A Quiet Day staying by Las Leyendas

My accommodation is called Hotel Las Leyendas, and I'm staying close by here today, resting the Istanbul war injury, preparing for the afternoon of travel back to Madrid tomorrow. When I went out to get some more photos of the stork family this morning, my knee was giving my trouble again, so I decided to take it a bit easy today, stay put as much as I can.

Katya, the hotel receptionist is from Russia and speaks beautiful Spanish, at least as far as I can tell. She's been very kind to me, inviting me to sit in the breakfast room while I worked on my photos, told me to make myself tea, when I had to vacate my room so it could be cleaned. She's one of the few people I've had a conversation with in the last week. Feeling a little bit sola but that's how I travel. In fact, I don't really feel it so much here because the Spanish don't find my situation so unusual, I think. At least, they seem to treat me like any other customer. 

These are a few wildflowers I saw this morning on my way back to the hotel after my communion with the storks. 

Last night, I went out to see Ávila with the lights on the walls. I'm glad I did because I'm not sure I'll be able to do it tonight. Glad I didn't miss it. 

Oops! A time traveller's error

 So, I had in my mind that I was going back to Sydney on the 13th. Didn't think to check the tickets. That is when I arrive back, but, of course, that means I have to leave here the day before. Bought tickets on the train leaving here on the 11th, thinking I didn't want to be late to the party, as I was in London, a couple of years ago. I would have had two nights inMadrod before flying out. But my flight leaves the morning of the 12th. However, that means I still have some time to make other arrangements in the case of electrical disasters on the line. 🤞! Because Ávila is a lot closer to Madrid--only an hour or so from there by road--than I was to London when the Gods  cut the transport.

So today dawned drizzly and cool.Perfect for me because I've already bought an umbrella and I have my trusty grey acrylic jumper of advanced  age. Nothing can stop me.

I've been shooting storks in the towers and a monastery. What else to do? 

Ávila: smaller, quieter but also with Roman walls

Arrived here yesterday, with no major dramas. The hotel where I'm staying has a backdoor which exits onto a path which follows the outside of the wall around, and a front door which exits onto a parallel street, which makes it handy for darting round the walls. 

This is the parallel street exit.

Yesterday, when I arrived, the receptionist told me the sky was so grey because of sand storms in Saudi Arabia. I remember in Mexico City, a year ago, feeling the sudden effects of one of those. 

Well, today dawned brisk, windy with some rain. I bought an umbrella. Now, however, the skies are blue and I'm off to walk along the walls now, hoping to get some nice blue-sky landscapes, maybe to add to this post when I return. See you then!

Walked a long way along the ramparts, taking photos, but none so good as this one taken just before I started.

Three trains and a Bus

 Today has been the longest travel day yet, and it's not over. I started with a bus to the station in Toledo, at about 10:30. Then came a train to Madrid Atocha. Then a train to Madrid Principe Pio to meet my train to Ávila. I'm now sitting on the this train, which is just about to leave. I've checked many times eith different people that I'm on the right train, but no-one has checked my ticket thus far, so I'll just continue to hope my informants are correct.

With Don Quixote in Toledo

 Writing this from Almacen 51. Could not see my way to ordering caramancas ( which is a regional specialty) for brunch. (Not a fan of pork.) However, I'm trying the favourite drink of Spain--Sidra--a dry cider. It's going to take me all day to drink it at this rate.

Don Quixote started his epic journey from Toledo. His image is everywhere.

I decided that I didn't feel like doing the train trip out so soon, so I tried to get 5 more days in the accommodation. I could only get two more days, so I leave here on the 7th to spend 3 days in Ávila, which has the Roman walls, as here in Toledo, but I think it may be quieter.

Returning to Madrid on 11th of June,, so I'll have every opportunity to make my flight home on the 13th. (Not about to risk missing the plane for a train problem as happened in London a couple of years ago.)

I love Toledo, but the number of tourists makes it exhausting! The narrow lanes are full of cars, school children on excursions, fat Americans in groups, loud Chinese with their obnoxious mobile phones, shooting everything they see after placing themselves between my lens and my subject. 

Toledo is really being loved to death! The fact that it's only a 36-minute train ride from Madrid makes it too easy to visit. 

From the Basque Country to Toledo

 I got into Toledo today, but I'll talk about that in the next entry.

 It has been a while since I was able to write. I was quite busy, walking, walking, walking (sometimes in the rain) in San Sebastián and Bilbao. Of course, I had some good company in Yolanda, so less time alone, writing the blog. The other thing was that in Bilbao, I was staying in a one-star hotel. There was no desk to write on. I tried sitting up in bed and writing, but that put out my lower back. So, while dealing with a throbbing knee, I did not want to bring on a bad back.

My knee is improving. I took it 

relatively easy for a couple of days, taking the tram instead of walking. And Yolanda was very good to me, carrying my bag whenever she was there, and this morning she took my bag down the stairs and accompanied me to the bus station on the tram so she could carry it all the way into the bus. 

Loved the pinxhos in San Sebastián. 

We ended up eating at Pepe's Bar, which was around the corner from my hotel, a few times. And we walked into town every day, which was about two kilometres from my hotel, along the Paso Nuevo which follows the beach. 

Beautiful beaches and clean streets in San Sebastián. Elegant buildings. You can see there's lots of money, and lots of civic pride. No graffiti. 

Then, on different days because we'd planned it separately, both Yolanda and I went to Bilbao. Wonderful city. A little bit grittier than San Sebastián. I went there because I wanted to see the Guggenheim. It was impressive! Yolanda went to Bilbao because that's where the international airport is, and she will fly out of there tomorrow to join her family in Amsterdam.

Here is a photo I took early in the morning in Bilbao, a city with hundreds of bridges.

The Guggenheim Museum took up almost half the day yesterday. 

Well, it's nearly my bedtime, so I'm going to cut this short, have a shower and go to bed. I was too worried about the long trip today to get much sleep last night. 

The not-so-seasoned traveller comes undone

6:30 am. Wednesday 29/05/2024

(I stepped out of the station for a few minutes to take a tourist snap of Valencia, the only one I will have this trip. My train is about to leave.)

At the Chamartín Station bright and early for my train to   San Sebastián- Donostia. Alarm for 5a.m. so that I could catch the taxi at 6 to the station. At Chamartín,  waiting, waiting, waiting with other impatient passengers for the platform number to appear on the indicator board. It finally appeared at about 5 minutes before the train was due to leave, so joined the rush  down the escalators to platform 17. 

I found carriage 7, dragged my now very heavy suitcase in the door, stowed it and started looking for my seat. A passenger told me to try upstairs. I didn't know there was an upstairs, but up I go. Couldn't find 13D anywhere. 

Then a conductor found me and I showed her my ticket. She said this train wasn't going to San Sebastián. No, it's going  to Valencia! Apparently there were two trains on platform 17, and I caught the wrong one! While I  checked the carriage number very successfully, I didn't check the name of railway company. I needed Renfe and I'm on an Ouigo train, or something like that.

Well, she said I'd have to pay for the journey, to Valencia, but neither of my bankcards worked on her machine, so I scored a gratuitous trip to Valencia. So lucky. I only have to pay for two trips, not three.

So now I'm sitting on the train to San Sebastian in Valencia, after cooling my heels here in the station for an hour and a half. Got a new ticket, for three times as much as the first wasted ticket cost me. I have insurance but not sure how to collect.