Segovia: a day trip from Madrid and, Don Quijote Spanish School

Saturday 4th October
The strangest costume at the station this morning: the guy at Chamartin station wearing a tracksuit looking like he was part of the support act in a bullfight, not the toreador but one of those who torments the bull with small spears first so it’s distressed, wounded and angry in advance. His top was red, with braid and epaulettes, and his pants had fancy stripes up the side. His hat was one of those strange black ones that appear to be on sideways. If he is a support act in the bull fights then they can’t be going well. It wasn’t the flash quality you might expect, of the man or the clothes, so maybe he wasn’t but the responses of the crowd of mates round him, with him the centre of attention, made me wonder.

Back to Chamartin Station to catch another train this morning. This time to Segovia for the day. I sat beside a nice women on the train and I decided to chat to her. Poor her! I couldn’t understand it when she said aqueduct. She searched for it on her phone. Easy for me to understand the written word. It’s hearing and understanding that are difficult. Oh, and then replying intelligibly! I’m sure she was glad when the 30 minutes passed and I got off! Yes, only 30′ from Madrid to Segovia on the fast train, at about 200km/hour.

Segovia
The Segovia train station is in the middle of nowhere. So people on the train all troop over to bus 11. Fifteen or 20 minutes and 5km later you arrive at the foot of the aqueduct.

The aqueduct is about 2,000 years old. Yes, built by the Romans to supply Segovia. Not the only water supply. A parallel, hidden, system was also used and is being redeveloped at present. But the aqueduct is phenomenal. It soars above you and extends for a considerable distance. Built of interlocking stone with no mortar. From the look of it, it had a facade at some earlier time. Amazing and well worth seeing. Here, many photos from different angles and aspects and at the start and ends of the day.

The rest of the old town: not as interesting as many but with some great features. Quiet little plazas in many places.

And the Cathedral, it is spectacular on the outside. And inside has many wonderful side chapels. Its presence is very obvious in the town. Some shots from around the town show it imposing on the town by appearing over other buildings, and along the old streets. The shots also show the types of buildings and the remaining city walls.

From the contents of the side chapels in the Cathedral the artefacts I especially liked a most wonderfully carved Jesus. Much bloodier and tormented than is usual is Spain. More like Mexico’s bleeding christs on crosses. Blood pours out of various holes. Suitably gruesome.

Why is Christ always portrayed with a little pot belly? Anyhow, I also liked the tree of life picture showing the struggle between Christ and death, with people up above carrying on in our usual way. And a little devil at death’s side pulling on the rope around the trunk.

And the Cathedral’s cloister is beautiful, with its very old tombs above and in the ground.

The Cathedral positively soars inside. Huge columns and a beautiful vaulted ceiling. So generally, the Cathedral in Segovia is very impressive inside and out.

On the walk to the museum, one of the best, small but comprehensive, you can see the old Jewish cemetery across the river. The rather excellent museum has excellent displays of locally found artefacts from the Neolithic period and some from the Roman as well as subsequent periods. These coins, for example, from the first century CE. Wow. Imagine. And look at the complexity of the shards of the locally found pottery from the Neolithic period. They have geometric patterns on them, lines. Note, Neolithic! From about 10,000 BCE to 2,000 BCE.

A number of very well dressed people were waiting outside the church, some men in tails. A little girl in a nearby shop was wearing a veil. Maybe she was being confirmed but she was the only child I saw dressed that way.

Alcatraz
As the model for Disney, this has now become such a hackneyed image that its impact is less than it should be. Certainly it is a very different style. Near it is a monument to two very brave artillery officers. I liked this statue, very well done from the plaques lower on the pedestal to the statue on top of two dead men being held by a female figure.

Lunch
So, lunch. A wonderful bean, chorizo and bacon stew, one of the local dishes. Picture does not make it look good but it was. And in a nice restaurant with a white tablecloth and napkins. Earlier I’d had a coffee and a small snack, €1.70. Good value.

Don Quijote Spanish School
School has been very intensive over the past week. Four hours in the morning, with a half hour break in the middle, and a one-to-one class for 50 minutes in the afternoon. And every evening a lecture at 7pm on a ‘cultural’ topic. One planned for the coming week is on Granada so I’m definitely attending that one. Guess why?

So, some days my brain hurts by 3pm when all my classes end. You have to focus so intensely to keep up with what the teacher (professor) is saying. And yes, the entire class is conducted in Spanish with very few, if any, words in english. For good reasons, one being that not all students speak english. For example, at the end of last week my class had an Irish guy and a Korean guy and me. Another reason for Spanish only is, I’m sure, immersion is the best way to learn.

The staff are excellent. What makes them excellent is their ability to manage to speak with us at approximately our level. For example my class hasn’t done past tense and so we have to confine conversations to the present tense. We are also shirt of pronouns. As you can guess, this makes for fairly clumsy and contrived conversations much of the time. However you gradually understand more of what’s being said if there’s a fair level of repetition and not too many new words each day. And everyone of the five teachers I’ve had has managed this. Also, we are systematically adding more concepts and words. So much better than the school I attended in Guatemala many years ago. Not one teacher I’ve had has yawned during a group or individual class. This is a very positive comment on their professionalism given our need for so much repetition.

Over the past two weeks, as a group we’ve discussed many issues, personal and general. Next week we add one of the four past tenses. I’m happy as I’ve been doing a past tense anyhow as its too limiting without it and I need it when I finish, at the end of this coming week. Yes, I’ll be back to this school again, possibly not to Madrid but to another site in Spain. Suggestions?

The other staff are good too though I’ve had less contact with them. Reminds me, the teachers seem to be doing higher degrees and are not just casuals who speak Spanish doing the job like so many people who teach english throughout the world.

Observations

Housekeeper

: Finally, I think the woman currently running this place may understand we don’t speak Spanish and it’s not that we are wilful. She and I have had brief conversations but she tends to drift off and rabbit at a pace, and with an accent, that make conversing with her impossible. Those who speak Spanish considerably better than me have the same frustration with her. With time I am sure she will be fine. Tough job though to come in for a few weeks to fill in, cooking 3 meals a day, and to then be out of a job again. At least, I think that is her situation.

Noisy roommates:

Today I’m tired and unhappy about the noise the 2 young guys made when they came home last night. Bloody noisy. Stomping to the loo, a few times between 3 and 3.30am. I hope they feel dreadful today. If I thought they were sleeping at present I’d be tempted to put my boots and skip or jump up and down for a while near their rooms. Have to have a word to them, again. What is it about some people on a gap year? The worst behaviour I’ve ever seen from tourists anywhere, ever, was a group of four young Brits in India. This included throwing their rubbish out the door of their room. This pair is just thoughtless. Nice otherwise and far from crass.

Mushrooms

: fascinating variety here. Two quite different ones here, possibly local. Some other fruit is also different including some flatter peaches.

Avila and, around Madrid

Getting to Avila
It’s the small things that matter when you learn a new language. Getting to Avila requires the metro and a country train. Complicated first time. I caught the first train in the wrong direction. Then, to change to a country train equivalent, I had to get through an electronic gate. But, it wouldn’t read my electronic train ticket, stored in the iPhone passport app. So, combining trains for the first time was un poco complicado. Each step is easy, very easy after the first time, but….. Helped a little along the way having some spanish. I don’t care what anyone says, lots of people don’t speak english. If they do, it’s more usual that they only know a few words and expressions for commercial purposes.

Madrid is always busy. The advice the school gives us is that the city is safe. People every where all day and night. Pickpockets and bag snatchers are a problem but manageable, with appropriate care. Sure enough, when I left for Avila, in total darkness at 7.15am, the adjacent streets were busy. An entwined couple, two young guys, walking in front of me at the bottom of the stairs, two women hurrying on the other side, a group of four men, at the bottom of the metro stairs, a group of five, including one women. No-one was drunk. They were walking or talking and all quite happily minding their own business. I like the 24 hr busyness and the streets being safe in Madrid.

Avila
How to describe a city with such amazing extant walls. As you walk from the train towards the Avila Cathedral it is somewhat disappointing as you are still in everyday Spain. Nothing much to see beyond the usual types of cafes, shops etc. However, once you reach the old city you can’t help but be impressed by the stunning walls surrounding the old, inner, town. After entering the walls I stopped for coffee and pinchos. The coffee, slice of bread with sausage and a piece of tortilla cost only €1.8, about $A3.

