Melting in Madrid

We left Toledo for the drive to Madrid which was not very far, and curiously along a freeway where we barely saw any other cars. We arrived and parked the car in a car park near Plaza Mayor which was near where we staying. This car park was the stinger of the trip - 30 Euros a night (odd considering our hotel was 55 Euros a night). Anyway, we just wanted to dump the car nearby for a few nights so just sucked up the 90 Euros.

Churros and chocolate and coffee

After stopping for a coffee and some churros we then hauled our bags through the massive Plaza Mayor and made our way to our hotel which was right in the centre of everything. On the walk to the hotel we had seen a little bar nearby advertising "Vinos generoso". With our now near fluent Spanish we were able to translate that as "generous wines" which had our names written all over it. So we stopped by and Ryan ordered a beer while eagerly awaited one of the generous wines. The waiter then comes out with something slightly bigger than a shot glass of wine. I'm still not sure whether he was serious or not. Anyway I had to order 2, to accompany some garlic prawns! We continued to wander around and came across a place Ryan had read about that had 1 Euro bocadillos and 1 Euro drinks - kind of a Spanish fast food place but at those prices it was hard to resist!

All for 4 Euros!

After stopping by plaza Santa Ana when it was starting to get very hot, we then freshened up in the hotel for a bit before heading out to an area called La Latina which has a heap of tapas bars. Although it was a Sunday, this place was jumping with people filling up the tapas bars and spilling out on to the street. There were lots of pintxo bars (where the tapas are on display and you help yourself). We stopped in at a couple but then sat down in one which we found on trip advisor which was a bit more fancy, and had some yummy sliders (mini burgers) and some sort of mixed tapas with prawns and different meats. So tender, yum!

Royal Palace

The next morning we went and had a coffee at mercado de San Miguel, a market place (mainly full of tourists) but with lots of little stands selling different foods and tapas that you can eat there or buy to take home. It was pretty early and quiet so we just had a coffee and a mini hot dog/bocadillo thing, then headed to the Royal Palace nearby, a beautiful building in a massive square. Madrid has some really grand and beautiful architecture.

Ryan waiting to order surrounded by his favourite meat

By this time it was starting to heat up. This time of year in Madrid is very hot - the mornings are pleasant (low-mid 20s) but by 2pm it's a stinking 37 degrees or so and stays that way until around 9pm. The whole shutting down shop and siesta-ing is a completely valid idea. So we went back to the mercado de San Miguel for a snack (some oysters and truffle arancini balls) and a wine, then stopped in at Musee del Jamon, a tapas bar just downstairs from our hotel which has a million legs of jamon hanging from the ceiling and dirt cheap tapas/food plates/drinks. We got 1 coffee, 1 wine, 1 beer and a little plate of food for just over 3 Euros!

Ryan eagerly awaiting the suckling pig at Botin

We then retreated to the safety of the air-con in the hotel for a couple of hours or so until we were ready to head out to dinner at Botin, the world's oldest restaurant which has been running since 1725! It's a bit touristy, but hey we had to do it and apparently the food is good. They were right - we ordered a few of their specialty dishes including the suckling pig, and they were all divine!

Plaza de Cibeles by day

The next day we got up fairly late, and stopped for a coffee and some brekky before heading down to a big park area, then attempted to go to one of Madrid's many famous art galleries. We had picked Musee Reina Sofia because it had more contemporary art, but once we got there we discovered it shut. Dang, we'd forgotten to look that up before, but I remembered that the Louvre was shut on Tuesdays too. Well there goes our attempt at getting some culture in Madrid. It was already fairly hot by this stage, so we had a fairly lazy afternoon, bought a Spanish soccer jersey which we have both agreed to share, and then just chilled in the hotel for the rest of the stinking hot arvo.

Plaza de Cibeles by night

Later that evening we had arranged to meet up with Beverly, my good friend's sister who has been living in Madrid for a few years, so we met her outside her work and then went to a swish little tapas bar not far away for a drink and a chat. It was really interesting hearing a bit about some of the strange ways Spain functions! And surprising to hear how hard Spanish professionals work - a 12 hour day is pretty normal! We stuck around afterwards for some tapas which was pretty yum, including our best tortilla of the trip. Then on the way home stopped in for a night cap at a bar showing the Olympics, which we have been watching a fair bit of each evening now if we can!

