Madrid to Lisbon

So, we said good bye to Barcelona and all the street performers, squadron of police with machine guns, honking horns and late night partiers who have just gone to bed...arrived at bus station and almost missed bus because of a run around at the bus station...apparently booking on-line doesn't mean anything!  Arreeba, arreeba!!  Shouts the bus driver!  And you're never quite sure whether they are kidding or not!   We loved the bus ride...so comfortable with big windows (am I sounding like a senior citizen...no offence Larry & Petra ha ha!).  The country side through the Castillian plains,with mountains off in the distance, desert like hills, mesa flat plains, then greenery again, olive groves and men, sheep dog herding 100's of sheep...and some good looking ones, too.  Jerry, we took some pictures of the wind turbines ....hundreds of turbines spread along the spine of the mountains!  You need to tell them about your not so intrusive amazing system!!...see what Jerry Enns is up to...enter shameless plug here - http://www.vigorcleantech.com/ 

We figured out subway fairly quickly and headed in the right direction.  This stupid American woman is trying to drag 3 suitcases onto the train at rush hour...so we (stupid Canadians)help her.  Tim gives a swat to a Madrid woman, among the crush of people, who trys to pick pocket him and tells me to watch it.  One stop later, she gets off and stupid American lady, who has purse open, realizes her wallet is missing!!  Ou-la-la!  We get off at our stop with no other incidents and meet a very nice young guy (went to U. of T) and he walks us part way to our hostel!  Hostel is on 5 floor of building...no elevator...but lovely clean place with receptionist who can't speak a word of english.  The translater on the computer worked well for us.  A million stairs later and over one hundred thousand steps (and counting), we saw the Prado Museum (Goya, El Greco, Bosch, Rubens, Picasso, Gaudi, Rembrant & Hello Dali), went to a beautiful garden and landed in a huge park, rowing a boat on the lake in the middle of Madrid (320 acres of green space).  Romantically (isn't Ann sweet!), Tim rowed and chatted about some history and events, as I videoed with the backdrop of statue of Alfonso the 2nd!!  I continue to look for sports sandals, as I threw out my other ones!  Only stilettos, and I know you would do it Jesse, but I just can't!!  Very few people spoke English in Madrid, but we did strike up a relationship with a waiter, Cinta,  at our regular coffee shop (free internet).  He went out with an American girl and he said his only heritage is he can now speak english.  Very helpful with information of where to go in Madrid and Portugal.  Our last day we took an hour bus ride out to Toledo... an amazing village (a UNESCO World Heritage) site on a huge hill (used to be the capital), dating back to the 1100's!  The Cathedral was nothing short of majestic, grand and our necks got very sore from looking up!!!  Detail beyond detail...the choir seats even had carved wood figures under the chair, so you only saw them when folded up!!  Lots of stairs, amazing dinner (Tim had the Toledo speciality, a plate of Bambi)...but the evening ended badly, as we (I) lost the camera on the bus!!

Sintra, Portugal...

On the way to the airport, we stopped in to see if someone turned in the camera...the guy says "not a chance".  So a little upset, a little hung-over and a whole bunch homesick...we continue our jouney by almost missing the plane (apparently they don't announce planes or tell you that they change gates 3 times in 2 hours).  Another long train ride to hostel in Sintra, Lisbon, we walk forever because no one knows how to direct us to the address, finally making it... and no one is home!!!  Lovely lady, seeing our distress, takes us to Nova Sintra, hotel down the street!  Everyone is very friendly in this little place and we are relieved that most people speak english!  (dumb uni-lingual Canucks)  After settling in, we venture off at 9:00 to get a bite to eat and our first meal in Portugal is Chinese!  And it is on Pimentel Ave.  (and they did know you Ed, but they spit when we mentioned your name!)  We checked into Nice Way Hostel the next day and Pedro apologized a million times as he had gone out to vote for a 1/2 hour!  The new hostel (we are the second customers) is fabulous.  Have met and dined  (communal kitchen) with some fun people and amazing fresh food from the market behind us.  Pedro and Rui are great cooks (to die for clam and fish meal with delicious walnut cake).  One day we rented electric bikes and rode to 4 different palaces and castles!  Besides the bike troubles (Tim's first one didn't work, only to find that out a mile up the hill, then mine stopped working half way through, and it was pretty hard peddling even with the "power", no helmets and streets as wide as my ass)...we had so much fun making Monty Python "charging the castle gates"  references (did I mention all the steep hills and stairs???) as Tim accuses me of forgetting the battering ram!!  Another great day at the beach...swimming in the waves of the Atlantic...I could almost see Sue, Tyler and Dani surfing in Nova Scotia!  We waited for bus, but to no avail (not very good system here, with the locals just as frustrated), we decided to hich hike!  Ha!  Sorry Mom...but it brought back great memories of hitching with Gloria West!!  We saw a lady getting into her car so we asked her for a drive.  She was hesitant, but friendly and told us she could drive us  to the first town where we might find other buses!  Then we found out why she was hesitant...her first month with her license and we were her first passengers!!  She didn't get out of second gear all the way into town!!  Caught a taxi from there after two of them discussed in Portugese for 5 minutes which route to take!!  It was only a 5 minute drive!! 

We have rented a car and will drive up the coast to Porto for 4 days and back to Lisbon for 2 days before we fly out to Marrakesh on the 11th of October.  Can't say enough about "The Nice Way" hostel here in Sintra, the town of no pavement, all cobblestone. As we sit out on the deck with a beer and chips (OMG...chips are only 79 cents a bag!)... Will miss waking up to sounds of: