meant the single store I knew near Puerto de Sol. I did not realize they had spread everywhere. Incredible!


I visited the casino in Santander and found it rather dull and a bit too serious for me. But I did enjoy playing on a French roulette table which has the lowest vigorish of roulette worldwide and is unavailable in the United States casinos except for one table in casino Paris, Las Vegas, and minimum bets there are $25. In Santander they were 500 ptas. In spite of the good odds, I lost.

The ride up the cable car at Fuete De and the walk around the mountaintops was absolutely thrilling.

My favorite, small Northern beach was Noja. The tourists were all Spanish. The rough force of the surf was naturally broken by a beautiful cluster of rock set well out from the beach, and this formed a wonderful pool for swimming in the crisp, cold water. While we picnicked, the feel of the hot sun was refreshingly brushed from our skin by a constant, cool breeze. The look of place, with just one small hotel and restaurant, seemed a European romance; it made me think of the terse conversations in a Hemingway short story, or scenes from a Henry James novel, or of what traveling might have been like seventy or more years ago.


We liked being in Guernica, walking through the legislative building, seeing the ancient oak and meeting very friendly people, getting a sense of Basque culture not visible in the nightly news. We liked it better actually than the Guggenheim. After days of old art and history, cathedrals, palaces, fortresses, that modern, cold, steel structure felt out of place, perhaps something that better belongs in Las Vegas.
And the art inside was not accessible to me. An empty, white plasterboard, nine by nine room, the ceiling decorated with six flourescent woodshop lights in three soft colors does not in my opinion need to be guarded as art. On the contrary, grafitti should be encouraged. Much of the rest of it felt like a visit to Sears department store. In one room were thirty televisions all going at once. In another, the Armani clothing department. But the laser cone was fun.

We loved the Gaudi house of sunflowers in Camillas as well as the very touristy torture museum.

While we enjoyed the bullfight at las Ventas, the bulls in Madrid were not a fierce as I had hoped. Perhaps they had used up the best during the June festival. Twice the belled herd came out to coax a rejected bull out of the ring when a matador refused to continue.
In the fishing port town of Santona where they can sardines and other fish delicacies, we walked at dusk into an empty ring by caretakers, loafing in the doorway, and we were given a fine tour. We looked into one area; on our right was a tiny little chapel where matadors prayed and on our left the huge meat hooks where the bull was butchered. Juxtaposition at its best.



Covering his tomb, the marble sculptured replica of Carlos, illegitimate son of Carlos V, a favorite of women in his time. He died young because he must prove himself a warrior. Better to have let the girls enjoy his long hair and blue eyes. Now girls kiss his cold marble cheek to increase their odds of finding a husband.




food information: (see our food post in that section)
hotel information: (see our hotel post in that section)

Guidebooks of value in finding places of interest:

Lonely Planet guides suit us the best always when we travel This time we used these titles:
Spain
Madrid
Spanish Phrasebook - For those less than fluent this fit in your pocket book had more practical phrases for literally every situation you could imagine and a section in Basque (which we used well to our advantage), Catalan and Galician.
Insider Guide - gives excellent background to a country and its people.
We also loved the details in the Rough Guide which was new to us.

Essential Food and Drink published by AAA for a British audience was perfect for those obscure menu items. this too was easy to carry.

La Guia Turistica y de Negocios -Comunidad de Madrid - Very brief, particular information and useful maps.

Totally useless to us was Baedeker’s famous guide. It is arranged alphabetically instead of by region and small places are not even mentioned
Web sites of value:
http://www.cheesefromspain.com/
yum. http://www.multimadrid.com/cgi-bin/jersbbucgi/ultimatebb.cgi
more talk about Madrid http://www.visualware.es/guiamad/index.htm
as a search engine source http://www.segovia-sp.com/index.html
we did not have time to explore this but it helped planning. http://www.metropla.net/eu/mad/madrid.htm
check and see if the Metro is being repaired http://www.las-ventas.com/
Interesting if you are going to the bullring in Madrid http://bnm.com/madrid.htm
Rental car
And a site I lost with great pictures of the caves around Plaza Mayor http://www.hai.es/16segovia.html
for the Hotel Infanta Isabel in Segovia http://travelinginspain.com/

Particular thanks again to Madrid man for this service. We will be forever grateful and are sending others your way.