My shots of the Avila wall cannot do it justice. So, with little comment, here is a selection of what I took looking up, along the wall and from on top of it. The wall continues for quite a distance and you can walk much of it. It is considerably more extensive than that in Grimaldo, a smaller town on the Via de la Plata that I stayed in last year. Avila’s wall is spectacular. Well worth visiting.
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The site of the old town has been occupied for millennia, well prior to the city being walled. There is pottery from the Neolithic period as well as much more recently, including the roman and subsequent epochs. I visited a museum with diggings showing very early kilns that were just behind the face of one section of the wall. Even more interesting were the pieces of pottery from sequential periods from that with the early unfired and unglazed pots with limited decorations to the considerably more complex and highly decorated in the Roman times.
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Avila is on a hill in a rocky area, apparently in a rain shadow. Easy to defend in this location, while it has water, but clearly at some stage it needed much better defences. Hence the very impressive walls but, it is not known who built them or when. They continue for more than kilometre. The walls have 9 gates, 87 turrets and a perimeter of 2.5 km. Much of this can be walked on and the wall surrounds 33 hectares of town, with gardens established within them.

The old town within the city walls is also very worth visiting. Clearly many buildings are more recent but their styles are sufficiently similar to be compatible. The next photos are various shots around and of the old city.


The Cathedral is within the old city. In fact, one section of it forms part of the wall. That makes it a fortress cathedral, an unusual mix. I liked this cathedral. Built over three centuries, from the 9th or 10th over the next 300 years, it has a smaller central footprint than some. But, its ceiling really soars. It is huge. And it ‘lifts’ the Cathedral in an indefinable way yet, the main church section for services, is not very big. A very significant, and recent, burial within its cloisters is that of Alfonso Suarez, the first prime minister after Franco. He, together with the old king, is credited with managing to maintain the peace in Spain after Franco’s death and with modernising the state after that period. When I was here in March his funeral was the sole focus on TV for days.

So, an impressive Cathedral within a large walled city, surrounded by modern Spain. In some sections the buildings adjacent to the wall are also older, parts of the earlier city and, there is a hermitage outside them with an interesting past. I think that is where a woman (?later a saint because she defended her virginity successfully) who didn’t want to get married went, grew a beard and was saved as her admirer/husband to be didn’t recognise her. (Hmmmm).

Moving on: I loved the look of these vegetables, in a shop in the newer part of Avila.

So, the trip to Avila was very enjoyable. A good day trip, I was there for about 6 hours. I look forward to my next visit, next year, I now want to stay in the Avila Parador when J and I arrive there after walking from Toledo, along the Camino Levante. It is near an intact section of the wall and, to see the wall lit, at night, would be spectacular. That it can be lit at night is indeed a major boast of Avila. My next trip away will be next weekend, another day trip. This time to Segovia.

Demonstration
Today’s demonstration was the rebuttal of last week’s, the right to life one. A wonderfully joyous one down the Main Street defending, yet again, women’s right to control their own body. I’d call it joyous as it had the best, most synchronised, noise and dancing I’ve seen and heard outside a dance festival. Very loud, very good and very catchy. Many drums and many other percussion instruments, all in synch. Many people demonstrating wore something purple. And, of course, a long blue line to control the crowd. Altogether it was lots of fun and very cheering to see. Sad that such a demonstration has to be held again and again and yet again.

General Observations from Madrid

Cook housekeeper

: Where I live has a cook/housekeeper. The usual one has just gone on leave and her replacement is an interesting little treasure. She is Cuban. What is amazing is that she seemingly has no understanding that speaking more loudly and faster at us people who don’t speak Spanish does not increase our ability to understand. No. She does not even try to interpret what we say, those of us who speak very little. Our teachers can understand most words as they try to but her, nada, nothing at all. Intriguing. Especially as she is working for an organisation that assumes no prior Spanish.

Classes

: This week I start a more intensive approach with an added hour of a one to one class. I hope it helps. Learning a language takes so long and I know I’ll lose it all in a short time!

Dogs and owners: do dogs look like their owners or, owners like their dogs? Two bits of data, 3 photos from the street today.


Bull fighting: is alive and well and tickets were on sale today, down near one of the big touristy areas.

Frustrations: I am very frustrated tonight. This post had more content. I can’t face writing it yet again. Apple deleted it when updating between devices, the third time that happened to a part of this post, despite me leaving time in between. So, a plague on Apple that has also deleted all data from my new Apple health app and capitalises the first letter of any edit in Pages while I write a draft. Drives me nuts. The new system is a problem. I had to reset my network on my iPad to get onto the Internet after the update installed. Definitely a plague on Apple’s house.

And, secondly, I said yesterday that I didn’t want dinner in the accommodation. I was going to a nearby restaurant for a change. Even had in mind what I wanted. Got there and discovered it’s fully booked tonight. Couldn’t find another that had anything I could face eating and I headed home. I am over meat or fish and potatoes eaten after 8. I wanted vegetables, straight, or in soup.

The woman who cooks here kindly checked if I wanted dinner and frankly, she is impossible. I tried to ask if there is any salad, a simple word ‘ensalada’. She said something, not a yes or a no, and when I said I didn’t understand she got louder. Didn’t repeat what she’d said but added a whole lot more words as she increased the volume. I told her again that I didn’t speak Spanish and I understood when she said I did. Aggghh. I gave up. Said no dinner as be buggered if I know what she was on about. Why can’t she slow down and why does she increase her volume? Many other native speakers understand what I say. Why can’t she? So, bread and cheese tonight. Not what I’d wanted.

Not getting the dinner I had my heart set on, after the problems of working with my Apple devices, leaves me totally frustrated tonight. Think I’ll go and read some mindless fiction and not try and plough through a Spanish book. Aggghhh. Apologies for any typos.

Madrid and some culture

Life in Madrid
7.14am. Still dark outside. One other person is up, and showering.

Life continues here, audibly, until after 11pm everyday. And, ignoring bathroom visitors, I’m the first up, making a quick coffee about 6am.

A surprising fact about Madrid you notice walking around: the shortage of fat people. I just twigged, it is true. Very few people are fat. Some are a little cuddly but that’s not the norm. I didn’t notice this in other Spanish cities nor in the countryside. Here, the fat ones are typically carrying a camera and a map!

Prado
The Prado is free during the week and the crowds are large but, smaller than on a Sunday. It’s impressive in many ways. Imagine, it allows you to walk near, and to look at, many spectacular paintings that we usually see only as part of a special touring exhibition.

My favourites are the court portraits from the 1400s to early 1600s. Formally placed people, their placement depending on the date and location of the paintings. Again, depending on when it was painted, a person might be alone or with their spouse and sometimes their children. Symbols are used in many to highlight the inevitably of the passage of time for us, royal earthly importance notwithstanding. It is shown in many by a skull or an egg timer (no, sand, not electronic). Some of the subjects have expressions on their face. Generally though, the royals of this period are shown as expressionless. The British queen dispels the possibility it’s genetic.

Another feature of the portraits from this time is the clothing of women and men. Amazing. And no wonder the women from the late 16th century, and many other periods, sat sidesaddle. Their monstrously heavily brocaded skirts, some with hoops, or widening devices, must have found sitting itself a trial, let alone on a horse with their legs apart. (Excuse the photo of a model in one such widened dress, through a shop window and, the seat was from the Museo discussed later. Obvious why that type of seat was necessary).

As time progressed court painting changed considerably. One notable difference, besides the nationalities of the most famous painters changing, was their increasing use of lighter backgrounds. Also, paintings included details which typically represented the subject more as a person, with interests and a background.

The other style my many new friends and I liked in the Prado today was the morality tale by painters like Bosch. His pictures are very complex and embed many smaller pictures. Of the two I especially liked, one was a tryptic called the Garden of Earthly Delights. It has the Garden of Eden on one side, the current activities of a very sinful human world busily enacting many delights in the middle, and the third part, well, the outcome. Bosch had a great imagination or led a very interesting life. Perhaps both but, 500 or 600 years later the underpinning of his moral tale is still pertinent. Another of his showed death, death from war, pestilence and whatever. I managed a photo of this one prior to being caught as a sinner myself, taking a photo in the Prado. So, sadly, I didn’t get pictures of my other favourites. Hmm. What is the significance? I only got death!


Another great focus in the Prado is religious paintings. This was, of course, the only topic painters were permitted in many places in Europe in some periods. Pity. I find creative views of imagined people, an obscenely fat adult-looking baby (not obviously even a boy most times), and scenes of suffering before or after a crucifixion unedifying. So I bypassed rooms containing these very quickly. A side benefit was that doing this also made a visit possible in an afternoon.

I loved the frescos from a 12th century church in Segovia, removed when the adjacent areas were flooded by a new reservoir nearby. Clearly full of symbolical representations of various religious men of the time. The components had an amazing degree of clarity. And then there seemed to be a roomful of many Roman sculptures, busts of important men of the time, around 0 CE. No, I was wrong. I eventually noticed the clothing on these busts was a different stone. Sure enough, they were produced in the 16th century.

