The Romance of Travel. . .

It’s February 14th, Valentine’s Day; a perfect time to immerse ourselves in the romance of travel. Romance, both in the cupid-arrow type, and that defined by Webster’s as an ‘emotional attraction or aura belonging to . . .adventure’.

Traveling down memory lane, these are some of our favorite travel romance destinations:

1. Paris, France. 

It is not a cliché – this is a romantic city. We don’t have any one spot to recommend, but I can tell you that strolling along  the Seine is romantic.

2. Cape Panwa House, Phuket Island, Thailand.

The Cape Panwa House restaurant is where I’d go for a romantic Valentine’s dinner.  This Sino-Portuguese mansion  made such an impression on us 30 years ago that I checked the Internet and was delighted to see it is still offers diners the exotic - and romantic setting - we so fondly recall.

3.  Stehekin, head of Lake Chelan, Washington State.

The only way into Stehekin is by boat, float plane or on foot. This remote  hamlet at the head of the 55-mile-long glacier- fed Lake Chelan is the perfect place to picnic with  bread, wine and cheese. (Buy a couple bottles of wine at any of the two dozen wineries in Chelan and don’t forget the picnic blanket.)

4. San Sebastian del Oeste, Mexico

Back when we owned vacation homes outside Puerto Vallarta, we’d break up our working trips with a getaway to the towns  tucked high above us in the nearby Sierra Madres. 

One of our favorite places was the old silver mining town of San Sebastian del Oeste, and our favorite place to stay was in one of the very rustic rooms at Hacienda Jalisco, just outside town.  Back then it was run by a lovable character, Bud Accord.  We’ve not been back to Mexico for several years and San Sebastian now has several accommodation and dining options, a web site and Facebook page! We can tell you there was no better place for star gazing than from our deck at the Hacienda – it felt as if we’d landed in the middle of the Milky Way.

5. Palace Hotel. Madrid, Spain

Our vote goes to the lobby bar at the Palace Hotel for the most romantic spot to sip a cava, the Spanish equivalent to champagne.  The dignified, library-like setting is perfect for settling into its comfy chairs and couches and getting lost in its old-world flair. . .or for watching other romantics.

6.  Le Sorelle Restaurant, Rome, Italy

On our last night in Rome a  few years ago we happened upon this small restaurant owned by two sisters (sorelle is sister in Italian) not far from the Spanish Steps at Via Bellsiana, 30. 
The food, wine, atmosphere and the sisters’ warm welcome, made us vow to return any time we found ourselves in this magnificent city.  We’ve manage to keep our pledge – twice. Once when the food was as good as we remembered it being and once when our single-night stay fell on the night they were closed – we were thoroughly disappointed!

7.  On deck a Greek ferry sailing the Aegean or Ionian Seas.

Despite the current economic woes and related unrest in Greece,  we can hardly wait to return to its magical islands. Anyone who loves the romance of travel would find a trip on one of Greece’s cruise-ship-sized ferries to be a magical experience.. .no matter which island you were heading toward.



8. Washington State ferries from Seattle, Washington

We can’t overlook our own backyard, so must make note of the ferries that ply the waters of Puget Sound providing great views of Seattle and wonderful trips to the San Juan Island port cities and as far as Vancouver Island, British Columbia. 

If you are not into ferries, take a trip up Seattle’s 1962 World’s Fair Space Needle that continues, 50 years later, to be the Emerald City’s icon.  On a clear day (and we do have them sometimes) you can take a 360-degree tour of Puget Sound by walking the outside deck or dining in the restaurant.

9.  Ko Olina, O’ahu, Hawaii.

Ko Olina in Hawaiian means ‘place of joy’ and it has been that for us since we began our annual visits there five years ago.  Bird song at sunrise and sunset, swaying palms, gentle ocean waves, lagoons with tropical fish that find you as interesting as you do them, those incredible sea turtles, honus, in Hawaiian. . .ah, yes, a most romantic place.



10.  This one is yours.  What romantic destination – past, present or future - are you thinking of today?

Travel Photo Thursday: Medianoche Magic

Madrid comes to life at night – not only its people ,but its buildings as well.  This week’s Travel Photo Thursday shot was taken on our last night in this enchanting city last spring.

On this particular night, at medianoche, or midnight, the streets had an almost magical feel about them. We’d skipped the early evening ritual tapeo, the parade between tapa bars for sipping and sampling, opting instead to dress up and head to the elegant bar at The Westin Palace Hotel, just a couple blocks from our apartment. 

