The Photos Have Been Developed

The photos have been developed. Well not really! Aren't we so lucky these days that we do not have to wait for our photos to be developed? There is something to be said for instant gratification. One drawback of digital photos is that they look differently on different computers. Some shots that look totally spectacular on my desktop computer seem to lose something in the translation when viewed on the laptop or even the other desktop. I know it is all in the video card, but I want everyone to see the photos as I see them at their best.

Here is a reiteration of the trip. First, I joined Homeexchange.com. During my 14-day trial period, I received four offers for places in Europe. Cádiz was the most appealing due to transportation costs getting there and then doing short trips once there. Admittedly, I thought this was going to be a beach resort, which I would find boring as all get-out, but Ron was enthused and when we asked our friend Kat to join us, she was absolutely psyched. After the trial period, we continued getting offers for exchanges, but everyone seemed to want August; we had already committed.

We arrived late on July 31 flying from Budapest to Brussels to Seville. Once there, thanks to our exchange partner, for €6 each we bought Tarjeta Dorada cards. Anyone over 60 receives discounts on the trains.  On Mondays thru Thursdays, the discount is 40%. On Fridays thru Sundays, it is 25%. We did not arrive until late, so our first night was dinner out. After this, we shopped and Kat gleefully cooked dinner every night.
Cádiz is incredible! We, meaning me the non-sun worshipper, loved it heart and soul. There are incredible things to do and see; we did not even touch the surface. The city is completely tourist friendly with four walking tours painted on the streets and sidewalks in differing colors for self-guiding. The two sun bunnies did get their fill also.

We left Cádiz on August 9 to spend one partial day in Madrid. Kat paid €76.20 for her train ticket, while ours were €57.15 each. Leaving for Madrid on the 9am train got us into the city by 1pm. We checked into Hostal Oporto. The location could not be better.

Ron is like a human GPS. He can either briefly look at a map or if he has been somewhere, he remembers how to return to places. We did a lot of walking again.

Finally, we completed the day by having beer and mini sandwiches at Cerveceria 100 Montaditos at Calle Mayor 22, but to complete Kat’s brief Madrid experience we also stopped at Chocolatería San Ginés famous for their hot chocolate and churros since 1894.

Sunday morning, we had an easy walk to the airport bus, where for €5; we were whisked directly to our terminal. Coming home we flew TAP the Portugal airline, so we went from MAD to LIS to BUD. Unfortunately, the layover at LIS was 4 hours, but TAP screwed us by being an hour delayed without any notice. We were home by 8pm with a B and B guest waiting for us at the café around the corner.

Cádiz - Arrived July 31st and left August 9th
http://ryanandronworld.blogspot.hu/2014/08/spain-caadiz.html

Day trip - Puerto de Santa Maria August 3rd
http://ryanandronworld.blogspot.hu/2014/08/spain-puerto-de-santa-maria.html

Day trip - Seville or Sevilla August 5th
http://ryanandronworld.blogspot.hu/2014/08/spain-seville.html

Day trip - Jerez de la Frontera August 7
http://ryanandronworld.blogspot.hu/2014/08/spain-jerez-de-la-frontera.html
Went here for the horse show, but photos were not allowed.

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Cádiz, Spain Here We Come

We are doing our first home exchange with a woman from Cádiz, Spain. The exchange will be from July 31st to August 10th. 

Ron is thrilled, because of the proximity to other places. Seville is only an hour by train. We are taking our friend Kat with us. We will fly home from Madrid, so we will spend the last night there.

Other day trip ideas are here.

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Three Countries in 24 Hours

All vacations have to come to an end. Some should end sooner than others. This vacation was just right. I was ready to return to Europe, not to say that I didn't appreciate all that we did or didn't do. We had to take a taxi to Belize City to the airport, another capital that has a high crime rate. 

The check in process is fostered by electronic machines to print out boarding passes, though the airport is not tremendously large. What angered me once we brought our luggage to be checked was the fact that it would only be checked as far as Miami. We would have to pick it up, go through Customs and then recheck it. WHY?? The reasoning given was this was our first port of entry into the US, but what flummoxes me is that we did not need to do this going. Our luggage was checked through to Guatemala City. 

American Airlines is on my Do Not Fly list unless absolutely necessary. The flight from Belize to Miami is a short couple of hours. Miami's airport is horridly huge and though we had 3 hours between flights, it took 138 minutes to get from one flight to the next leaving only28 minutes to shovel down a lunch before the next part of the journey when our boarding had started. The flight from Miami to Madrid was again one of those hideous planes with community theater experiences, not back of the seat view your own. We both skipped the movies because the sound quality was that of scratched record played on an antique record player. They don't even serve a drink of beer or booze without whipping out the credit card reader with charges that start at $6.00.