And the other Mona Lisa: yes, it’s here in the Prado. And this one is amazing, bigger than the final study now in the Louvre, but with an astounding background that really pulls you into looking at it. She looks amazing. So maybe one day I’ll see the other one too.

I did like the bronze cast of a hermaphrodite, boy’s bits, boobs and lying so his rear end was clearly on offer. Unusual. But the best sculptures were one of a mother killing herself with a dagger after having just killed her young son, prior to her city being ransacked; and the second was of a son protecting his wounded father as Zaragoza was being invaded. The ironic bit in that statue was that he still had both balls though the censors had obviously at some stage done some unfortunate work on him. Both sculptures were very evocative.

For once I didn’t get museum feet. Possibly because my back protested much earlier than my feet would. The seats provided in classy galleries are not for comfort. In fact, they are benches, like those designed for women wearing weird hoops in a short lived fashion that makes Madonna look conservative. So, a little more culture and I’m heading to the Prado shop. I’d like a momento of what I’ve seen today. I’m also hoping that by the time I get to the shop I’ll remember throwing out a whole lot of cards I collected a number of years ago at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in New York. Maybe.

The dates of the paintings the Prado owns from painters of different nationalities very clearly reflect the changing relative power in Europe. The glory of Spanish paintings was apparently from the 1500s to 1800s, after the Italians but before the Flemish, French and Dutch painters in the 1600s to 1800s. Yes, and then, did you guess the Germans and British from the mid 1700s. Heaven help us if our epoch is represented by modern American art. Perhaps the passage of several centuries will make it comparable to the amazing skill of painters from the 1500s and 1600s. Hmmm, hard to believe but I suspect society was as shocked by Bosch when he was new too! So, maybe. I am planning on visiting one of the newest and best in Australia soon, MONA, in Hobart.

Museo de Cerralbo
Headed off, dying for a coffee. Unbelievably, I met E, one of my classmates along a major street, the Grande Via. So we had coffee and walked back. She insisted we visit the Museo de Cerralbo. I reluctantly followed. It was the house owned by the Duque de Cerralbo and his family and wow! Talk about stuffed full of things. Lots of little bits from statues to Wedgwood, porcelain, jewellery and statuary. Personally I don’t wonder he gave the house to the state, the cost of the dusting alone must have been prohibitive as it was so cluttered. Rooms were generally small, including the ‘large’ ballroom.

The best bits were the suits of armour. There were at least 10 full suits and a few different designs. The visors and shoulders were quite different, as the photos show. But the wearers were so small, shorter and a lot less substantial than us. The diameters of their waists and mid thighs were astoundingly small. Similarly the divan chair, even less leg room than on Qantas economy seats. Their beds are shorter and narrower too. So, a very interesting family museum. And, honestly, I couldn’t hope to describe the walls, the paintings and various collections of weaponry.

So, home to wait for a while yet for dinner, spaghetti, salad and premade flan.

Madrid and Spanish language school

Sunday in Madrid

Big right to life demonstration today. Many many police, invariably looking handsome in their dark blue, and demonstrators, all collecting at about 11.30. Along the street they will march is a huge sound system. Really huge.
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I’d like to say the demonstration was run by old men largely for old men. It wasn’t. Many young people, young families and fewer oldies than I’d expected. The church here is clearly more than ceremonial if that demonstration is indicative. On the hat theme again, many wore lovely red baseball hats but I couldn’t wear one that said ‘right to life’, even in Spanish. I’d always know the twist that’s put on those words.

Don Quijote, Madrid
I’ve moved into my monastic cell, my home for the next 3 weeks. Small single bed, against the wall, under a casement window that opens out into a courtyard between the three or four 6 story buildings that frame it. A cute clothesline, cords on a pulley system, between my window and two neighbouring ones. Very handy.
And a shot from outside the building too, it’s on a corner, next to the school. Very handy.

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The bathroom is in one corner of my room, compressed, with a shower, basin and loo. Glad I have this. Makes life simpler and I can leave my stuff there.

I met two current residents, a Dane, my age, who had my room when he was here earlier this year and who said it’s very good as it’s quiet. The other is an American and we met only in passing. Apparently breakfast is at 8am and dinner at 8.30pm. Otherwise, besides being given three keys I’m little the wiser.

City life viewed
After walking many km around Madrid over the past few days I’ve found less joy apparent in city life here than I’d expected. Few look happy, lots of graffiti, many shops closed with graffitied hoardings over them and truly, outside the tourist areas, lots of the city looks a little tawdry.

Many people are in the coffee shops and restaurants. It being Sunday, some are shut. Madrid, as a major city clearly has more extensive opening hours than its smaller counterparts and the little towns in many areas. So that’s good.

Language learning
This is fairly daunting. It’s 16 years since I last studied Spanish and much has ‘disappeared’. And the residue is fairly smudgy and unreliable! I’m hoping the teaching at don Quijote is good and that I can hook in easily and quickly. Harder now than it was when I did German in the 1970s. Too many neurones lost or damaged since then and too many others full already, leaving the less efficient ones that remain responsible for whatever I need of them. I just want enough Spanish to read a basic (Murdoch level) newspaper or a book and to be able to interact with locals as I walk. As I don’t intend to live here there are distinct limits to the level I could attain and retain anyhow. I just want more linguistic capability and flexibility. The measuring stick: when I speak Spanish I want no one to feel obliged to answer in english (to put me out of my misery!).

The grading test was interesting. A small, 4 page, document to complete. Started with multiple choice, gradually getting harder with more subtle alternatives provided. Then a brief passage on your past learning experiences with Spanish and what you plan to do with it in future. Part way through that you do an oral language test. That was hard. And then they sort you. I suspect A1 is more my level from the very stilted and limited conversation I had with my assessor.

Outcomes
I go to classes in the morning from 9 – 1045 and then 11.15 to 1300. My class this morning had 5 students, including me. One Kenyan who has lived everywhere, including university in South Australia, a German, an Irishman and a South Korean. The good bit is that they are the right level for me. The others have been going a week or two, three in one case, and the classes this morning confirmed to me I’m at the right level, A1, beginners. Sigh.

Much of the content is revision for me, meaning I know many of the words but I am extremely poor at understanding what is being said so, I’m very pleased. Most afternoons I plan to revise vocab and just work through the book we use. I will also go to the 7pm evening cultural class. I don’t expect to understand much of that but it’s good for me to hear Spanish spoken. And it will keep me awake for dinner at 8.30. Yes, 8.30 and I’m lucky as for some in homestay it can be as late as 10pm. Truly!

Alberto’s class was in full swing when I arrived. He is a very skinny, slightly unkempt looking young guy whose day could not be more different than mine. Starts and finishes hours after me! He speaks at a reasonable pace, clearly, and involves everyone in the conversation. He appeared interested and picked up on comments. Marina was very similar in her teaching. She started by asking us each about ourselves and moved us into activities related to food and being in a restaurant.

Having two different teachers with their own approaches is very helpful. The lessons are clearly structured and I like that. By comparison, much of what I did in Guatemala was ineffective as it was unstructured. Totally. Plus I didn’t like living with a family. I prefer it here although I do hear more of the shared bathroom activities than I needed to know about. Just ask me in a few days and I’ll be able to tell you who drinks a lot, whose bowels…., whose prostate…….. etc.

Happy? So far, very. I had thought there were more hours of tuition per day. So, depending on how it goes tomorrow, I may sign up for some extra classes. I’ll keep going to the ‘culture’ hour each evening. The topic tonight was food in Spain. The best thing about that class is that the person taking it chats on at a conversational pace, invites answers to her questions and comments. Even better, I understood much more than I expected. When you speak it as poorly as I do trust me, no one wants to speak to me unless they are paid to teach (and be patient). The class has people from all levels of Spanish so it’s pleasantly challenging.

In our break between the two classes we typically go out for coffee. Many options within 50metres of the school. Typical of Spain. I don’t know how so many people manage to make a living, assuming they do. Anyhow, John’s bocodilla, a roll with rings of fried calamari in it, was so huge on Tuesday, and the chances of him successfully wrapping his teeth around it and eating it all, limited. Sure enough, he didn’t finish it.

Dinner in residence
Considerably better than boarding school food. Last night was brown lentil and rice soup, fish covered with a few well cooked vegetables and a small container of custard. Six of us eat dinner and two don’t have any meals here.

Day 3 of classes
And I’ve just arranged extra classes, private tuition for an hour per day starting next week. I could get someone who wants to swap english for spanish for free but, at my level it’s too easy to lapse into english. A paid person will not allow english and I’ll have to have vocab and be able to interact for an hour.

Individual differences are now more apparent between class members: who retains and can generalise and who can’t, as are the benefits of previously having at least one second language.