Built in 1912 by King Alphonso XVIII, the building looks and feels like a palace.  We’d walked across an expansive, elegant lobby to reach the cozy dark-wood paneled  bar where we sipped wine and people-watched the night away.

But too soon medianoche, that magical hour (and bedtime) was calling. As we stepped out of  ‘the palace’ we saw this magnificent structure – perhaps another ‘palace’  - across the street:


(Click on the photo to enlarge it.)

We’re “Fall-ing” for Spain

Spring in Madrid caught us off-guard. 

We had amply prepared to explore a new city. . .but we weren’t prepared to be enchanted by it. 

Nor, at the time, did we suspect that the magic spell it cast over us would linger through the summer and prompt us to book a return trip to Spain this fall.

And while admitting that we are suffering from enchantments; we were so taken with the Celebrity cruise that took us to Spain, we've booked ourselves on one of their repositioning cruises that will depart Barcelona for Ft. Lauderdale, visiting several ports of call that will be new to us along the way.

We so liked what we saw of Spain in the springtime, we’ve booked our pre-cruise flight to allow us a few weeks to continue our explorations.  We are planning to take a very circuitous route to the port – via Andalusia.

We will fly to Seville, then after a few days of soaking up history, will hop a train or bus to Osuna (too small to show on this map) a picturesque country town about 55 miles away for a few more days as we make our way to Malaga. At this port town, we will pick up a rental car -- and our friends who are arriving from London -- and our foursome will head to Marbella for a week of modern tourism at the Marriott Vacation Club on the Costa del Sol before heading to Barcelona. 

As usual Joel’s been finding us ‘deals’ in airfare, cruise prices, and accommodations. In the coming weeks we will tell you more about those, the places we are heading and the cruise we are taking.

Reality Travel: Where ‘Unsettled’ Happens

Over coffee with a friend, I said we missed Greece and were thinking about a return visit.
 
“Greece?!! It is rather unsettled right now. . .are you sure you want to go there?” she asked, obviously influenced by the recent media reports of Athens' protests and riots.  

In reality, many of our favorite places are 'unsettled' right now.  Some just don't make headlines back home as does Greece.  For example, our trip to Spain this spring:  

In Malaga. . .
. . .a popular cruise port on Spain's Costa del Sol, we experienced, first-hand, a Spanish work 'slow down'.  We'd signed up for a ship-sponsored "Granada on Your Own" tour (a two-hour bus trip each way, with refreshment/rest stops mid-point). On our return trip we were perplexed by the driver's delay in finishing his coffee - our agreed upon 10 minute stop found us all sitting in the bus, waiting, and waiting and waiting for the driver. 

We simply figured the guy was a flake; his -- make that, their --message was lost on us.  Later arriving shore-tour passengers, however, got the brunt of the delay, with long waits at security that finally required our top brass to intervene in order to sail away on schedule.  


While in Madrid. . .
. . . Spain's magnificent capital, we were closer to protests than we ever have been in Greece. (With the protests there centered in Athens, we've avoided mayhem by heading directly to their calm, laid back islands.)

We watched a Madrilenos' manifestacion (protest) in the city's famed Puerto del Sol grow to tens of thousands in just a few days. Spain's elections were being held near the end of our stay and lots of folks, it seemed, had a message for the candidates. Puerto del Sol, the very heart of Madrid,  had been the gathering place for families, young lovers (and of course pickpockets) on our first stroll through it, but by the end of our stay, the crush of manifestacion crowds and media trucks had made it a place to be avoided.  

Our route often took us past the Syrian Embassy, a few blocks from our apartment. For several days we noted a  group of peaceful protesters who stood across the street from it; their sign boards demanding human rights for those in their country. 




As we passed the Embassy one morning we noticed the red paint splatters that soiled the front of the building. Upon our return two hours later, they had been removed.

Just down the road, a more amusing group of protesters were Madrid’s firefighters who'd set up a camp ground of sorts along the upscale Paseo del Prado.  Their message, it seemed, was unhappiness with their lot in life but set amidst a 'glamping' sort of camp with frequent trips to the nearby Starbucks for coffee and treats, again, their message was lost.

Another day we heard music playing and saw a small group dancing on a sidewalk. Their signboards were were a party pink.  It wasn't until I was taking a photo of what I thought was this street celebration that I  realized it was a protest; an outcry against children who are living in rat infested conditions.  

These 'unsettled' scenes aren't limited to Spain or Greece.  We  found those in Madrid to be interesting - not threatening or unsafe. And for each of the photos in this post, I took dozens more showing peaceful, beautiful scenes in the same city.  

So the world is 'unsettled' these days, that's the reality of travel. But instead of musing about Greece we should figure out a way to get back to it AND Spain. . .as soon as possible.    

Tapas: A Taste of Madrid

After filling our days with on-foot explorations, we couldn’t stay awake long enough to try out  Madrid’s Midnight dining hour but then we wouldn’t have had room for it after conducting our regular tapeo.
Tapeo, the early evening stroll between tapas bars for glasses of Spanish wine and tapas, for which the stroll is named,  is intended to provide sustenance until dinner – but we made it dinner.
At home we’d call these small plates’ appetizers’. In Madrid they were tapas, or canapes, a slice of bread with a tasty, cheese, meat or seafood topping, and larger servings of each being called  a ‘racion’.
We’d studied up on this practice of cheap eats  by reading advice of  foodies who had gone before us; learning the wine servings were small – allowing for a half dozen stops before feeling its impact – and tips for tapa-eating etiquette like ‘throwing used napkins on the floor and keeping toothpicks to show the bartender how much you’ve consumed.”
We quickly learned don’t believe everything you read. Savvy shop owners poured large glasses of wine as pictured (which I think they’ve learned keeps you eating there longer). And they’ve gotten tired of cleaning up dirty napkins – as every place we visited had strategically placed garbage cans at the bar.
The food was good – but it wasn’t always cheap eats by any means. Part of that impact of the U.S. dollars’ weakness to Spain’s currency, the Euro).  The rate of exchange was  1-Euro=$1.45US.
Too late we learned that Manchego, their famous cheese is about as high priced as is their famous Iberico acorn-fed ham.
Our first night out we each had two glasses of wine, a shared a ‘tortilla’ – a thick open faced omelette stuffed with potatoes --and then ordered a cheese and ham plate (both are pictured here).
Our bill was $27-euros or about $43US.
At one place we tried the 2-euro ($3.20) tapa of the day and received a toothpick on which two bite-sized green peppers were wrapped in an  anchovy.  The most economical was the canape – most of which were $2.50-euro, depending on the topping chosen.

Note:  If these make your mouth water, just wait until I tell you about Celebrity’s Gourmet Galley. . . and then I’ll give you an update on D2G, our Diet to Go. . .

Madrid: Si, Muchas Alegre!

I’d spotted our elderly neighbor up on her tiny balcony, tending her many plants as we walked home to our Moratin Apartment. I waved but she obviously didn’t recognize us  – we’d only been neighbors for three days and hadn’t yet met.

A few minutes later when I stepped onto our balcony and called out in Spanish how beautiful her flowers were, she flashed a big smile and we ‘chatted’ a bit ( as much as one can do with my halting, slowly enunciated Spanish). 

Then she picked something from one of her many pots and gestured it was for me.  Minutes later she was at our door, two stems of aromatic mint in hand. 

She spoke far too rapidly about the herb for me to understand all she said, but as she handed it to me with another big smile and concluded, “hay muchas alegre”  - I couldn’t have agreed more.

• Alegre: to brighten, bring cheer or happiness.

Per the rental agreement we cleaned the apartment of all garbage the morning we left, but I couldn’t bring myself to toss the mint; I couldn’t toss the alegre. It represented the many kindnesses we experienced during our far-too-short-a-week in Madrid.
The first kindness we experienced was from a couple who’d stopped at the cerveceria we were at for a glass of wine before they headed to Saturday evening church services across the street. 

In our halting Spanish we chatted with them – where we were from, where they were from. . .and as they left they told the bartender to pour two glasses of wine for us – on them. 

Another evening in the midst of our tapeo, we struck up a conversation with a young couple. When their plate of shrimp was served, another plate of shrimp was placed in front of us. . .from them, of course.

Time and time again we were reminded that  travel opens the door to so many interesting places, but it really is the people you meet along the way that make those places memorable.

Note: We rented the Moratin Apartment from Spain Select, a company with properties in Seville, Valencia and Madrid.  The cost of our two-bedroom, one bath apartment was about 127-Euros a night – far less than hotel rates during this festival week we had chosen for our visit. We had to make a 250-Euro damage deposit which was promptly re-credited back to our account within the seven days after our stay, just as outlined in the rental agreement. 

The Midnight Hour

The midnight hour. 
It has a nice literary ring to it, doesn’t it?