The next morning it was check out time, so we dumped our bags back in the car in the expensive car park, and had some churros and chocolate and coffee at San Gimes, the oldest churreria in Madrid, before making the drive to one of my favourite towns, San Sebastian.


And yes, I have put on like 5 kilos.

Holy Toledo

Leaving Granada, we drove up to our next destination, the city formally known as the capital of Spain, Toledo. Toledo is awesome, its one of the cities that still have some of the city walls intact and the city has a lot of history since it was settled around 700 BC. The streets are really windy and some are quite hard to drive through as there's only a few centimeters of clearance on each side of the rear view mirrors to the building walls.

 The narrow streets of Toledo

Anyway we managed to get the car parked sans scratches and checked into the hotel room. The room was nice, but the best part about the hotel was we had a rooftop courtyard. Which had a great view.

View from the hotel roof to the cathedral at night.

More of the narrowness at night.

Upon finding the great courtyard we realised that the only thing missing from it was some vino and snacks so we rectified this when we went out for a walk past all the sword and armory shops and found some truffled deer pate with a cute picture of a deer on it, pan and some vino blanco.

Some of my favourite wines are rooftop wines.

When we were walking around earlier the areas of town we went to looked pretty dead and most of the places that we did go past had the dreaded billboards with 8 photos of paella on them. So we decided to look up somewhere on trip advisor for dinner. This worked out really well as the part of town it was in had a square where there were a lot more people and the mixed tapas at this place was great. Venisen and mushrooms is apparently "typico de la region" and was awesome. 

We went for a walk afterwards and found a great spot to do a panaramic shot at night unfortunately 2 tourists got in the way. We gave up trying to get any more nice shots and went back to the hotel to watch the Olympic opening ceremony.

Panaramic shots, now with twice the Ryan!

The next day we went out in search of a decent breakfast, I just wanted some goddam bacon and eggs, so we had to an expensive americano breakfast. We walked around trying to find Iglesia de Santo Tome, which I thought were going to be like some catacombs under a church, but it was just a bit of marble and some old paintings. I think you're not allowed to take photos because its so disappointing compared to the rest of the city which they don't want advertised and they like to see the disappointment on peoples faces when you get there.

After a drink at lunch under one of the water mist restaurants we realised that we couldn't handle the heat and went home to sit in the aircon and watch the olympics until it cooled down for dinner. Dinner we went to another trip advisor special and it didn't fail to deliver. More venison, a lamb stew which we were told was "typico de la region" and some prawns.

Granada yada yada

Thankfully on the road with backs and car engines mended, we headed south along the coast for a couple of hours until we reached Alicante for lunch. This place was a nice spot, in that the beach was long and wide with beautiful water surrounded by a backdrop of mountains. Pity about the fact they built tonnes of ugly looking units along the entire coast in the 60s or something which were looking very tired. We had some lunch (salads for both of us! Smoked salmon for me, and Ryan's conveniently had bacon and duck in it). Then we continued on inland all the way to Granada.

Lunch in Alicante - our last glimpse of the sea for a week or so

We arrived in Granada late afternoon and drove in to the old city through the narrow streets and found a car park near our hotel. Our hotel was another awesome find - a suite actually, with mini kitchenette and couch right opposite the massive cathedral which the large windows opened out on to. Being the planner that I am, I found, booked and paid for this hotel several months in advance, for the grand total of A$56 a night. Once there we found out it was actually worth 168 Euros a night, so now I feel partially responsible for Spain's flailing economy.

The view from our hotel

After chilling in the hotel for a bit, we went out and wandered around. I had been here before in 2005 (a few months before I met Ryan!), although with a side of giardia at the time post-Morrocco travels, so I have been looking forward to coming back here with healthy insides ever since. The amazing thing about Granada is that in their tapas bars, they usually serve free tapas with any drink you order. And not just like a bowl of peanuts or chips or bread, we're talking jamon, smoked salmon, quail eggs and the like. Again, feeling partially responsible for Spain's flailing economy.