Turbulence was beyond the control of anyone but Mother Nature and she must have been having a bout of PMS. We shook, rattled, and rolled like an old television commercial for Shake and Bake chicken. Needless to say, if you are reading this, we made it to Madrid safely and early. Not that this was provident in our case, as check-in to our hotel was not until 2pm. 

We left our suitcases, and sleep deprived, wandered the city that has now been stripped of any sign of Christmas cheer, but had a blanket of early morning fog and winter chill one never associates with Spain. By noon, the hotel felt sorry for us and opened the room early. After a cold shower as there was no hot water, we napped before returning to the hot chocolate and churro cafe. Dinner was at the mini sandwich shop we had discovered in December on our walking tour. Then it was an early night, for tomorrow, we will wander the streets again before our final flight to Budapest.

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American Airlines - 2 Thumbs Down

After three poor nights of sleeping due to noise, we are moving onward. The circles under my eyes looked like hillside tiered gardening. If there were a inevitable harvest, I wouldn’t mind, but it is ruining the last of the good looks that I am desperately trying to hold on to. Getting to the airport was a snap. The metro station is almost outside our hotel door and under it is the station for the train. One train ride for one stop and then on to the metro connection and we are at the airport within twenty minutes.

American Airlines has a self-check in process in Madrid Airport. We could have printed our boarding passes at the hotel if they had a printer we could use, but there are also machines in the airport to do it for you. You punch in the reservation number, scan your passport, put in the number of pieces of luggage you intend to take and then gasp in all of the O2 when you see the additional cost if you have 2 pieces. One piece is free; a second is an additional hefty charge. Carry-on is limited to one piece, but the instructions are unclear whether this means in addition to a purse or briefcase or if this is the one piece. With boarding passes in hand, all we had to do was drop off our luggage at the designated drop off desk. It seemed like a simple task, but it turned out to be lengthy, making us miss any chance of using the Diners Club lounge.

Before shedding ourselves of the luggage, we had to go through a series of security questions, but the woman would not allow both of us to be there at once. Only family members are allowed to be joined at the hip. I corrected her and after a moment’s hesitation, she proceeded. Spain allows same sex marriage and all the rights therewith, so why should we be excluded? The list of questions was the usual, “Who owns these suitcases?; Who packed them?;  “Has anyone given you any gifts?”, but the differences were she genuinely seemed interested in the answers.

Once she put our clearance stickers on the bags, we had to drop them off at the counter. Although this was supposed to be a drop off only, the line was slow and tedious, because people are arguing over what they intend to check and what is a carry-on. It took us over thirty minutes after we had already printed out our boarding passes. Then we were told we had to be at the gate 1 hour before boarding or they would unload our luggage, plus there was a warning that the travel time to the gate from where we were standing was thirty minutes away.

It took moving escalators, moving sidewalks, elevators, and an airport sky train to get close to our gate; the balance of the distance was old-fashioned walking. When we were in the gate area, there was a lounge nearby, but they were not the Diners Club lounge. We were informed there was another lounge upstairs, but she wasn’t certain who they catered to. Being paranoid about time, we went to our gate.

The flight from Madrid to Miami is 9 hours and 40 minutes. One would think that in this day and age, a modern plane would be flying this route. It wasn’t. We were held up when the back-up generator failed. They had to complete the paperwork, but there wasn’t a word about fixing it on this old 767 equipped with a single row of monitors running down the center row of seats. Passengers not only did not receive any choices in entertainment for this long flight, but those who were stuck on the sides had to stretch their necks to view the videos. Although we had center seats, I skipped over the poor choices of entertainment and read my book instead. When drink service started, they announced that beer and wine would be available for $6.00. After hearing that, I tuned out on the cost of liquor. It was incomprehensible that a major airline would charge for the first drink on an international flight when one considers the cost of the ticket. Meal service was typical airline meals, but they service of the staff was excellent. The steward who gave me my meal asked if I wanted a bottle of wine gratis. I was not sure why, but I seem to think it was because I wanted chicken, but they only had pasta left.

Going through Miami was another nightmare. We were transiting through, but still had to go through Passport Control and Customs. Why are we wasting resources on that when we were already in a secured zone?  This took up a good 45 minutes of the 2 1/2 hours we had to spare between flights. Then we had to do the security thing all over again. They wanted to put me in that XRay machine where there is a see all-tell all view of your nakedness. I don’t even like seeing my naked body; I am certainly not going to parade it for strangers in Miami. Well, what a hullabaloo that was. I had to stand aside and wait for someone to be available to give me an hand examination. I waited so long, I felt like it was punishment for not getting the photo shoot done and over with. Ron went the same route, but his exam was faster. Not having been to the US since January 2003, it really irked me to have to deal with all of this. I had hoped that being a transit passenger, we could just slip by unnoticed and unharassed. 