But it's not something I’d given much thought, until I read a  post on the  Baltimore Sun’s web blog a few weeks before our departure, written by John E. McIntyre, that pondered the questions:

Does midnight belong to the day that is ending or does it belong to the day that is beginning?  Or does the fact that a digital clock reads 00:00 at precisely midnight, mean it  is neither?

And what does that have to do with travel?

Well, quite a bit. Take midnight in Spain. It's dinner time there. Unlike our Kirkland lives where the middle of the night is when you wake up and take a 'trip to the bathroom'. 

That presented a challenge: would we dine at midnight or at least at the respectable dinner time of 10 p.m. or later? Answer: no.  We tried, but couldn't last that long.

In fact, we thought we were doing well to still be tapeo-ing (making the rounds of tapa bars) at 8 or 9 in the evening. And after eating tapas then, we really didn't have room for a real multi-course meal.
(And that plan of mine to search for flamenco's duende - that Spanish show of 'soul'  fell through when I couldn't make it until the 1 a.m. showtime).

There is no escaping the impact of travel on time.

We leaped forward three hours when we landed in Florida and then eased ourselves into new time zones an hour at a time - six times - as our ship crossed the Atlantic. We jumped back an hour when we flew to London and then moved head an hour when the Eurostar whisked us to Paris. The next day we gained two hours when we went to Iceland and another seven hours when we landed in Seattle. No wonder we couldn't remember the date, let alone the day.

Back home during our first night in Kirkland, I woke at 1 a.m. -  no, not for a potty run.  I was hungry! By my tummy time I'd 'missed' breakfast and it was nearly time for lunch.

Dang, if only it had happened in Madrid!

Note: Click on the 'flamenco' above for a taste of flamenco on YouTube.

The Spring “Grand Tour”

The fellow from California that we met in Madrid said, "Wow! You are taking a real grand tour aren't you?" when we told him of our travels.

And I hadn't even told him that was what I'd been calling this trip long before we left home. Ever since reading about Europe’s “Grand Tours” I have always thought what fun it would be to have taken one. And since it's never too late, I stretched the definition a bit and named our spring trip our “Grand Tour”  although originally. . .

Those Grand Tours. . .
. . .served as what you might call an educational ‘rite of passage’ for young, upper-class, European men, that really caught on in the 1660’s and reached its crescendo in the 1840’s or so, after the introduction of large-scale rail travel.

(If you travel, you recognize the name Thomas Cook, don’t you? We flew one of their flights last year and they have money exchanges all over the place. Well, it got his start back in Grand Tour days with his then popular “Cook’s Tours”.)

The tour gave the young aristocrats an opportunity to learn about cultural legacies, view great works of art, listen to music. The tours could last for months, even years. They were not pilgrimages of scholarly or religious sorts, simply opportunities for intellectual and cultural growth.

Our Grand Tour. . .
. . .while certainly no where as long as those of olde, we have had wonderful opportunities to expand our cultural and historical knowledge.  From the on-board lecture series (our favorite speaker was English writer Nigel West) and the Corning Glass Museum demonstrations that Celebrity offered, to Madrid where we lived at the point of its Golden Triangle of the Prado Museum, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, and the Centro de Arte  Reina Sofia, we have had some great opportunities to pursue that favorite US public school phrase: life-long learning.

We’re concluding our Grand Tour with our brief immersion in London history and culture (and at least a couple trips to The British Museum), before spending a final night in Paris where we plan to educate our palates with French cuisine, and expand our knowledge of wine, perhaps a bit of champagne, and a lot of Sancerre, the favorite white wine of ours from France’s Loire Valley.

A Jolly Good Day in London

Our week in Madrid came to an end Saturday morning and an Easy Jet (one of Europe’s cheapy airlines) flight brought us to London’s Gatwick Airport.  A quick ride on the Gatwick Express train (the airport is 28 miles from London), brought us to town, and a cab ride later, we were at the Chancery Court Hotel.

Our time in Europe comes to a close this week with  five nights here, (thanks to those Marriott loyalty program points) and an overnight in Paris prior to our Friday flight to Seattle on Iceland Air

Well, we think our time in Europe comes to a close this week. . .but as we watched news reports this afternoon (Sunday, London time) we are advised that the volcano in Iceland has closed both air space and airports. . .so maybe we will have a whole new adventure still ahead. No need to worry about it this far in advance, but it does keep us watching the updates.