Oh, and another wonderful statue for my collection. Three views of it. The end of the projecting but appears to be a death head. Guess that says it all!
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Madrid on Saturday

Saturday 20th Sept
What a beautiful, warm, sunny day it has been so far. Temperature must be mid 20s+. Clouds are starting to intrude but most of the sky remains clear and blue. Some storms are expected tonight but little or no rain. So, for now, the weather couldn’t be better.

This may surprise you but people here don’t wear hats. No baseball hats on frontwards, or backwards, no straw hats and certainly nothing as elegant as my full brim outdoors number. Hats are for sale in a number of places. Why, I don’t know, as no one wears them. Despite the ideal conditions, I remain the sole wearer of a hat. Ah, no. Amongst the thousands of people I saw today I found one other with a hat. I think she was American with her backwards facing baseball hat. The recent film Tracks was disturbing enough with the female lead not wearIng a hat, despite being with her camels in the desert for months. While Madrid is not a desert and probably doesn’t have an ozone hole like Australia, the sun here must still have some effect. Further out in the countryside uncovered areas of skin tan so it clearly does. I wonder why neither locals nor tourists typically wear hats?

Shopping
I’m possibly the worst person in the world on this topic. So many commercial opportunities here, from serious big name shops you’d know to a plethora of tourist traps selling the same types of Chinese made souvenirs found everywhere else in the world. With the location name changed of course. All easily resisted. So is purchasing a new iPhone here. Guess which country won’t get the new iPhones until 26th September? Yes. Spain. I am dying to see the 6plus. See. Not buy. Well, not now. So frustrating knowing iphone 6 both sizes, have been out for days and I’m unable to even see and touch one yet.

Oh joy of joys. One shopping delight is in sight! Not far from where I’ll be staying from tomorrow is a shop that sells electronic toys: robots of all sizes and shapes to remote controlled flying objects, also of all shapes and sizes. The lucky people who work there get to play with them all. Have to in fact. Part of their job to show what the devices can do.

Picture this: Man with two dogs in this busy electronic shop, one labrador, and one terrier, smaller and finer than Jim, an Australian terrier but still a ratter whose role is life is to be a brave chaser of little things. Staff member playing with the larger floor robots, below knee height and very mobile, has a few kids around her who’ve all seen the humanoid robots move around along with the large black robot spider with blue flashing eyes. Not so the dogs. They’ve just arrived. She sends the large black spider across the floor towards the dogs. The little dog turns itself inside out to get between its master’s legs. The lab looks at the spider, sniffs it and ignores it. Not food. The terrier is still wedded tightly to the master’s legs as the spider is backed away. And his master had no idea what had just happened. My shots don’t do justice as they don’t show the end points for either dog. Use your imagination.

Fun place. But how could I use a small remotely controlled flying vehicle? Lots of different designs and shapes. Suggestions?

Some more wonderful large statues, and a frog!

Few tableaux or dress ups where I walked today. Two new ones though, a ‘clay woman’ half sitting on her side with a small red clay pitcher beside her (neat) and a black bear under its own elongated mushroom near the statue I photographed yesterday. There were also many more Mickey and Minnie Mouses (Mice). I thought the latter so banal yesterday I ignored them totally. Perhaps they bred overnight. I wonder if they need a license from Disney to look so silly and to suffer in this heat when fully covered by their monstrous costumes. I prefer the others. Even Christ. .

Lots of little dogs out walking their owners. And, when you walk in the major plazas there is often a dog visible up on an overlooking balcony, watching the crowds below. Sometimes yipping to be let in. Must get very hot in summer outside like that.

The size of the crowds strolling around today in parks and shopping areas alike, both non touristy and touristy, is astounding. So many. Many lining up outside one of the two main places I want to visit, the National Archaeological Museum (something like that) and the nearby Prado. I’ll go during the week when it must be quieter at both, especially later in the month. Many walking, in family groups or pairs. A few on bikes and some in small boats.

Lunch was at a Japanese restaurant. About as Japanese as I am. And the wok done veg and rice was not even as good as the exceptionally dreadful chicken and veg I destroyed in a wok one recent Xmas. Sigh. Hardly local food so not surprising. Back to Spanish food tomorrow. Breakfast here and I know some local type food restaurants where I’ll be, in the Calle Duque de Liria. Area is between the tourist bits and more regular, and even trendy areas. Half board is included with the accommodation. I hope it’s ok.

Madrid, Sept. 2014

Madrid
I’ve arrived. Taxi from the airport was easy and cost a fixed €30.

Checked in. I rediscovered that the world is full of pairs of older Canadians travelling together. Delightful and I’m intrigued about their travelling in little packs.

Views from my room: up the street and across from my balcony. Good room and I was warned it may be noisy.

Started exploring. The opera house is down the end of my street. I must go while I’m staying in the hotel. Wow. Found a supermarket. As always, carefully hidden and discretely labelled. Luckily I know the Dia symbol but even then I did not see it on the first pass through the area despite also having it marked on my map. The desk guy in the hotel was very helpful.

Tomorrow, a long walk designed to tire me out and to ensure I get plenty of sun to help me sleep at the right time. And the opera. I’m seeing the Marriage of Figaro. Because I can. I like the music and with the theatre literally down the end of this street it’s an ideal opportunity.

Don’t need dinner tonight. I’m full of some decent food from the 3 flights in the past 25 to 30 hours on Emirates. They truly beat Qantas food quality and availability. Easily.

Friday
Still not fully light at 7.30am. Getting there. I hope daylight saving continues for the remainder of my time here.

Madrid Opera
Some dress for the opera in Madrid. Thankfully some don’t so my red Macpac jacket bought for walking in Tasmania, plus grey walking pants from the Simpson Desert, and scruffy walking shoes last worn on the Camino Frances earlier this year, are not as outré as they might be. 😉

The crowd has a prosperous look: all white, women typically with shoulder length hair, most men clean shaven and in a suit, many younger than at the Saturday opera matinees I attend in Sydney. And, many more men. Possibly 50% or very nearly. I’m in the second last seat available for this
performance in this section of the theatre. So it’s not the best but I can read three sets of subtitles, in Spanish and english requesting us to turn off our phones. Both languages are offered throughout the performance.

The story is the usual trite opera story: some love, some inane confusions and a foreseeable outcome. And the silly story is saved by some of the music. I chose the opportunity: opera in Madrid rather than that opera per se.

Half time and a 30 minute break. No long lines for wine, coffee or loos here. People rapidly disperse outdoors to the nearby bars, restaurants and icecream shops. The location is excellent: near the Opera metro station, a plaza, bars etc and with residential accommodation virtually next door, over the street like my hotel.

The layout of the theatre is great. It’s not very old but old enough that floorboards creak as late people sneak in. Red velvet over the edges of a series of balconies one on top of the other and each has a number of boxes. The edge near me also has red velvet covering it. The theatre feels small and cosy, different from Sydney and my only other experiences of operas, Hamburg many years ago with T, and Cassel, a few weeks earlier that same year.

With some difficulty I stayed upright for most of the opera. Got a little difficult before the end of the first act and again in the middle of the second. The sheer banality, or should it be inanity, of the story became a little much despite my having a short afternoon nap to preempt this. I liked the orchestra, young and keen but, too often they drowned out the singers who did not appear to use any form of sound system so the volume varied considerably, especially when they moved!

Near the end some people in the audience left and, as the singers were taking their final bows, a number of others joined them. Sydney is more restrained that way and people wait for the final bows before starting to leave.

Walking around Madrid
This area is a tourist area, part of the old city from at least the times of the Moores. Many irregular streets, renamed at every intersection, with dense housing and shops. Also many green areas, formal parks, between or around.

Some things are very noticeable: the penchant here for grand buildings and statues. Some statues:

The most surprising is the passion some have for attracting attention to themselves. I promise you I saw Spider-Man:

A pair of guerrilla fighters at the ready, with a friend:

And there was Jesus getting ready. His cross was in pieces beside him as he splashed on blood, ready for a day’s work:

A few assorted tableaux and, umm, items:

Especially notice the second last one, a labour saving device as there was clearly a built in seat. If you are searching for a new career, forget Jesus and the ‘things’. Spider man and the guerrillas were doing best. Of course, out of fairness, Christ hadn’t had time to work his magic when I shot him. So maybe he could be in the running too.

More seriously, from the Cathedral de la Almudena some very impressive sights, soaring, beautifully painted ceilings, spectacular long naves and an area behind one altar that capped off the impressions of power and supremacy just beautifully. And I loved the worked metal entrance door.

And a few other scenes from around town: spot the supermarket (I promise you there is one), a splendid arch and the crowd outside a museum.

Apologies but I had to include the cud chewing cow. Part of a lovely little nativity scene that would fit nicely on any table anywhere. The others in this scene are also active. The cow was my favourite. Perhaps I got too close to the camels in the Simpson Desert recently!