American was the airline from Miami to Guatemala City. People were jamming with their carry-on luggage. How they managed to get as far as the boarding gate without being stopped by someone, is beyond me. There were full sized suitcases that would not have fit in an overhead bin during the most generous days of flying. Airline personnel were waiting at the gate, and stripping these people of their luggage and handing them an ID tag to pick it up in the luggage area when we arrived. This may have been smart, because I am not certain how the airline could then charge them for excess luggage once they made it to the door of the plane.

Flying time is 2 hours and 40 minutes. They had video monitors on this plane too and video service. If you wanted to watch the television shows they played, it would cost you $2 for earphones. If you had your own, they still wanted the $2. If you want anything other than soda, coffee or tea, there is a charge. One guy behind us ordered a couple of scotches. $26. The person on the other side of the aisle got some potato chips in a can. $3.29. If I were the flight attendants, I would be humiliated to ask for the money.

We arrived in Guatemala City, but we are staying in Antigua. Ron had arranged a taxi to meet us. Sure enough, there was a guy with a sign, which I pointed out to Ron. After we drove for an hour, I had this horrible thought. Having been traveling at that point for 26 hours, I was not certain I had read the driver’s sign correctly. I did see Ron Sc, but you know those visual tricks where your mind fills in what you think should follow. There was never a word spoken with the driver, making me hope for the best. Fortunately, we did arrive in Antigua after 1 ½ hours and he did drop us off where we had reservations. Time for a long winter’s nap or at least until 10am tomorrow.

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Last of Freezing Madrid

Today is our last day in Madrid; we leave early tomorrow heading south. If last night was an indication, I am glad to go. Our hotel takes up one floor of a building. Some couple, presumably not guests, were fighting last night starting at 11:30 pm, but making a marathon of it. By 1:29 am, they had not wound down, no loss of momentum. I wanted to scream out the window, but knew I would be easily identifiable even if I screamed in Spanish. I kept hoping someone else would also be swayed to split their stream of oratories with a splay of curses, but alas no. 

The walls here are as thin as a communion wafer. I can hear other guest clipping their nails. We have our own bathroom, but there is a shared one also which is right next to our room. When someone walks the hall to the bathroom, it sounds like Big Foot has been set loose. All of these diversions are included in the price of the room, explaining why it is such a bargain. If only we had remembered where we stayed last time.

Without an alarm, we finally roused out of bed by 9:30, making us rush to get ready for the "Free" walking tour of the city at 11am. Meeting in the Mayor Market place, there was our soon-to-be guide wearing the name tag "David". His name is Mark, but he explains that the name tag is just one symptom of the problems in this country. Mark aka David is from Dublin, but has lived here for some time on and off. Our English tour will last three hours; it is a large group. David has a booming voice. 

Fast forward to the end of the tour. What did I learn today? Spain has as many problems getting their act together as any other country. The unemployment rate is 43%. It is a nation divided between those who want the monarchy, Catholicism, and traditional values on one side, while the other side wants an end to the monarchy, wants no religious affiliation and embraces liberalism. There was an election recently and today they will choose the new prime minister. We were outside of the parliament as it was happening along with a half dozen reporters and TV crews. Mark gave us a great deal of history too. Like most history it went in one ear, vegetated for 2 minutes and was excreted out the other ear. He was talking and in my mind, I was designing a pick pocket proof shoulder bag. We all have our priorities; my mind was roaming.

During the tour, on a break, he took us to a pub where they sell beer mixed with lemonade and coke mixed with wine. According to Mark, the Spanish are proud of their mixology traditions and these drinks originated here. We had the beer; had it been a hot day, it would have been very refreshing. We also passed a chocolateria where they serve hot thick chocolate and churros to be dipped in it. This was on our 'return to' list. 

The three hours went surprising fast. At the end, of course, you give a tip. It was sad to see those who have him 1 or 2 Euros, but had spent much more in the pub during the break. We bought our tickets for the Tapas Tour at 6pm. Mark would be leading this one too. First we had plans on going back to the hotel for a nap to try to catch up on the lost sleep from last night. Not in the cards. The bathroom at the end of the hall was being repaired; construction went on past the time we left for tapas.

