On the road (3) A (hopefully) sunny September road trip to Spain COMPLETED About This Page:

[chezp]

Originally Posted by mommapants

More great updates and photos. Does Mark find it difficult to do so much driving or the stiching from left side to right side of the road? I sure would.

Driving on the wrong side of the road - and let's face it, as we all know, the rest of the world, apart from the UK and a few other countries do drive on the wrong side of the road ; ) - is something that comes surprisingly easy to us. I used to do whenever I went on day trips to France and, trust me, when you've got road signs to follow and cars coming at you, then you have no problem remembering which side you're meant to be on. : The problem is more when you set off, perhaps in a car park and no-one else is around, then you can forget. That's generally the only time we've had an issue.

Mark was fine with the driving - we did have a number of breaks this day, although it was a lot of driving in total and he had the bonus of knowing that there would be no driving at all the next day.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by mcc0313

I had missed a few of your updates but there is nothing better than catching up on one of your TR's You definitely had your fair share of cows on this trip so I am sure that had a smile on your face. Loved the pictures from the underground church, how weird to know that in instead was an underground graveyard....pretty weird to be walking through it (and knowing what was underneath it).

Your pictures are amazing, from the vineyards in France to the beautiful towns in Spain, everything just looks so tranquil. When I saw this picture I actually had to stop and call my friend...a year or so ago she went to Spain for a friends function and I remembered this picture, and after talking to her I was right, they actually had the dinner here....once I saw the name in your picture it jolted the memory and I had to see if I was right. When I told her that I just saw this picture in a friends trip report she said that they had amazing food....(note for another trip maybe ) there is actually a hotel I think she said and bar along with it.

Oh my goodness, that is such a cool coincidence!

[chezp]

Monday 6 September – part seven: Walt’s Spanish inspiration

Next, we got a couple of shots with the town of Segovia behind us, which really was a beautiful vista. I think I enjoyed viewing it from here much more than actually driving through it though!



We walked up to the Alcazar itself to get some more shots, with Mark ending us as photographer for an old guy as well, who was here on his own. How the photo came out, we weren’t too sure, as he kept walking back, until you could barely see him!



The Alcazar does look like a fairytale castle and, as we stood there admiring it, we could hear a tour guide telling his group all about Walt’s visit. The present building is mainly a faithful reconstruction, after the original was sadly destroyed by fire in 1862. We decided not to go in, as time was marching on and we knew we still had an hour or so’s drive to get to Madrid and our hotel for the night. However, I did grab some photos of the information board, which showed what we would’ve seen inside, to give you an idea.



There were also some superb views from here:



Out we went, back through the narrow streets of Segovia again, but fortunately that seemed to last a lot less time this time around.



Then it was past the aqueduct again....



... and we were on our way. Our next order of business was to get some gas, as the car was getting low again and we didn’t know how many stations we’d see between now and Madrid. I really didn’t care where we stopped, as diesel in Spain is so much cheaper than in France. The average price here is about €1.07 a litre, as opposed to between €1.18 and €1.24 in France. We filled up and grabbed some food from the gas station, pulling in a little way up the road to eat it.

This is where I discovered my schoolgirl French error. They had Croque Monsieur and I was desperately trying to remember what was in it. I thought maybe just cheese on toast, but I should’ve known better, as there was ham inside it. Fortunately I didn’t eat any of it and managed to eat the cheese off the top, supplementing it with some chips and biscuits afterwards. Mark had a pizza. While stopped, we discovered a slight issue with one of our bags, a lovely mouldy orange in it. Nice! : We were later to find when we got to the hotel that the same bag also had a banana that had been crushed and had spewed its contents over the bag, so much of the stuff in there went in the bin or was rescued into other bags.

Next: “your upgrade came through...”

[Colexis Mom]

Great pictures of Segovia! Sorry about the croque monsieur (one of my favorite things to eat in France)!

[scrappyjae]

Having never been to Europe, I am in awe of all the awesome pictures. One day...

[cubfancolleen]

MMMM, I love croque monsieur! But I could see how it wouldn't be a good choice for a vegetarian!
Sorry about your fruit disaster! Sounds yucky.

[honeybee723]

That castle is breathtaking...just like a fairytale. That's how all castles should look.

[Kenny]

I was thought this picture was a good one of you and Mark. That is such a picturesque town, I was struck by how the photos almost look painted! I can see some of the inspiration of the castle.
Great update, Cheryl!

[KMB733]

Lovely pictures!!

[sc507]

Gorgeous pictures Cheryl! That aqueduct is really cool!

[DawnK]

beautiful pictures!!! I don't think I could go into the castle and walk across that bridge thingy. It is so high!!! I would be scared. Sorry about your fruit and bags.

[pamcarey]

Beautiful pictures of the castle! I could definitely see how it had some inspiration for Sleeping Beauty castle at Disneyland.

[chezp]

Monday 6 September – part eight: “your upgrade came through...”

We were soon out on to the motorway and fortunately this one was roadwork free. It was also a toll road for some of the way, which meant we saw virtually no traffic. We could tell when we came off it, as the volume of traffic went up considerably. We were still passing through some beautiful scenery at this point and still spotting more cows, all of which were counted in the previous totals.



Soon we were heading towards Madrid and, like any big city, it sprawls out for many, many miles. Like any big city, it also has traffic jams, although these were fortunately more slow moving traffic, rather than stopped traffic and fortunately we were soon able to get off one motorway and on to another, where the traffic was flowing much more freely. As you can see, we were well and truly in the outskirts of Madrid by now.



We got as far as the hotel and Tim was doing a really good job of getting us to the address we had programmed in. I was a bit concerned by the fact that he’d told me the numbers for the Hilton didn’t exist when I programmed him last night and then I found out why. The Hilton was on the other side of the road and we couldn’t see any easy way to it. Fortunately, after the nightmare a couple of years ago in Barcelona, when we spent about three hours looking for our hotel, with no map and only the sat nav to guide us, I had learnt and had maps with us of every single hotel we were going to. I looked at the instructions and we followed those, although my goodness, they were complicated. We were both very glad that we wouldn’t need to drive here again this trip.

We checked in and were told that we’d been upgraded to an executive room. You’ve got to love this about Hilton. Every time we stay with them, we apply for upgrades at a much lower rate than you would normally pay for those rooms and, if they have the space, then you get the upgrade. This meant that we had access to the executive lounge with food and cocktails until 8.30pm said the guy on reception. Excellent – it was about 8pm, so we still had time to enjoy those.

We got everything out of the car and headed up to our room, having to put our room key in the elevator to get it to that floor. Boy, did we feel special! We felt even more special when we opened the door to our room. Oh my goodness, the size of it! Have a look at these photos:



We didn’t spend much time enjoying it, before we set off to explore the executive lounge. Mark ended up having three beers, while I had a Martini, followed by a glass of sparkling wine. I also enjoyed the cheese and lots of fruit, while Mark sampled the various meat dishes they had available. It was a good selection. I was also able to log on from the computers in there, without having to pay any fee, which was good.


The elevators

The executive lounge

After an hour or so in there, we headed back to our huge room and hit the sack. Understandably, after all the alcohol and the driving, we were both a bit tired...

Today we drove 490 miles.
The weather today was warm and sunny, with temperatures in the mid 80s, but with a bit more of a breeze than yesterday.
The best thing today was seeing the Alcazar at Segovia.
The worst thing today was negotiating our way through the streets at Segovia!
Today we tried driving from Bordeaux to Madrid
And the result was it was a lot of driving for Mark, but much of it was very scenic.
The most magical moment today was walking into our amazing room at the Hilton.

Next: “I’ve got a headache”

[chezp]

There won't be another update now until Saturday or Sunday, as we're heading off for my grandmother's funeral later. I'll be back with Madrid at the weekend.

[scrappyjae]

So sorry for your loss, look forward to seeing more this weekend.