During the day I also walked past the area I’ll be staying, starting tomorrow, for three weeks. It’s considerably closer to where I am than I’d expected. Near a nest of instant food places that includes KFC, Maccas and TacoBell. As well as local restaurants like the old wine cellar in which I had lunch.

Today is a walking day too. Probably done my share of churches, the effect is cumulative so, it’s more likely to focus on parks.

Madrid & Camino Levante

Sydney to Madrid, 17 September 2014

I’ve been very much looking forward to this trip. It’s my second to Spain this year but the context is so different and it feels like the right time to be returning.

My March trip I moved forwards and shortened in case I was needed at home. The trip felt compressed, and it was. The walking was disappointing. Partly because walking the Camino Frances didn’t meet many of my expectations, generated when I walked the Via de la Plata in April to June 2013.

I missed the type of people who walk the VdlP, generally more experienced walkers, and the old and very quaint small towns I walked through. Many of the towns I passed through on the Camino Frances are exceptional too but I enjoyed those on the Via de la Plata much more. And there are many fewer walkers on the VdlP. All up, I’m sure I wasn’t much fun to be with on the Camino Frances this year and I spent little time walking with anyone and too much listening to music. I’m more settled now and realise that I have time and don’t have to let disruptions disturb me as time is not as pressured as it was. I’m adapting. Slowly.

This trip? Very different. Back to improve my Spanish in three weeks and to try to get up to the level I reached about 16 years ago, when in Guatemala. So, three weeks of living in the Madrid CBD, a few km northwest of the Puerta del Sol station. The room is in a complex associated with the school and next door to it. Half board in a fascinating city I’ve only passed through before. A city that took the status of being the capital from Toledo in the 1500s or 1600s. Ask me more in a week.

I plan to spend the last 2 of my 5+ weeks in Spain walking a section of the Camino Levante, south of Madrid.

Camino Levante
The Camino Levante is longer than the Via de la Plata. It starts in Valencia and goes through significant cities including Toledo and Avila on its way to Santiago. It shares a section with the Via de la Plata, starting at Zamora and you can walk the same way to Santiago de Compostela as I did last year or, go to Astorga and join those on the Camino Frances.

I plan is to skip the first section from Valencia, starting in Albacete and to walk from there to Toledo this year. Thanks to the wonderful Association for the Camino Levante in Valencia I have hard copy maps and the gps files for the updated track. Next year J and I hope to walk from Toledo to Avila and also possibly Ourense to Santiago. Wish me luck and happy walking this year. I love the idea of more time in Toledo. Very much enjoyed my stay there last year.

Getting to Madrid
My flight goes the long way around to Madrid. First stop, Bangkok to refuel, then Dubai. Change planes and, finally, Madrid. Will seem like an eternity to get there I’m sure.

This flight is on an Emirates 777-300. Having just flown Qantas to and from Bangkok I was interested to see how it compares. Frankly, no comparison. Emirate’s spaces are better setup. There are more movies but, like Qantas, nothing special. Emirates have sufficient staff, the meal I’ve ordered is available and I don’t have to forgo my preferred meal as on two of four recent Qantas flights. And the third of those was only ok because I could pre-order! The meals On Emirates are a better quality as well so far. See the cheese plate for example. Fives types of cheese, all edible. Not like the miserable, two, very small bits of cheese coming home on Qantas from Bangkok.
PHOTO – unable to publish but it shows 5 types of cheese! All edible. 

Qantas, you are severely testing my loyalties. I will be with you on the leg home from London. Please don’t disappoint then. Please. Yes, I remember it was Emirates earlier this year that lost my pack when I flew to Barcelona. They are certainly not perfect. And one of two toilets behind me tonight is not working. However, their club in Sydney is also way better. The Qantas one is tired and too full. Not so that of Emirates and the food is great there too.

A brief stopover in Bangkok to refuel and we are off. We didn’t have to get off but a half km to walk, and a ground toilet, made it irresistible. As always, through security again despite having just got off the plane. Was good to move again.

Next stop Dubai.

Dubai
Flying into Dubai in the dark is impressive. Huge long freeways. Many trucks visible from the air. Maybe as I’ll leave here in daylight today I’ll see a little of what the place is really like. In the meantime, listening to Wagner’s Der Valkyrie as we come into land is inspiring.

I’m time watching. We load at 7.05am and I know the gate is a little walk from here. No problems with the walk but for the size of the crowd in Dubai airport at this time early in the morning. This is an amazing place. Thousands of people from all over the world. Thousands. Some racing somewhere and some dawdling, filling in time. All shapes and sizes and colours and languages. Damn that the Tower of Babel fell. Still, being a native english speaker is an absolute bit of luck thanks to the British enthusiasm for empire building in the 1700s to 1900s. Had it been otherwise the Portuguese, Dutch or Spanish languages may have had a quite different international status. Funny how it’s small, often apparently insignificant, things that can have such an effect on history. Not butterfly wings in this case, more likely changes to maritime legislation in England. Even if just contributory, an interesting idea.

Back to Dubai and getting to the Emirates lounge. Many commercial opportunities as I raced to the lounge to a toilet and to get a coffee. Most are the same watch, perfume and electronics stores you find in every airport in the world. I avoid them. Don’t need more things this week (hmmm, may change as the iPhone 6 is available tomorrow! I want to look at that. Spain is not listed as a first release country so I may have to wait).

My pack weighed 5.2kg in Sydney, lighter only because I’m carrying my new, ultralight, sleeping bag and sheet as I wanted the tax refund. Plus, I am carrying some other heavier items: my electronics, toiletries and a jumper. The last is sheer pessimism as the temperatures in Bangkok, Dubai and, I expect, Madrid, are close to 30C anyhow. The point is, I should come in under 7kg when walking. I have some extra gear to use during the three weeks in school and that I hope to leave in Madrid while I travel.

The Emirates lounge is an older one. Not like the very flash one I was in during my first visit to Dubai, 18 months ago. I realise now that was because I was on an A380. Facilities are very convenient and clean anyhow In the section I’m in. Good food selection and I’ve leant a clever trick to get better coffee from a machine next time.

As you may gather, I feel fine. Good sleeps on each leg. Brief perhaps but seemingly deep enough. I’m trialling a new sleep assistant drug, Circadin. Usually I use Mersyndal and my hopes are high for the new one over the next few days as I use it to help me adapt to an 8hour time shift. Daytime sleeps will not be an option with school! So no micro sleeps on this next leg as it will be daytime and it will help me adapt to the 8 hours difference. Let’s face it: no one will ever think me Spanish for many reasons, one being that I like early mornings and nights. Forget 3 course dinners at 9pm. Please.

Dubai to Madrid
Another Emirates 777-300, code share with Qantas. We have a lovely Scottish woman looking after my section this sector. We’ve just had a brief chat on the Scottish independence movement and likely outcomes as the results are due soon. Interesting.

My wish was granted, we left Dubai in the daylight. The height of their world beating big tower does just that, it towers above all the other buildings. Positively towers. The city is shrouded by cloud or smog but very large sea walls are evident in many places. Within one there are many small ‘islands’, looking like gravel or sand deposits. I assume these represent forward planning for a possible housing boom. A Venice of the future perhaps. Only one appeared to have vegetation. Perhaps the others were involved in the global financial crisis a few years ago.

Did you guess I’m excited that I am getting closer to Spain? Some trepidation but I have 3 nights in a nice hotel in the Madrid CBD to recover before moving into school housing on Sunday. 8am on Monday I have an assessment of my Spanish language competence. I want to be in the level above beginners but I am so rusty. Fingers crossed. A few days here alone will help me disinter some of my vocab. I hope.

Classes start at 9. Four hours per day and an optional extra hour on culture. Or similar. Three weeks of that should help a lot.

We are flying over a desert somewhere. Rocky, some columnar mountain ranges. Very different from the Simpson in Australia. Very. This one surrounds a large lake, or appears to. Might be this is the closed end of a large inlet. The areas adjacent to the coast gave been tilled and planted, suggesting a fresh water lake in the midst of a very inhospitable land.

Solved! We were over Egypt and are now over the Mediterranean. Crete ahead to our north and Libya to our south. Phew. Away from the Middle East. Don’t fancy ending up like the unlucky Malaysian plane did as it flew over another war zone. I’ve got too many years of retirement to enjoy first. We’ve just passed Malta at 814km/hour, a couple of Islands about 33,000 feet below us to our left, through air that is minus 26. F or C, I don’t know as the program that provided the information is no longer available. And listening to music has become a trial with some sort of interference on their headphones and on my earplugs.

Madrid
I’ve arrived. Taxi from the airport was easy and cost a fixed €30.