The tapas tour was great. After learning that the law was if you served alcohol, you had to serve some food with it. Hence, tapas were born. We went to 3 bars, had our choice of beer or sangria at each and one tapa at each. We had choices to buy more as we wanted. Mark stopped at various points to give social, cultural, or gastronomic information. He is quite knowledgeable having earned his degree in Spanish history. One thing worth mentioning is that during the Spanish Inquisition, you had to be Catholic or given three choices. Convert, leave or be killed. Those Jews or Muslims who chose to convert had to prove they did not convert just for convenience, so pork became the main meat of the country. It still is and ham shops are as abundant as bars. As Mark pointed out, this is a nation of pork eaters. It is rare to find beef on the menu and poultry is also a rarity. Vegetarianism is almost impossible as we discovered for those on our tour who did not eat meat. Even in the markets, vegetables were not overtly in evidence. There were some fruits, but pork was the dominating theme. 

Tomorrow morning we fly from here to Miami to Guatemala. I am just hoping it is warm. It has been beyond cold here today.  

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Not Quite Ripe for the Picking

This was quite a day with a bit of everything including almost getting pickpocketed. The day started out without incident, walking around looking for a puppet show that is supposed to be every 15 minutes; it is outside to accommodate the crowds. We found Micky and Minnie Mouse walking the streets like homeless mice. Later we saw Micky with another female mouse. Can male mice also be cads? Finally, we found the area where the puppet show is supposed to held, but nothing was moving regardless of our twenty minute wait in the cold. The temperature was 7 degrees Celsius today.

We returned to the Mercado to see the wares in the daylight. Still on display were mini-Marys, midi-Marys, and maxi-Marys with associated matching sized Josephs. Some Marys were larger than the barnyard animals. She showing off her status?

Walking to the cathedral, we heard music, perking our interest more. than it was. The church is traditional looking from the outside, but inside it is modern with vibrant colors. There was a group of people dressed in indigenous looking clothing, singing and dancing at the church front entrance. They performed for the 20 minutes we watched put started before we arrived, since we heard them. Later they followed us into the church for a service that was about to start disrupting any touristic events; they are stopped during services.
 
On the subway back, I watched this guy who didn’t seem quite right, but I couldn’t put my finger on why. He got on the metro car as we did and it was crowded. There was a short man to the side of us, looking at a map and staring at the route signs on the wall, looking confused. I pointed to the route map for the train we were on, but he didn’t acknowledge my assistance. I noticed that the ‘not quite right’ guy had a coat over his arm, strange since it was cold out. Then I felt the zipper move on my shoulder bag where my camera and extra lens are kept. It also had a smaller sized wallet with our day’s cash and my International Press card. The strap on the bag is not the longest, which I have disliked about it, but at the moment it was a blessing. When I reached to check the zipper, it was half opened and there was a hand there to greet my own. I glared at the man with the coat, but we had just pulled into a station. He said something to me to the effect of am I getting out, but it wasn’t our stop. Regardless, I wouldn’t have gotten off with him anyway. The map guy spoke to my pickpocket du jour, both getting off at a station other than what the map guy originally indicated wanting.

Cursing myself for my latent terrorism actions, after the fact I realized I should have stomped on the guys inner arch of his foot or yelled pickpocket at the top of my lungs, but during my traumas I keep my cool too well under control. Too many years of working the trauma until in hospitals has made me too rational when I am the designated victim. There must be something about me and Spanish speaking countries. I was mugged and then robbed two days in a row in Santiago, Chile, the latter being my birthday. That was a drag. The last time we were in Madrid, these two guys tried pulling a scam around buying currency on the street and then the 2nd fellow was a “police officer” who was going to arrest us for the illegal purchase. It fell through when the cop appeared too early, receiving the ire of his accomplice.

We had lunch at a local place. Two orders of ham, eggs, and fries with two small beers came to 28 Euros. We chose this place because it was so much cheaper than the other restaurants around. This city is expensive.

Returning to the room, we attempted a nap, but the hallway was noisy and I was still belittling myself for being a target. When we returned to go to the Prado, the streets were closed off for a demonstration, but we could not figure out what they were demonstrating. The Prado is free on Sundays, but after going to the tourism office, we were informed that the free time is only from 5-8 pm on Sunday. Three hours was more time than we needed; there is only so much you can take in without sensory overload. We did spend considerable time with Goya, El Greco, Rubens, Velasquez, El Bosco, and Brueghel. At 7:45pm we were done in and headed back to the post office metro station to return to the Mercado at night. Our timing was spectacular. They had started a Christmas laser light show on the post office building. There were thousands of people, the streets were jam packed for blocks. As soon as the fireworks started, we thought we had better work our way to the metro stairs otherwise we will be there for hours trying to get through the crowd. As it was, it was a tighter squeeze than Santa trying to get down a chimney after binging on all those cookies and milk left out for him.