A 2-3 Euro glass of wine in Granada earns you some free tapas (jamon and "little egg")

So we went to various tapas bars that evening and ate and drank the night away without buying any food! Granada, I love you. The next morning we went and had the hotel breakfast (included in the A$56 a night price tag - full hot and cold buffet spread) and walked around the old town a bit. Ryan wanted a pair of brown shoes since he left his other pair behind in Provence, so we found a nice pair of Campers for 89 Euros (which I'm pretty sure is at least half their price in Sydney and if not just tell Ryan that it is). Being pretty hot by this stage and with all the shops shutting for the afternoon we stopped for a cerveza and sangria near our hotel. We love how the bars in Spain have little jets of water that spray out to cool you (the first time I saw that was in Vegas - it actually works really well and doesn't seem to use an immense amount of water).

Panoramic view of Granada from the Alhambra

So that late afternoon we had pre-booked some tickets to the Alhambra (something we didnt have to do last time I went). Being foolish fat tourists we decided to walk up to Alhambra, which was actually fine apart from the insane heat at that hour. Anyway we made it up there, and the Alhambra was even more impressive than I remembered when I had last visited (possibly due to being sans giardia). We also had to book in for a certain time slot to see the Alhambra's main attraction (also did not have to do that in 2005) so we had to queue up again to get into that part. It is stunning - how they built that back then I do not know. (And I literally don't - I don't tend to do a lot of background reading of these tourist attractions - I just briefly read what it is, when it was built, then I'm just happy to walk around and look at it and admire its beauty and amazingness.).

Alhambra

So we spent the early evening walking around the Alhambra which not only is amazing in itself but has fantastic views over the rest of Granada. We went back home to cool off for a little bit, then set out on a tapas bar tour. I'd found a website that recommended a few good different ones, so we immediately set off to a nearby one which was actually Japanese tapas. I had gone without any kind of Japanese food for 5 weeks now (highly unusual) and was having major withdrawals, so this seemed like a good option. It was pretty good... some sea bass sashimi and mixed sushi. Nothing amazing, but decent and satisfied my Japanese cravings for the next 5 weeks. (We did listen to the staff talking at one point and Ryan worked out that they were actually Chinese.... whatevs).

View of Granada from the Alhambra

So we continued on to a few other bars, all with free tapas. One of my favourites was actually a Moroccan type bar (being so close to that area) which had extremely tasty kebab type tapas. Later that night, and while we slept, our unit in Sydney was all packed up and put into storage :( A big thank you to Yols, Keely, Jade, Herschel, Bec and Bruce for helping out with various favours with that move, but most of all thank you to my Mum and Dad!!!!! <3 xoxo

8 Euros for a bottle of Smirnoff - another time I gasped at the cost of items in Espana

The next day we had a pretty relaxing day.... after breakfast we went for a wander and walked around various streets. Then we chilled in the hotel during siesta time  (when it really is quite hot) until it was time to go out and sample some more tapas bars. Our favourite was Coco's which we had found on our first night and which had  a lovely helpful manager/waiter who was happy to see us again. I dare say we will be back to Granada again some day.

Enjoying vino y tapas (gratis) in at Coco's in Granada

Back and crack

We left Mallorca by ferry at around 10am from Palma. Palma actually looked like a pretty cool city. I wish we had had more time there, but then again I wish we had more time on Mallorca full stop.  This ferry had massive recliner chairs for the "Neptune" class seats and were really comfortable. We were immediately filled with a terrible rage that we didn't have these seats to sleep in on the overnight ferry from Barcelona.

Anyways 9hrs later we rocked in to Valencia puerto and didn't even have any problems from the local policia. Post hotel check in we went out for a few drinks. Valencia was completely going off but we wanted to have a big night on Saturday so we had an early 9pm dinner. The place had wild boar on the menu so I immediately wanted that. PS. We saw "curry de pollo" on every other menu and figured we better try some as some kind of cultural experience. Well word to the wise, its awful. Also another dish to avoid, I forget the Spanish translation, but it was basically salted cod with peppers served cold. The rest of the tapas was awesome though.

Day 2 in Valencia started off with a coffee and boccidillo then a walk to the Ciudad de las Artes y Ciencias to get our culture on. The buildings are really amazing to look at and I'm pretty sure most of the people there had no intention of going in. We purchased 2 tickets to the science center because the aquarium was unfortunately shut. After a few exhibits I was looking at some mirror and lights thing which I had to bend down to see and a nerve in my back immediately told me I shouldn't be doing that. I couldn't even tell Heidi properly what was going on because the pain was so much fun, but she soon guessed.

Me ruining the view at the arts and sciences city before the bad times.

