Wednesday, September 18: AVE train to Madrid

We have our bags outside our hotel room door at 8am and take a 9:30 bus to Barcelona-Sants train station
as we take the AVE high speed train to Madrid's Atocha train station.  The AVE train reaches speeds of around 185mph and covers the 386 miles in a little over 2.5 hours.  We are on the 11am.

We wait for our train,
board,
confirm that we're on the right train
and are settled in.
The Spanish countryside rushes by.  The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain but not today.
At 185mph, everything close to the train is a blur.
More Spanish countryside before arriving in Madrid

and settling into our new hotel.  Happily, it is soon happy hour in Madrid.  Notice Beverly's designer drink.
We receive an art lecture in the hotel telling us about the Spanish artists and the famous paintings that we will see in the next few days.  This is a great way to learn about the paintings ahead of time instead of trying to take in information while standing in front of the painting.
It seems that centerpiece on our table for the lecture might be the salad course.
We settle into a Road Scholar meal in the hotel of which I offer you only dessert.
Of course, I ate it.

Museo Del Prado tomorrow.






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Seljalandsfoss, Skógafoss, Dyrholaey, Arnardrangur, Reynisfjara, Vik I Myrdahl

Image
It has been a big day.  Lots of driving and lots of stops.  A couple of waterfalls both very different from the earlier waterfalls.  Churches and more churches.  I hope that you don't get tired of churches.  And the black sand of the southern coast. As I'm driving to our first waterfall, I spot a church out in the country.  I stop.  It is Braeoratungukirkja.  Seljalandsfoss is a really cool waterfall.  It is a 220 foot monster. As you get closer it is even more impressive. But the really cool thing is that you can walk behind the waterfall.  The spray from the waterfall is impressive.  You will get soaked.  Guide books warn about ruining camera equipment.  So the Nikon goes back into the car and I don full rain gear.  There is no way that I'm not doing this.  You may laugh but my iPhone 12 Pro is submersible for 30 minutes and it has wide angle.  This is what it looks like. Skógafoss is 200 feet high and 80 feet wide.  Guidebooks warn that the hard part of photographing her
Read more

Reykjavik, a photography walk

Image
I'm out for a walk around Reykjavik on this, my penultimate day in Iceland.  Perhaps to make up for Iceland's long and dark winters, houses of Reykjavik are painted lively colors.  It is not Nyhavn but it is very pretty.  I pass a children's playground which I also find colorful and pretty. I have noticed that Icelandic houses usually have absolutely no landscaping.  Not much grows in this latitude.  This house in Reykjavik is an exception. Reykjavik has a park with a lake, also with landscaping. The park has sculptures I guessed that this one was called "blockhead".  I was wrong.  It is called "unknown bureaucrat". I'm thinking that this is either Lancelot or Elaine (you have to be from Iowa State). Reykjavik City Hall has been built out into the lake which was controversial at the time. After a break at Te & Kaffi, the Icelandic version of Starbucks, ... I am off to the National Museum of Iceland ... which has many exhibits on the history of Ic
Read more

Iceland Here I am

Image
It is not necessarily easy traveling this close to the pandemic edge.  I jumped at the chance to book this trip in mid-March when Iceland announced it was re-opening to vaccinated Americans without quarantine.  I had a difficult time booking and keeping hotel reservations as hotels kept closing.  I didn't understand why until yesterday when I discovered that after Iceland re-opened, they quickly closed again, then re-opened in April and the rules are still changing.  It was like playing whack-a-mole to find an open hotel.  But I am ecstatic about being able to be here.  Today's blog is more about traveling and less about Icelandic photos.  They will come.  Be patient. Delta has one flight a day to Reykjavik and it is from JFK.  Delta has only one flight a day from MSP to JFK to make the connection and that flight leaves MSP in mid-morning.  So I am off early Tuesday morning when my driver arrives. I find myself elated as I walk into the SkyClub at MSP.  I have never been so hap
Read more