On Our Way to Madrid

March 9

Despite the all-day rain, it was a pretty good day, at least until Lynn drove into Madrid. More on that later.

We left Salamanca fairly late (around 9:30) and on the way out of town stopped at the Roman Bridge, an area which also had a gorgeous view of the Cathedral. We would have loved to see it in the sunshine but the weather gods have cursed us on this trip so we’ll take what we can get.

Our next stop was to Alba de Tormes, about 20km outside of Salamanca. The town was founded in 1142 and is most famous as the founding city of the Carmelite Order. St. Theresa of Avila founded the convent in the 16th century. The Basilica is never open (language barrier prevented us from learning why) but we toured the museum. There we saw some amazing artwork and silver pieces that had been given to the Order. St. Theresa was born in Avila but lived in the convent most of her adult life. She died and is buried there. We were able to see her burial coffin as well as a few relics…. her heart and her left arm.

Next, we headed to Avila, which has the best-preserved medieval wall in Europe. It was built in the 11th century, has over 88 turrets and is a mile long. It was an amazing site. We wandered the town a little looking for the birthplace of St. Theresa but couldn’t find it and there was no tourist information, at least none that we found. The woman in the shop where Lynn bought some gloves (temp in low 40s and damp; her hands were freezing) gave us vague directions….to the square and go that way…pointing to the right. Not surprising, we didn’t find it.

Because the skies were threatening, and we wanted to get into Madrid before rush hour we decided to eat our lunch in the car (we’d made ham and cheese sandwiches). Madrid is only about 110 km from Avila, so the GPS gave our ETA as 3:45pm. We did well until we got to the metropolitan area when our plan of beating rush hour traffic didn’t go as planned. In fact, we hit the trifecta…. rush hour, Friday and rain. About 12km from our flat (which is in city center) traffic came to a dead stop. It took another 40 minutes to go about 4 km when the road finally opened up a bit. Since Lynn is more comfortable driving in Europe, she’s been doing most of the driving. She did great, even with the traffic. Where she lost it was finding the flat. The GPS took us to it, but we couldn’t find where we had to turn to park the car. We had directions from our Madrid host, who doesn’t speak any English, to turn right at the McDonald’s then make an immediate left. Well…she drove past the McDonald’s several times but it was in a pedestrian area so she couldn’t find a place to turn. Mind you it’s rush hour in downtown Madrid so each circle is taking 15 minutes so by the 3rd go-around she was pretty frazzled. Peter called Juan, who somehow managed to spot our car (Peter told him what corner we were on), and he hopped in the driver’s seat while Lynn climbed in back. Turns out, we were supposed to turn right INTO THE PEDESTRIAN WALKING AREA and then turn left down an alley sized street. Juan said that it was allowed if you lived on that street. It’s no wonder we didn’t find it. By this time, though, Lynn was a wreck.

But as they say, all’s well that ends well. The flat is small but very nice. We added a 4th night after Juan told us driving into Toledo (which had been our plan on Tuesday) was even worse than Madrid. While that’s hard to believe, we took his advice. So, we’re staying here for 3 days then heading to Granada on Tuesday.

Now that we’ve had a delicious dinner, Peter is looking at the things he wants to do in Madrid while Lynn is dealing with pictures and the blog. We’re doing a day trip to Segovia and Toledo on Monday, so we have the weekend to visit the city. Hopefully the weather will clear but we’re not counting on it.

Talk with you tomorrow.