Checked in. Started exploring. The opera house is down the end of my street. I must go while I’m staying in the hotel. Wow. Found a supermarket. As always, carefully hidden and discretely labelled. Luckily I know the Dia symbol but even then I did not see it on the first pass through the area despite also having it marked on my map. The desk guy in the hotel was very helpful.

Tomorrow, a long walk designed to tire me out and to ensure I get plenty of sun to help me sleep at the right time. And the opera. I’m seeing the Marriage of Figaro. Because I can. I like the music and with the theatre literally down the end of this street it’s an ideal opportunity.

Don’t need dinner tonight. I’m full of some decent food from the 3 flights in the past 25 to 30 hours on Emirates. They truly beat Qantas food quality and availability. Easily.

Friday
Still not fully light at 7.30am. Getting there. I hope daylight saving continues for the remainder of my time here.

Siem Reap – by bike and tuk tuk

Siem Reap 2014 (30 August to 9 Sept)

Sydney was mist, rain and not at its finest on the morning of Saturday 30th August 2014. We left home a little after 5am. The day before Jim, the dog, had happily watched the cats being left at Joe’s cattery, little realising he was booked into a kennel a few km away for the 9 or so days we would be away.

An easy drive to Sydney, followed by breakfast in the overcrowded Qantas business lounge and we were ready to catch our flight to Bangkok.

Bangkok overnight

Bangkok this time is only a brief memory as we had a little over 12 hours there. From landing at about 5pm, trying to find the express immigration area and then catching a shuttle at gate 4 to the airport’s Novotel hotel we we were go, go, go.  Dinner was Japanese, in the hotel. An overpriced meal but light. Ready for breakfast at 5ish the next morning in the hotel. Quite nice, not as exciting as last time but it ‘provided’ lunch as well, cheese and small rolls.

The shuttle back to the airport at 6am took minutes only. Checked into Bangkok Air for the flight to Siem Reap quickly and easily. Found their club lounge and, most importantly, got access to their wifi. That had not worked in the hotel and J was concerned her mother didn’t worry about her e-absence.

Lots of water was visible when flying in and out of Bangkok suggesting possible flooding again this trip in Siem Reap itself. Hopefully not to the depth we experienced on our second trip here, right up to the top of the underside of the central bridges. Fun for kids but scary with the many hidden holes and pavement irregularities submerged by the brown floodwaters.

Ebola

We arrived early at Siem Reap after a rapid flight. Uneventful. Totally. The only thing of note was the health card we had to complete. The authorities appeared concerned about Ebola. Hard to know why as it’s only in Africa so far.

Accommodation

A tuk tuk had been ordered from the apartments when we booked way back in May. No tuk tuk for us at the airport. We waited and still nothing. Got a taxi to town. To Karavansara where we had booked apartment 1B.

I first negotiated a $U28 price reduction from $U178 a night for the 8 nights. Then we discovered ‘our’ room had already been let! They could offer us a 2 bedroom apartment on the ground floor instead. Jane checked it out, came back and asked me to check it too. Made me a little worried as she clearly was not 100% happy with it.  I checked. Nice place, 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, lounge and kitchen. But, it was downstairs and we would miss something we had loved last time, sitting upstairs and looking out over the river. For example, we became attached to a changing pack of dogs who raced in to meet, had a few sniffs of each other. A number of barks. One always appeared to loudly repeat the gossip from each one to the others, the ‘towncrier’. Suffice to say, we liked being upstairs and had booked it again.

So, we asked for internet access and started looking for options. Started with the FCC. Really, we went around in a circle. In the end we suggested to management that we would accept it for a further $U20 reduction per night. We were disappointed but like the location, prefer an apartment and like this place. Took possession of Ground Floor A.

Opened up blinds, turned on fans and made ourselves at home and got onto the internet again. Next task was to find decent quality bikes. Last time this was relatively easy and we planned on about $U5 each per day for 8 days. No success at all. The good bikes were $U12 each per day, with a helmet and bike lock, and they were not interested in any discussions. We looked further afield. J checked elsewhere while I was having a massage and it came back to the same thing. Take it or leave it. So, we paid $U168 for two good bikes for 7 days. Nice bikes and gear and we took it there and then.

And no, that is not a transmogrified me exploring a bike we hired.

Ahh, the massage I hear you say enviously. No! It was dreadful. Torture. Perhaps a little strong but it was not nice nor was it therapeutic or restful. More a matter of staying on strict alert to prevent damage.

The type of massage I requested was the standard ‘back, neck and face’. Pretty standard and on the spa’s menu. I organised it through Karavansara. She came to the apartment. I was surprised when she didn’t want me to take off my shirt. So, ugh, dry massage through clothes. What was worse was that she spoke no english and I speak no Khmer.    After 10 min I hated it but didn’t want to cheat her out of a fee. Had to get her to moderate her force and then she started doing bits that are not part of a back or neck or face. Aggghhhhh.  I managed to limit her to one leg. Prevented her doing arms or my other leg and reiterated ‘back’. Anyhow, it got so I was sneaking looks at my watch. To make sure it was finishing soon.

She clearly had little idea of human anatomy. How do I know? Well, I can assure you legs don’t go that way no matter how hard or suddenly they are pushed. And then there is the matter of the back ending at about the level of L1, excluding most of the lumbar spine. And that is without commenting on her lack of a systematic approach. Oh no. Absolutely the worst massage I’ve ever had. Sigh.

It finished, we got the bikes and rode around the area to get our legs in as neither of us have ridden for a while. Then dinner at a flash new place near here, on this side of the river. Best fish amok ever. Very good service and food. Cost about $20 ( always USA$ here so I’m not annotating in future).

Bed early as we were both tired. 9pm seemed unbearably late to me but I nearly managed staying up, and awake, ’til then.

Monday 1/9/14

Early morning ride to get our 7day passes to the Apsara precinct. Means you only buy the one ticket and it’s clipped each day. Then, a quick check of Angkor Wat and a ride through the South Gate and around the Bayon. Followed by a quick ride home for breakfast at about 8am. Nice breakfast, included in the room price. 

We followed with a walk around town and I checked out the Boda Spa. Drink and then back to the Spa for me for a foot massage while J headed back out for more photography. Yes, she found a heap of unwanted kittens. Almost inevitable around here but she can do it almost anywhere in the world. Yes, she paid someone to feed them into the future.

The massage – so good. Sim has very nice hands and the Spa sets it all up well. I’ll go back on Tuesday, while J is out with her photographer teacher travelling around the Temples.

Dinner at Riverboat restaurant, Rohatt, again. Very good food. Particularly their fish amok. This is one place in which it is not a sloppy curry.

Tuesday 2/9/14

J left at 5am with a photographer, Eric, for a day’s tuition on the finer points.  I hasten to add she is already a very impressive photographer herself.

I headed off on a bike. Weather was great, for a little while.  About an hour in it started to rain. Proper, tropical rain. I took shelter in the East Gate a stone guardian style structure, like the other gates at Ankar Wat.  While plenty wide enough for walkers, bullock carts and pushbikes they are a little narrow for buses.

Each has an internal niche on both sides of the road through it. I parked my bike on one side and stood behind it, keeping guard as buses drove through.  Bus drivers have to be very careful as their mirrors come close to hitting the protective wooden framework now added to the inside of each end of each gate. Bigger buses just can’t get through, thankfully. This limits them to the further temples and keeps them out of the inner set at Angkor Wat.

A motorbike with a passenger arrived to shelter there. Tun, the rider, was quite chatty. His english was almost as bad as my Khmer! I eventually gathered his pillion was his girlfriend and he wanted to marry her. First he had to negotiate with her mother. He mentioned $2,000 was a necessary part of the  negotiation and informed me that ‘honey follows money’.  Hmmm.

And then, unbelievably, a tuk tuk with J and Eric on board passed through the gates. Couldn’t have contrived meeting there is we’d tried.  They continued on.

Another nearly drowned ‘rat’ arrived to join Tun, his girlfriend, our bikes and me. The new guy was on a motorbike but left it out in the rain. It wouldn’t have fitted with me on one side of the road through the stone gate and the local guy on a smaller motorbike on the other. The new guy was French.  His english was, happily for me, considerably better than my french. His first time in Cambodia and he had obviously covered some distance on his bike. His interest was piqued by a cousin who had been in the French army that left Indochina in 1954. I was almost sorry when the rain stopped.

So, a ride home past some of the major temples again. I’d already bypassed Ta Prom, an overrated place now, and had still to go past the Bayon, through the South Gate, past Angkor Wat and then home.  To another massage at Boda Spa.  A good back massage there, with lemongrass oil.

J’s day?  Very successful thankfully as she had already organised for us to both go with Eric, the photographer, on the following day.