We’ve left  Spanish tapa bars behind to explore English pubs for a few days and I’ll be intermixing stories of both. . .stay tuned. . .who knows? The gonzo geezers may have more adventures to tell you about than we thought we would. That's one of the joys of travel.

Madrid Magic

This Spanish charmer has caught us up in its spell. – we are caught up in it as we stroll its wide boulevards in the morning to reach one of its enormous parks, gardens or palaces. And again when we’ve stroll to our neighborhood bars on our evening tapeo, the sipping of wine and eating small tapas, in the early evening hours of 7 – 9 p.m.


We had no preconceived notions about the place – we’d done our usual research and it sounded like a logical stop since the cruise ended in Barcelona, a bit less than  three-hours away by train.  And a week, we thought, would give us time to explore other cities on day trips. . .perhaps  Toledo or even Valencia. . . Ha! We can’t get to everything we want to see in Madrid.   

There is literally something to see on every street in the part of town where our apartment is located; the Barrio de las Letras (or Cortes) where now famous writers once lived. We are just down the street and around the corner from where Cervantes, who brought Don Quixote to life, spent his final years and died. 
We are here, as I mentioned before, during the Feria San Isidro, the Festival of Madrid’s Patron Saint Isidro, which means that bullfights are taking place each day of the week, several times a day.  And they are so popular tickets have been sold out for weeks in advance. . .but they are televised, complete with pre-contest comments and sideline color and play-by-play announcements.

(Note: My photo is of a television screen).

At Home in Madrid

It was the high prices on hotels that prompted us to find an apartment to rent in this city of 3 million people, the capital of Spain.

(Of course - unbeknownst to us – our timing put us in the midst of the Festival Week of their Patron Saint so the town was at a tourist peak.)

We found our place as result of Joel’s research; renting from a company, Spain Select , that we hoped was as good as travelers’ reviews portrayed it to be and hoped that the place would be as nice as the internet photos made it appear.
Using our cell phone we called as the train reached Madrid and were met within minutes of our arrival at the building by the company representative.

We are on the corner of the top floor of this building – we have six balcony windows from which we can watch the world go by. It is great for watching the neighborhood come to life.


There is no lift in the building, as they say here, so we climb 65 well-worn but highly polished wood stairs to reach ‘our place’.
And it is a spacious place as evidenced by the living and dining room.  Now the kitchen is a narrow little affair that a wall backs up to the spacious bathroom.  We have two bedrooms (the second has a single twin bed) at the opposite end of the apartment.
All in all we are quite satisfied – we’ve lucked out and are in a great neighborhood, only a couple blocks from ultra luxe places, The Ritz and The Palace Hotels.

(Met a fellow last night staying at The Ritz and he said his cup of coffee there was $15 and the refill another $15.  Our pot of homemade Starbucks each morning is a wonderful thing. . .even if a half pound did cost about $9US)

Estamos en Espana!

Yes, this blog post is being written in Madrid - we have arrived in Spain.  Seems those serene, silent days at sea have been replaced with the magic of Madrid.  The travel gods have been good to us this trip - better than the techno gods. 

I lost the ability to enter the blog our last day at sea and the wi-fi connection in our Madrid apartment doesn't recognize our little computer . . .or vice versa.  I have plenty of ship stories yet to tell so will intermix them with tales of Spain - now that we have found Starbucks and Internet access again!

Just to start our Spanish tales, I will begin with:

Running the Red Light

You see had our taxi driver in Barcelona not run the last red light we hit between the port and the train station we would have missed our train to Madrid.  And we are not the type to go racing through train stations (it isn't a pretty thing like in the movies) but there we were loaded with bags, juggling and stumbling our way through security checks, down escalators, past tickets booths and thanks to the driver running the light we made the train with a minute to spare.  One minute after we reached our seats, the train whistle blew.

There was a problem again at the port we learned causing our departure to be delayed from the ship (those silly Spanish are cutting their noses off to spite their faces with the slow-downs they are having) anyway we had allowed ourselves two hours between getting off the ship and getting to the nearby train station.

Actual time:  Got in taxi at 10:38 still beside the ship (we waited in line nearly an hour for a taxi) at 10:45 I announced from the backseat that we would miss our 11 a.m. train.  That seemed to spark the driver - he raced through the last red light; we paid as he drove, and at 10:48 we clumsily threw ourselves into the train car. At 10:59 the whistle blew and at 11 the train started.

Not the way we like to travel. . .but here we are in Madrid.  More soon about this wonderful town.