Travel 2020

Disclaimer:  All voyages in this blog are being taken safely in the comfort of our imaginations - based on our plans and intentions for travel in 2020. What is reality after all?  So this is where the trip really begins! We taxi-ed to the car pick-up place, near the airport - in the basement parking of a block hotel: After completing the paperwork and collecting our brand new Renault, we drove off ... just as if this car was the one we had at home (except everything in mirror image).  Well, it was ... was what we had previously, and at home ... once: Since we would have had to wait a little time until we could get into our booked accommodation in Cuenca if we drove directly there, we took a loop slightly northwards past Guadalajara . We were warned that there was not a lot to see here, and we didn't want to leave the car with luggage, so satisfied ourselves with a drive past some old walls and towers: From there, down the road, past a mirador (looko...

Disclaimer:  All voyages in this blog are being taken safely in the comfort of our imaginations - based on our plans and intentions for travel in 2020. What is reality after all?  We'll not blog every day - too busy DOING things. But here're some of the things we did over Sunday and Monday ... apart from listening to the Global Village on-line on Sunday morning (amazing and wonderful to be in two places at once!) and a little shopping for a double-sided tortilla frying pan (saves having to wipe the floor, walls and sometimes ceiling as the tortilla is flipped) and the very occasional CD that we don't have. To save some time, we went on a guided walking tour of Madrid. These can be a bit hit and miss, and you never quite know what you're getting. Here, our tour took us on to the highs and lows of Madrid. Firstly, it was a tour of rooftop bars and roofs - for views over the city. In some cases, there was a small charge to access the rooftop; in others, a drink (o...

This describes the trip we planned, the trip we excitedly anticipated, the trip we imagined. Now it is just that, a trip of our imaginations. I had a plan. My plan for this day in Madrid was to revisit the places, the art, the things that I strongly connected with the first time we visited Madrid. I thought that I was modest in my intentions but knew that I would be demanding on my senses. I managed the list I had and in so doing realised how much I enjoyed just walking in Madrid. As an Australian, the coincidence was not lost on me as I stood before Picasso’s painting called Guernica on Saturday 25th April 2020 in Madrid’s Museo Reina Sofía. This painting is a depiction of depravity writ large, of a Basque city bombed mercilessly during the Spanish Civil War on the 26th April 1937. I was first introduced to this massive painting in this very room nearly twenty years ago by a group of Spanish primary school students sitting on the floor in front of Guernica. Standing behind the...

Disclaimer:  All voyages in this blog are being taken safely in the comfort of our imaginations - based on our plans and intentions for travel in 2020. What is reality after all?  After the lateish night partying with Ses, today was a slow start ... breakfast in the apartment and then deciding what to do. We decided to head in different directions: Pat to visit a few museums on her 'to do' list ... and she'll write about these shortly. In turn, I (Roger) decided to have a quieter day ... but the impulse to go out for a while overcame this. I wandered down to the Plaza Mayor , which despite being described as 'vibrant', was a much quieter scene than when we had been here last - for a free performance of Carmina Burana in the square ... again in late April for Pat's birthday (but which year?): Then it was wandering, almost at random, in a long loop through the streets of the old quarter, taking in general street scenes like little plazas : a...

Disclaimer: All voyages in this blog are being taken safely in the comfort of our imaginations - based on our plans and intentions for travel in 2020. What is reality after all?  As we wait to head out to this evening's entertainment - the Madrid concert of Galician singer Ses , launching her new CD - we'll bring you up to date with the wanderings of our first full day in Madrid. As expected in this wonderful virtual world, all went swimmingly (no, we didn't go swimming) and we thoroughly enjoyed this quiet city's offerings. After a great night's sleep in our apartment, just off the Gran Via , we decided to go for a walk westwards, to explore an area of the city we hadn't visited on our last visit - those many BC years ago. It was good to stretch our legs after so many hours of ... ahem ... stretching our legs out in business class flights (but let's not mention that). West took us through city streets, from Callao Metro Station towards the Re...