Wednesday 3/9/14

Both of us off with Eric, the photographer J was with yesterday. We caught his tuk tuk at 9.50am and headed off. First he took us to a small village out of Siem Reap, one where people are used to him and he has arrangements with them. This meant it was possible to take photos and not feel too much of an intruder in their world.  We were, but, it was not as bad as they had sanctioned it.

Then off to a temple. One area, where seemingly the younger monks lived, suffered from the common disorder of plastic and other rubbish just thrown away nearby. No attempt to collect and dispose of it.  By contrast, on the other side of the temple and a surrounding moat the area around the houses there, and where the older monks lived, was very clean and tidy.

Lunch was a picnic basket at a table next to another temple. Getting there in a tuk tuk along a very very rough road was, let’s say, interesting. The bike twisted and wriggled and the part we sat in also twisted as well as bouncing.

And finally, off to a real floating village. Not one of houses built on stilts as many at Tonlé Sap are but ones on floats. Apparently the village is elsewhere for about 5 months per year and, in August, moves back ahead of the wet season.  Clearly it is therefore not as settled, with vegetable gardens, like the one in Myanmar. But, I enjoyed going around it on one of the long boats.  Sigh, I recognise that I, with all the other tourists, threaten this way of life as we pass by them looking at their way of life.  To date this one is not as heavily touristed as those in Myanmar.  An amazing place.

Thursday 4/9/14

A bright sunny day. After breakfast at Karavansara we headed off on the bikes to see some of the places J saw with Eric, the photographer. Warm day and riding was great. Up past Angkor Wat, through the South Gate, past the Bayon and nearby temples. Through the North Gate and then a few km more to see a relatively quiet temple, Banteay Kdei.

Not so bad outside but tour groups made walking the the long axis of this temple slow. Groups clogged a point about half way through where a large, intact, phallic looking sculpture was placed in a central point in the long passage. Once through that progress was easier.

A delightful old nun, shaven head, and a marked thoracic kyphosis came to us from a side passage. Took my sweaty, disgusting hand and blessed me. Tied a light, three string, coloured band on my left wrist. I gave her a $1. The usual price. She had blessed J a few days ago, on her earlier visit.

Some of the many other tourists setup photos of themselves in weird poses, calling friends or fellow travellers to take a photo of them as they stuck their hands or a couple of fingers in the air.  Resulting photos would usually have to be awful as the light was very bright and their poses often inelegant. Somewhat like some we have of J with the monkeys. She is the one with the bike helmet! Oh, and camera of course.

We rode back to the Elephant Gate. Looked at some good carvings there and then over to a temple behind the stalls opposite, near the toilets. So quiet there. Not one tourist when we arrived on a couple of interesting and smaller temples we’d not visited previously. Both had a simple design and looked to be early ones. More like pyramidal temples built on rock piles, like the Mayan ones in Guatemala and Mexico. Not as refined with colonnades like the one we’d visited an hour earlier, or, our favourite, the Bayon. Shown below, after the photo of the quiet, unvisited, place.

Friday 5th

It rained. Started at about 3am and continued. And continued.  We lazed around and didn’t go riding.  Our highlight for the day was probably the Xmas carols played during our dinner. Sinatra by the river in Siem Reap. On and on. The restaurant was The Grey Kymer Grill. The degustation menu offered 7 different types of meat including crocodile and shark. We had 3 predictable types, squid, chicken and fish. The cooking had two stages:  first a steamboat setup for vegetables and noodles. In the centre of the cooking equipment was a raised rounded part on which she put a lump of pork fat. She then put very small strips of meat of this, the grill. Quite a nice flavour but, an hour or so of Xmas carols here, at that site in a September, was memorable. Very.

Saturday 6th

Arranged a tuk tuk for 6am to head out to Banteay Srei, a delightful little temple about 35km from Siem Reap. I had expected to ride out there but a tuk tuk has benefits. Such as, you can get there before the buses all arrive, from 8.30am onwards.  So, tuk tuk it was.

A beautiful clear day.

And, until thousands of others arrived, Banteay Srei was peaceful and delightful, as usual. A few photos from within and around the area. Note the quality of the detailed carvings at the site, including not just the usual ones of women but also the victor about to behead the vanquished.

Back to Siem Reap. Meandered around. Later, J bought some raw chicken to feed the 5 or 6 starving kittens she has been caring for in the temple grounds. She had previously given an older woman living in a small hut near one of the gates $20 to look after them, buy them some food. As we were feeding them, one of four women sitting nearby said ‘miaou’ and held out her bowl. Very droll!

We walked around town, bought more peanuts with herbs and salt from the market.  The joy of being lazy wore off and so we got on our bikes and rode down to Tonlé Sap. Our first visit there this trip. About 12km each way. Good road but very busy yesterday.

Tonlé Sap has genuine floating houses abutting the obviously poor area, closely moored and with many urchins running around on he adjacent water’s edge. Their poverty was confirmed by one kid’s clothing. A little urchin who was staring at J wore a pair of well used old Y-fronts pinned on as they were many sizes too big for him.  Already they were but faded rags, wearable but not for much longer.

There are stilt houses down at Tonlé Sap too. Some are visible from the road as you ride down but others are beyond a security gate and can only be accessed now by locals. Fair enough. The poor residents constantly have boatloads of foreigners, with big cameras, pointing at them all day long. Too much! I don’t know how they cope but everyone J or I photographed was interested to see our shots and smiled at them. Seemingly none had concerns about being photographed. I suspect there must be a limit, especially if they are not benefitting directly from the interaction. One next stage would be to demand payment as they do in some parts of the world.

Sunday 7th

Breakfast and then a last ride to the temples. Specifically, to our favourites, the three small ones beyond the Bayon. The traffic was hell. More buses than ever. And worse, large parties of people wandering across roads as though they were in a mall. The area south of the South Gate was almost solidly packed. I bumped into someone, well, I didn’t try to avoid her as she blindly wandered in front of me. Touched her at an almost stationary pace and then kept going. She was indignant but I’d gone by the time she could gather her thoughts. Jane, who usually rides behind me, manoeuvred around the many human obstacles but started aggressively ringing her bike bell. She doesn’t usually do that.

Why does J ride behind me in this place with its interesting ways of observing, or not, traffic rules we might recognise? She is a very skilled and experienced rider and can keep an eye on me this way. She constantly expects me to come off or have an accident. Truth be told, I’m often very grateful for her advice and monitoring. Tuk tuks pull into traffic from off the side of the road. So do motorbikes and push bikes. The odd person wanders from one side to the other. And then there are busses. Some huge, carrying 40 or so people and, many smaller ones with about half that number on board. The point is, the roads are busy, with people driving from one side to another, or merging, with little forewarning. And it all happens on the other side of the road from that I’m used to riding on. Remembering that, even on roundabouts, is the easy bit. So, I like it when we ride together and she follows.

I took bikes back to Grasshopper, in the next street, while J had a lesson with Eric on using LightRoom.  Then a banana smoothie, with yoghurt, and back to the apartment. We had dinner at Rohatts again, for the fourth time. Both too full after for ice cream or anything else. Late to bed, about 10pm. Eric clearly recognised how good J’s ‘eye’ is. Very good. She ‘sees’ compositions easily. Very impressive and she has some good shots from this trip.  Apologies, I’ve only posted my shots. Hers are elsewhere.

Monday 8th Sept

A clear sky. Caught a tuk tuk at 5am to Angkor Wat to join a thousand of our closest friends also present for the sunrise. And the pre dawn was spectacular. As was the dawn. A beautiful silhouette of the 5 towers, one central and 4 corners. All also clearly reflected in the pond over to the side.

Lots of keen photographers in our area were especially annoyed by the person who’d put a tripod out in the water in front of him. Yes, it was in the way of the shots of many, including J. So, at one point she just waded out into the water to get a shot. As a second rate photographer who produces ‘happy holiday’ shots rather than works of art, it was all ok for me. Beautiful, actually. And I got some good shots too.  See a few of our newfound friends for sunrise at Angkor Wat below.

We headed back to find our tuk tuk but, for the first time ever, we were not identified by the driver and were unable to find him. So we had to catch another one back. The new guy seemed fine so we arranged for him to take us to the airport at 10am, heading home.

The trip to the airport was easy, fast and I gave him $6, a dollar more than we’d agreed as the price for the trip. He was ready on time and drove well.

Tuesday 9th Sept

Arrived at Sydney to collect the car, drive home and collect all the animals. Qantas did not have our first two choices of meals we ordered. The entertainment system did not work. Took 45′ for purser to deal with it. And then there were few movies, most of the premium movies were fantasy so, a very limited set of choices.  A child a couple of seats over whined for most of the trip, a continuation of about 2 hours of the same in the Qantas club earlier. Not really possible to recommend Qantas on the basis of that flight. Interestingly, they usually send an email a few days after asking for feedback.  Not this time. I note it’s also the second time in the past month during which I’ve travelled business class with Qantas, the first domestically.  On two of these four legs they did not have the meals listed as available on that flight.

