billbauer

We take early (7am) breakfast at the hotel and then head to the airport for our trip home: Madrid through Atlanta to Minneapolis.  The excitement in the Madrid airport is that I was lucky enough to be (randomly, I think) selected to participate in an exercise designed to detect explosive and/or drug residue on my person, my bags, everything in my bags, my socks ...  It is a good thing that I am anal about getting to the airport early.  This took a long time.  And I passed.  :-) We are on the plane to Atlanta. After arriving in Atlanta after a nine and one-half hour flight, we immediately realized the disadvantage of going through Atlanta and landing directly in Barcelona on the way over:  we still have another flight to our destination of the day. It has been a great trip.  We are home.  The Bauer travel blog is going dark until our next adventure.  Thanks for following along.

This morning is a trip to the Reina Sofia Museo Centro de Arte, a modernist art museum in Madrid. The museum opens at 10am sharp.  Tour guides line up and as soon as the gates are opened, they race to the ticket counter to get their group's tickets ahead of everyone else.  We wait outside the gate. They even have art for you to view while your breathless guide returns from the scramble to the ticket counter.  They tell me that this is "brush strokes" ... as in art, get it? Our Madrid guide explains the history of Spanish artists. Our focus this morning is on Spanish painters with an emphasis on Dali. The highlight in the museum is "Guernica" by Picasso painted depicting the travesty of war at the beginning of the Spanish civil war.  You can't get a camera near this painting as they begin prohibiting cameras several rooms away.  So I present you with an image obtained from the web. This is a view of the very modern glass elevato...

Today is a tough day for me.  It has been described as a lot of walking on cobblestones with many large hills.  I am not sure that I am up for it.  Our guide promises to find me a place to have a drink and come back for me if I need to so I am going to try.  I am relying on dual trekking poles for support.  Photographs today are courtesy of Beverly. We arrive at very hilly Toledo, capital of Spain until 1561. Lots of cobblestones, stonework, narrow streets and alleys. El Transito Synagogue and Sephardic Museum. During the tour of the Primate Cathedral of Saint Mary of Toledo, I decided to take a break and rest.  Thank goodness for Beverly's photos. We pass many fine shops.  Toledo is noted for knives and cutlery. We lunch at Trombel and I have a well deserved rest at Plaza de Zocodover. Here is a picture of Bill, just because there are very few pictures of Bill. Thank goodness that Toledo does have escalators...

The weather forecast in the hotel lobby this morning seems to indicate some precipitation coming our way. We start with a bus ride around Madrid.  Madrid is no stranger to traffic congestion. Madrid also has Columbus statue.  He is rather famous in these parts. It is "ride your bike to school day" here and, I think, around the world.  The picture doesn't do justice to the long, long line of kids with their bright yellow vests headed to school on their bicycles and annoying our bus guide who doesn't seem to get the purpose. The Manzanares River in Madrid. We pass the palace and stop for photographs. We make it to the Del Prado Museum, a highlight. Photographs are allowed inside only in the entry. Afterwards, Beverly hits the gift shop. Following the museum, we walk to Plaza Mayor, a major Madrid plaza. Madrid has a lot of cobblestones but nothing like Prague. Lunch on our own is at a sidewalk cafe along Plaza Mayor. ...