Day 15, Friday June 4: Madrid

We set off this morning for an optional tour of Toledo, the former capital of Spain. This old walled city was made famous by the paintings of El Greco, and even now it’s like a great open-air museum of Spanish history and art. However, we were rather disappointed in the tour.

Toledo showing the Cathedral and Mosque on the left. The river boarders 3 sides of the city.

Within the walled city was an ancient mosque and ancient Jewish synagogue, but we were not taken into either of them. However we did spend a lot of time in the Cathedral of Toledo, listening to our guide giving a boring, detailed description of the many elaborated decorations around the interior. The design and artwork of these huge building are magnificent, but we have to think that man rather than God was glorified, since only the priests and wealthy were able to get close enough to see and understand the services. Toledo is one of the many towns in Spain that claim the honour of being the home town of Don Quixote and his sidekick Pancho Panza.


Don Quixote and his sidekick Pancho Panza

Since there is no group dinner plan for this evening, we opted for a Spanish lunch, which is the main meal of the day. This way, we can have a smaller meal this evening and be able to settle down better for the night.

After lunch, we participated in a sight seeing tour of Madrid. There are a lot of beautiful buildings in this city, some dating back to the Moorish occupation. Madrid is situated 2,180 feet above sea level, the nearest thing to heaven the Spaniards say.

This is the last day of sightseeing on the tour. Most of the people will be going home tomorrow. We will be renting a car and heading for ‘La Casita de Cabreja’ at Jabaga, (near Cuenca). We will be there until next Fri. when we return to Madrid to head home 12 June. I, (Dick), must admit that after seeing Madrid’s traffic, I am a little concerned, especially about the traffic lights.



Day 16, Saturday June 6: Casita de Cabrejas

Well, we got out of Madrid with only a couple small alterations in our original plan. When we went to the reception desk of the Hotel Praga, the gentleman there looked at us as if we were slightly mad to plan to walk to Hertz car rental. We could if we really wanted too, of course, but it would take us a least half an hour, and to park the car while we colleted the luggage and checked out would cost us the 14∉ (Euros), the cost for a full day. We decided to use a taxi, and take the luggage with us. The taxi cost 4.70∉.

Madrid streets, like so much of Spain, do not run in straight lines. Many are also not marked at every intersection. Fortunately the Hertz agency was located very close to the major artery called the “anillo”, the ring road. This circles the entire city, with clearly marked exits. Unfortunately for us, the connection to the southbound lanes, which we wanted, was not marked. We ended up in the northbound, so instead of only driving past a couple of exits, we ended up going almost all the way around the city of Madrid.

We did not have specific directions to this guest house, only those to the nearby village of Jábaga. When we asked directions to la casita, one of the gentlemen said it would be better if we just followed him since he was going in the same directions. That worked very well. Later this week we’ll go into the village to take some pictures.


Windmills -old and new, On the way to Cuenca, an old stone based windmill with modern wind powered generators in the background.

We are now settled in. Lunch is not served, not is dinner Sunday evenings, so we are going to need to go into Chance, 12km away, everyday for lunch. We may look at options for this.

This is a very classy guest house. There are lots of places to sit in the shade outside and comfortable seating inside. There are two dining room. This evening a group of four guests and another group with small children were seated in one quite modern dining room while the couples were seated in a more intimately decorated room where it would be quieter. The meals were well prepared and well presented. I (Eva) am going to enjoy this. Mealtimes are typically Spanish: breakfast from 9:00am to 10:30, Dinner between 9:00pm and 10:00pm This feels strange to us, and leaves me feeling a little at loose ends between 6 and 9 pm. Mid day to a Spaniard is around 2:00pm.