How was the trip?  Good overall.  Would I go back to Siem Reap next year?  No. This was our fourth time in about 6 years during which the number of other tourists has increased considerably. Gets too crowded at times and places even now, during the wet season.  Unimaginable how it must be at peak season with more people visiting. Getting accommodation and transport would be very difficult. And, one of the great things about the temples is the peace and quiet you can get there. Finding a place without a busload of others with the same idea or who need to get a photo is difficult enough now, in the wet season.  Unimaginable later in the year!

Irrespective, Ankar Wat is a very beautiful place. Stunning at what the Khmers accomplished. And I know so little about it, how they might have lived and why an apparent orgy of temple building occurred over a few hundred years. Clearly the population must have been well organised. The extent of their organisation is also apparently evident in an extensive irrigation, or water management, system they set up throughout the region.  So, very impressive.

If you can, go at least once for 5 days or more and avoid travel in small buses. Tuk tuks or bicycles let you see and experience more. So yes, we both enjoyed this trip a lot and thoroughly recommend Angkor Wat!

Carrión de Los Condes to San Nicholas del Real Camino

The walking in this section of the Camino Frances is very same-same. Long stretches of slightly undulating gravelled or rocky paths with a few curves and highway crossings to break it up. The towns are not especially interesting along this stretch. Most have some older houses in a good condition and a few newer ones. Sometimes a church. Nearly always shut, something that disappoints a few of the peregrinos who like to go in them.

After leaving Carrión de Los Condes at 0711, a very quick coffee on the outskirts, and it was solid walking for hours. And hours. Until about1440 or so during which I covered about 32km. These numbers are usually guesses as the numbers in the wonderful Brierley map book I’m using, and those locally, never quite agree. Locally I’ve learnt to take the numbers with a grain of salt however. If a sign says 50m it will between 10 and 200m. Rarely 50.

So today, about 7.5 hours for about 32km. Yes, my stops were brief and few. With the easy ground I walk at a pretty steady pace. I’m still hoping for a rest day. If not Leon, then soon after if I can. Or, an extra day in Santiago if everything is holding up. Toes, hips et .

I wasn’t keen on the Albergue a few towns ago, after 26 or 27km, so kept going. The wonderful hotel on the outskirts of the next town, Moratinos, was open, but full! They said no other albergues in that town, or the next, were open and that they would find me a space if necessary. I decided to keep going.

I was facing another ~10km (2 hours), to the next large town, Sahagún. You know how it is when you’ve had enough. And I had by then.

Got to the town of San Nicholas del Real Camino and saw a way out, a sign for a bar and Albergue that also offered a taxi. It was the offer of a taxi that really took my eye. Apparently the Albergue was shut and I needed a serious break having eaten only some bread, a few nuts, a soft boiled egg that largely ‘slipped away’ as I tried to open it. Oh, a little cheese, 2 things of kid’s chocolate milk and some lollies. Yes, yes, not ideal planning. Left too early for breakfast and nowhere to stop for lunch, a very long stretch with no facilities.

Anyhow, my informants were wrong. The Laganares Albergue in San Nicolas del Real Camino is open and lovely. Absolutely one of the best. So I quickly forgot about getting a taxi. Lunch and drinks, plus a shower and washing were far more important.

The Laganares Albergue is a private one and, so far, I’m the only person staying here. It’s so nice. My bed cost 8€ and is one of only 4 beds, well, 2 sets of bunks. Nice sheets, a clean place and lovely staff.

So, when all hope seems to be gone, I was reminded not to give up. I knew I had to have a break though as I was getting clumsy. Dangerous when you walk alone and suspect those you started with this morning will have stopped earlier or been so far ahead. And there aren’t many who left at the same time and who will be walking and ahead of me. Most of the fast men seem to need more rests than me and have time. Some of them are unemployed and time does not seem to be a limitation. Yes, I plod on. No style. No class. Just solid.

Some things aren’t. Nearly took a nail off when I took my socks off. Not the R big toe, the blood seems to have stuck that down, no, #2 on the other foot. Knocked it as my socks came off and the nail fully lifted. Didn’t hurt. I’ll trim it and tape it so it may stick and won’t get caught on anything and come off. Most surprising.

Will see if I can log on. No signal out in the beautiful, protected, courtyard of the Albergue. Washing is flapping and may dry. Don’t be fooled. We have sun but, it’s not warm unless the sun shines directly on you.

Tomorrow – who knows what it will bring. As long as my bits hold together and the rain stays away i can happily walk. Thinking of you all.

The photos: a typical outskirts – bridge, flowering trees and an old building (Carrión), some of the paths and signs along the route, and one of a Spanish pilgrim with a very interesting stick. The handle end was very elaborate, absurd even, as it was very hard to see how he would grip it. He was carrying for a reason I suspect! Even then it made him so wide it was a nuisance. And one shot of a local farm dog. Not many around and this one, with it’s friend, eyed me off and I thought might tell me they were boss. No, I kept walking and they turned tail.

Pamplona and then to Cirauqui

Pamplona, Tuesday
Emirates have advised me they have found my pack and have sent it Madrid. I can’t get a response as to when it may be delivered. Today, but at midnight or this afternoon.

Anyhow, lovely Spanish coffee for lunch, some oranges (in case they help ‘plane ‘pneumonia’), and gassy water (agua con gas).

My Spanish is at its usual standard: people who can, switch to english; the old ladies sitting in the cafe beside me decided I was German, apparently very aware of my skill level they could talk about me while we were sitting together; and a lovely young phone company guy came with me to help when I needed to try the opposition as they didn’t have what I needed.

Can’t get a SIM card for a short time without a contract, for the one month I need. This has changed since 2013, when I had one in my iPad, so it may be the regional government, following the Madrid train explosion a few years ago. I’ll try again later but Spain is very switched on. Decent wifi in most cafés and hotels. Very civilized.

Pamplona, Wednesday
And no, still no pack yet. Now due to be delivered this morning at about 9. If it is, I should be away by 10 as I’ll have to change into shorts and repack things.

Pack arrived about 9.30. Doorman brought it up and I left at about 10.15. Planned that I may walk less than 30, depending how my feet felt.

Pamplona to Cirauqui, ~7.5 hours, 33+ km
Ended up doing over 30km, possibly 34. Didn’t plan to do that much but the countryside was lovely, I was walking well and, the albergue in the town I’d hoped to stay at was shut. So I had to walk another 2.3km. We’ll worth it. Found a great albergue, Maralotx. The boss is very organised, lovely, friendly and helpful, provided a 3 course dinner, and she made sure that we all knew when the supermercado was open. No breakfast but the rest is great. I’m sharing with 2 German women. And it’s cold enough that we have the heater on and the window has to stay shut. Good. Should dry my sweaty gear and newly washed socks. Considerably better than the time I shared on the Via de la Plata with 2 German women. They insisted on opening the window. The one I was sleeping under. I froze. Ugh.

The countryside here is different. Bigger paddocks, grain and it looks like a type of pea that is also growing nicely, about 6cm high so far. Very hilly in parts, making me wonder what the tractor death rate is. Bet it’s high. Lots of fruit trees in flower. The Germans think they are almonds and I’m sure many are. Grapes are all pruned but no evidence of budding yet.

Near Seville the farming was different. Typically smaller sized acres, except for the areas for the black pigs. Not the large number of fruit trees as here. And the grapevines hadn’t even been pruned when I first started walking in the April. Here they are all pruned and ready and it’s not quite mid march.

Here, so far, is also much more prosperous. Bigger houses, better condition. Place just looks better. Younger ones live in the towns I’ve walked through so far. A nice difference from many small towns north of Seville where the younger ones have moved out leaving just the over 60s.

The track so far is generally good. Very hard in some places with the many stones. Easy in others. One change for me this time is wearing the Dirty Girl Gaiters. They are wonderful. Despite the track being largely on paths made of gravel or small stones all stayed out of my shoes. Velcro sewed and glued on the back of my shoes and a hook under my front laces. Excellent way of stopping stones entering shoes.

Weather – so far so good. Sunny. Cold breeze on higher places but, warm in the sun. The best thing is I am prepared for cold this time and have a great windbreaker. Plus gloves and an icebreaker buff.

You are probably wondering why no photos. I’ll put some in tomorrow. I arrived late and the evening has been taken up with washing, supermercado, eating dinner as a group and now writing this. I am very tired. Confessed I may snore and have been given a great solution, one they both use – mouldable ear plugs.

Must to bed. Planning on 37 or so km tomorrow. Will be simpler as I’ll start earlier than today. Will then be able to stop more readily for coffees and just for breaks.