I tried sitting down but that made it even worse. I cained the last of Heidi's handbag neurofen due to a hangover in Mallorca a few days earlier so we exited the museum and had to set out in the heat in search of pain killers. Getting a taxi was not an option because the  pain was almost nauseating and constant when I sat down but standing up it only hurt every time I took a breath.

After trying 4 or 5 different farmacias and them all being shut, we realised they take their siesta time very seriously and just walked back to the hotel where there were drugs awaiting in the luggage. I cained some and had a lie down while Heidi went and got the reception girls to call a doctor. They informed us that a house call is very expensive (80 euros) and we said call them anyway. About an hour later 2 guys rocked up in polo shirts and not speaking any Inglais except for the word "pain". Anyways one of them pushed my legs around and tapped my feet until it was established that I didn't have spinal damage.

About the time they were prepairing two lots of drugs and one of the guys was flicking a needle to get the air bubbles out my wife asks, "Ryan are you cool with this?". I currently had half my arse out of my pants and the other dude was swabbing it with alchohol, I wasn't really cool with it but was so over the pain I just replied yes its fine as I didn't want Heidi worrying more than she already was. Later Heidi found the bottles that they put in the bin and aparently it was just some Voltarin and another anti inflametory. They also gave us a perscription for more Voltarin. Thanks very much doctors Sarah and Chris for their long range diagnosis and information and everyone's favourite pharmacist Toni for advice on what drugs are safe to take.

By dinner time I could get up and walk around so we headed out and had some Valencian paella. Apparently Valencian paella comes with rabbit, chicken, snails and white beans. It was really gamey and quite different from the standard seafood paella.

Best paella ever

My back was much better the next day and we went out for some breakfast churros as you do. Some old dudes were already caining some cervesas a few tables away so it made me feel less bad about having chocolate and fried dough in the morning. There were some markets on so we went there, grabbed a bottle of cava, a whole packet of jamon and some pan and headed to the park for a picnic. After we jumped on a metro and headed to the Neptuno station which was the closest to the beach. I had a swim while Heidi had a litre of sangria at a nearby bar.

They take their jamons very seriously in spain. I may start making my own mouldy hanging meat when back home.

Renaissance era castles and sponge bob square pants sand scupltures.

Dinner was at Banyan bar and we had some sea bass and a steak washed down with a bottle of cava. Medium-rare in spain is pretty much rare, compared to France which seems to be about medium.

The next day we checked out went down to the carpark and tried to start the car. It took a good 10 minutes before it started. The starter motor was going but the engine wouldn't fire. Not sure what this could be. I figured since Dacia was made or owned by Renault it would be at least decent, but knowing what I know now if someone handed me the keys to a brand now Dacia for free I would slap them in the face and throw the keys on the ground. Driving in and out of this garage was really fun because it had a car lift even though there was only about 5cm on either of the side mirrors to fit the car in. My pro tip for car lifts is if you get stuck in one, turn off the engine to avoid death.

Surprise paradise

Thursday July 19 we woke up fairly early (so I could shoot off some emails to try and co-ordinate the ridiculous fact that we are packing and moving our unit while we are away) followed by a dip in the water while it was peacefully quiet. We went for breakfast at the place we'd had dinner the night before, and even though it was 9am and he was only just opening and we were the only ones there, the manager/waiter/chef/all-round-nice-guy from Chile was happy to serve us. When we asked whether Mallorca always had such perfect weather, he told us that 2 weeks before a twister had ripped through the beach and took out all the beach umbrellas, in February it has snowed on the beach (for the first time in 50 years) and in winter they barricade up the beach bars because the water comes up so high due to storms. So the perfect weather we had seen in Mallorca is not all year round, apparently.

Vista from drive from Port Soller to Sant Elm

After checking out of the hotel, and stopping in at Soller town to go to the post office to post some documents back home re moving, we hit the road to nearby Deia, which was a stunningly beautiful drive high up in the hills with views over the deep blue water of Mallorca. I think I have not seen bluer water than here. Deia was a small and very picturesque town where we stopped for some lunch (tapas, pretty decent, and accompanied by a chicken salad this time!). Then onwards along a spectacular drive with amazing vistas which we weren't even expecting! So I kept making Ryan pull over so I could take some pics for my and your pleasure.

More vistas

Our next stop was Sant Elm, a small town on the south west tip of Mallorca which I had read had turquoise water. When we drove in that became immediately obvious! It was stunning - a beautiful little beach staring directly at a small island called Dragonera just off the mainland. We parked the car and checked into our little hotel, called Hostal Dragonera which I did not know much about but had read good things online. Lucky for us we got told we had the best room in the hotel when we checked in, and sure enough we had a corner balcony with 180 degree views of the water with a deck chair, umbrella and table (possibly bigger than the room itself!). Best 67 euros we have ever spent.

Our balcony - bliss!

 Without wasting time we put our swimmers on and went for a swim, just down from our hotel off the rocks where it was fairly quiet. Again, bluer water than I have ever seen before, and the salty Mediterranean means you can literally just happily float there with your eyes closed. We dried off in the comfort of our balcony, and caught up on email and blogs before heading out for some dinner. The town had one small main drag, and I had read some good things about one particular place which we went to for dinner. It was right on the water facing the setting sun. We shared some sardines for entree (which were so massive I thought it must have been at least 2 serves) and I had grilled squid for main while Ryan had braised rabbit and onions which was a tagine-like dish, accompanied by a bottle of white and impossibly beautiful view. The food was top notch - it really was.

Sardines for entree

The next morning we got up for breakfast (which was included!) at our wonderful hotel. I assumed it would be a coffee and croissant or the like, but no, it was a full buffet spread with seats right on the water. The water can be a little chilly in the mornings so we decided to wait until afternoon, and got in the car and drove to Palma. We did a dry run of getting our tickets for the ferry to Valencia the next day (following the stress of doing the same in Barcelona) then parked and walked around the central part of Palma, which is actually very pretty. Wide boulevards filled with big trees and little narrow cobble-stoned streets with lots of shops.

Panooramic view from our balcony at sunset

Then we headed to Magaluf - a nearby haven for young British folk who want to party all  night. I was really curious as to how horrendous this place was, so we stopped in for a bit of a gawk. Magaluf was pretty much how I expected - plenty of high rise hotels/apartments surrounded by even more British pubs and other bars selling pints, English meals, take away cocktails etc. The beach was actually quite beautiful - massive stretch of yellow sand (although no beach here will ever beat Australia's sand) with blue water - so I can understand the initial attraction of Magaluf. Being about 1pm we expected the place to be pretty quiet with everyone resting their sore heads (which maybe it was quiet) but there was a decent number of people walking around - namely groups of English blokes with their shirts off and groups of English chicks wearing bikinis and shorts. I think we may have been one of the 5 or so married couples in that town. We strolled along the beach - there was some fancy hotel with a cool swish looking bar out front and a standing wave pool which you could surf on. For a minute the inner Geordie Shore in me came out and I told Ryan  "Man this is awesome!". But then we kept walking and realised, well, perhaps it wasn't. I have been in similar kind of places before - some party Greek islands, Phuket etc. but I have not seen such a little British establishment set up like this before. It's pretty funny when places are advertising baked beans as one of their star meals on their black boards outside.

One of my grilled squid dishes

For a cultural experience, we stopped in at Pirates Bar down one end of the beach. It was very chilled with a great water view, and it was a nice change for English waitresses to come up to us saying "You right? You want any drinks or food, yeah?". I asked Ryan what if I had answered with "Hablas espanol?" but it turned out they did speak a bit of Spanish, so all credit to these chicks. So we ordered some beer/sangria and burgers, which were cooked on a BBQ and were actually really quite good. Funnily enough, it was some of the best service we've had in Europe. So enough of Magaluf, back to our little piece of paradise. After I declined Ryan's suggestion of getting a takeaway frozen cocktail that I could hang around my neck for the way home, we drove back to Sant Elm. We chilled in the air-con for a bit, before going for a swim again. It really was paradise.

Ryan's lamb and truffle dish complete with quail egg

We dried out on our lovely balcony and read our books/kindles, followed by some more blog writing, then headed out to dinner again. We chose another restaurant just near the one we went to previous. On the water again, this place had amazing food also. We shared clams for entree, and (being obsessed with calamari) I had grilled squid again, and Ryan had lamb with truffle. I must say, I haven't seen Ryan be so excited about food in a while as he was in Sant Elm. The food was really amazing. In fact, Sant Elm was so enjoyable that it was a real shame we couldn't stay longer. I didn't expect much from Mallorca, for some reason, but it has blown me away with its beauty. I think we'll be back :)

Another panoramic view from our balcony