The travel moral is: Even Mickey Mouse can be a louse. Be aware of Greeks bearing gifts, especially horses and Spanish carrying coats. Hold your bag tightly.

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The Adventure Begins

Well the adventure begins. We left BUD for AMS only to connect to another flight to MAD. Travel is alphabet soup. Flying KLM, we had to go farther north in order to arrive on Spanish terrain. What makes these types of flights more manageable are the Diners Club lounges along the way. Budapest has a lovely lounge, which has been made lovelier after the remodeling of the airport. After 1 hour and 40 minutes, and arriving in AMS we were treated to the DC lounge there for another 2 hours before moving on to the next leg, which would be 2 hours and 5 minutes of air travel. KLM does have comfortable seating, I do have to admit. There was plenty of legroom, making it unnecessary to accept their offer of reserving seats with extra legroom at additional cost. As airlines go these days, the ‘meals’ were poorly constructed sandwiches with little to no nutritional value and best skipped over entirely. A lesson I applied to the second part our journey.

Madrid’s airport is huge. After taking seven moving sidewalk rides, we arrived at three escalators to take us to baggage claim. From there it was well marked to reach the metro. Buying a pass is easy as there is an office that looks more like a tourism agency than a ticket counter. Our all inclusive transportation passes for 3 days inclusive of the inner city, was 19 Euros each. We were given better instructions for a less tedious trip to our hotel than what we had originally thought. One metro ride to the end and then a train one stop; voila, we were there. However in order to get to the metro, it took 3 long steep escalators and then some walking. The metros are half way down to China or whatever is directly across the earth from Spain.

As we were emerging from the metro, mobs of people were pushing their way in. For moment’s it was uncertain whether we should risk leaving the metro for fear that this crowd was escaping some natural disaster or Godzilla was outside waiting for his next meal. As unfathomable as it seemed, outside the metro was even worse. The crowd was so thick with people, my first impression was that they were giving away tickets to see Lady Gaga accompanied by Pope Ben as a sideline performance. This is a crowd the Million Man March would have admired. 

Fortunately, our hotel was only a stone’s throw away from the metro exit. Our room is clean and plain, which is fine, because the location is excellent. Right down the street are the Christmas Markets, which are a major disappointment. Booth after booth after booth are loaded to the stable rafters with objects for a crèche. There are hundreds of versions of Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. The three wise men come in more wardrobe choices than Barbie. There are more animal choices than any zoo in the world. Just naming them all would have given Jesus a vocabulary to be admired by a college admissions board. There are different stables from poor down and out to luxury condo style. Why let tradition dictate how you can out do your neighbors? The best part is the moving figures. You can get Joseph hammering wood, women washing clothes, a man shoeing a horse, and Mary changing diapers amongst other things. 

We tried finding a restaurant for dinner, but they were all as mobbed as the streets were. It seems the entire population was out and about tonight. The few places we found that were hungry for dinner guests were those that were charging 20-30 Euros for an entree, something I refuse to pay in any city. We finally found a lesser crowded, lesser expensive place. The food was filling, not very tasty, but also didn't break the bank either.   

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Tomorrow, Mañana

Tomorrow, we leave on our vacation. We first go to Madrid for three nights. Then we fly to Guatemala and eventually fly home from Belize.

Mañana, salimos en nuestras vacaciones. En primer lugar, ir a Madrid por tres noches. Luego de volar a Guatemala y, finalmente, volar a casa desde Belice.

We will be gone until January 18th. I will be blogging along the way, but an Internet connection may be spotty in some places in Central America where we will be, like the villages around the Mayan ruins. 

Prematurely, I want to wish everyone a joyful holiday season regardless of who you share it with or how you choose to embrace it. Regardless, this is the time to let the inner child out to play. Santa knows you have kept him stifled for 11 months of the year already.

If you really let the child out, he just may look as potted as Santa does here on the upper left. 

More from Spain.

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Wizz Air to Launch New Routes from Budapest

"Discount airline Wizz Air will launch new flights from Budapest from April 2009, CEO József Váradi has announced. According to napi.hu, four weekly flights will be operated to Madrid, three to Barcelona, and two to Naples and Oslo. The new flights were made possible by an agreement between Wizz Air and Ferihegy airport operator Budapest Airport, which resulted in considerably lower expenses for the airline. One change which is a consequence of lowered expenses is that passengers are no longer transported between the terminal and the aircraft by buses, but they have to walk the distance."

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