November 1 - 3

November 1 – Salamanca, November 2 to Madrid, and November 3 – Paris
It has been a pretty busy 3 days. On November 1 we left Coimbra (which we loved) and drove back in to Spain staying overnight in Salamanca.
I have very mixed feelings about Portugal. Lots of it I loved – the people, the surf, not to mention the weather which was quite warm compared to the early Spain days. However, it is obviously a much poorer country and most of it seemed poorly maintained and downtrodden. Now the area west of Lisbon was obnoxiously rich – looks like the playground of the “rich and famous.” The people were all very friendly and easy to be with. We had some of our best and definitely some of our worst meals on this leg of the trip. My favorite Portugal experiences were definitely in Coimbra which I will remember forever. The Fado experience is the definitely the most memorable.
We drove to Salamanca, Spain on Sunday and arrived early enough to enjoy the town during the daylight. Our hotel was quite modern and located across a pedestrian bridge that led directly into the old town center. The prevailing feature is a huge University, the oldest in Spain. We walked about the town which was enjoying its Sunday (and its “day of the dead” celebrations). We also walked though a community park and watched the children playing on the usual playground equipment, old men sitting on benches passing the time, and young lovers necking with abandon. While we were sitting in a square enjoying the passing parade, Judy and I noticed that the sky was becoming dark grey and looking like it was going to rain. We wanted to head back to the hotel. Michael said he’d meet us there he wasn’t ready to go.
Salamanca is set on one very big hill and it seemed an easy walk to just walk down to the river and then to the pedestrian bridge. We walked down a street opposite from the way we had come up the hill. When we got to the bottom there was no sign of the river and we were very lost. Judy stopped an elderly man and asked directions. After adjusting his hearing aid he let us know he knew where we needed to go and then escorted us there, albeit very slowly. While walking along he told all about his children, where they lived, the trips he had taken to visit them, other trips he wanted to take, etc. Finally we thought we could see the river so we thanked him and headed off. After a few blocks we stopped to check our progress on the map. Here came the old fellow making sure we knew where we were going. He also cautioned us to be careful on the bridge as bad people may take your money. We thanked him again and headed to the bridge. We didn’t get robbed but the clouds let forth a deluge of rain and we got very, very wet.
We had an ok dinner in Salamanca. The rain let up, we walked back to the old town, and had a nice dinner at a restaurant specializing in stew.
We got up early in the morning and headed for Madrid. The plan was to stop a Escoria (sp?) the huge cathedral build by one of the most Catholic of the Spanish kings. This is also close to the “Valley of the Fallen” which commemorates the Spanish Civil war. We arrived at Escoria, saw the Palace/Cathedral from the outside which was the most somber building I have ever seen, got out of the car and were hit by a freezing wind – about 35 degrees with a very big wind chill. We walked to the cathedral and found that it is closed on Mondays (so is the Valley of the Fallen). So we had a cup of café and headed to Madrid.
Our last night in Madrid was good. We went back to the wonderful restaurant that served baby lamb cooked in a wood burning oven. On the way back to the hotel we discovered the open air market that is apparently open every day and night. It looked wonderful with great morsels of food and plenty of wine and ambience. Next time I will definitely go there. It is off Puerta Mayor.
We said our goodbyes back at the hotel. We have had a good trip together. We agreed that having the Garmin map reading/directions advice was a good thing and helped us all get along pretty well (and minimized disputes about map directions). I hope we can do more trips together in the future.
I got up early and left for the airport at 7am. I arrived on Easy Jet at DeGaulle at 11:45 am and was worried about how to find Tom & Toni Sestak as their flight got in earlier on Air France. Amazingly while I was waiting for my luggage I saw Toni gestering to me from the hallway. I got my luggage and we caught the RER train to Paris, hailed a taxi and got to our hotel. After checking in we took a short walk around the neighborhood which is very charming. The hotel is great. I have to admit Tom was right about staying here rather than the economy hotel I was pushing during our initial planning.
It is great to see Tom and Toni and I know we are going to have a great time. We agreed that over coffee in the morning we will plan our time here in Paris. Each one of us will get to pick one thing that is most important to them so we will get some variety. It is raining lightly and it actually feels very refreshing. The autumn colors are out. I love Paris in the Autumn (and in April of course).
While I loved Spain and Portugal it is great to be back in France. I feel at home here.