Mom and Marisa's adventures

Since Jack headed back to the states Mom and I have been traveling on our own and this is a bit of what we have been up to...

Thurs, July 9
Jack left this morning for home, Mom and I spent the morning by doing the Rick Steve’s guided tour, which ended at the Royal Palace. During the tour we stopped by a convent for narajines, small somewhat orange flavored cookies, before moving on. The royal palace had a bit of a wait, but was probably worth it just to have been there. Being a palace of course it was over-the-top-amazing, but what was even more interesting was the fact that it is still used for royal events. They also had a section of the royal pharmacy and armory, though we didn’t go see the armory since it cost more and both of us were getting tired. After our visit we headed back to the hotel with two stops: one at the marketplace for some “fizzies” (blended fruit and carbonated water) and the second for some sweets/food to hold us over on the train

Taxi and uneventful train ride to Ávila, though we did get to see El Escritorial in passing. Upon arrival had somewhat of a surprise to find all the trains to Alicante on Friday were sold out. The best we could arrange was leaving early Saturday morning so we settled on that. When we got to the hotel we found there was another problem…mom had booked the Velada hotel in Madrid, not Ávila. Fortunately they had a room available for two nights and the other reservation was canceled without charge.

We spent the afternoon wandering the town and figuring out where things were. Called Juan to tell him the change of plans. Stopped by the hotel and had dinner at place recommended by Rick Steve’s, but it had terrible service. Came back to the hotel chatted a bit and went to bed.

Friday, July 10
We slept in as long as we could since we knew the next night would be short on sleep and then had a quick breakfast at a café in the old town. Then headed to the convent to see the church, museum and briefly the reliquary of St. Teresa de Ávila. We then headed to the Cathedral and visited. It was simple, almost plain, but it was still a Cathedral. We then stopped by a café for some lunch and headed back to the hotel for a few minutes.

After a quick break we went back to the convent to purchase some things for family etc. (And got some ice cream when we had to go to the bank) After that we decided to go see the wall that surrounds the old town and visited two of the three sections that are open. We then decided to get a drink in the town square and ended up with more sangria than we knew what to do with and so remedied the problem with two sweets from a nearby pastry shop.

We then went back to the hotel for a brief break and then returned to church of St. Teresa for a mass and to have the medallions/rosaries that we bought blessed. We then headed back to the hotel, had a fantastic dinner in the hotel café and packed up for the night.

Sat, July 11
Today we woke up very early (5 or so) to catch a train from Ávila to Madrid, Madrid to Alicante and arrived in Alicante at about 13:00. Juan met us at the station and then we headed to his sister-in-law’s apartment to drop off the bags. After a short break we then went to Juan’s apartment so mom could meet the rest of Juan’s family and had some ‘dinner’. After that we chatted over some granizado and then went to the park to meet Carmela and her family. Mom and I ducked out at about 9 to go to Corte Inglés to buy a suitcase for the things that we had been planning on mailing home (because it turned out that the post office was closed and wasn’t going to open Sunday) and put that back in the apartment. We then went to go back and meet the others in the park, but by the time we got there they had left so mom and I went for a walk to see the marina and a little bit of the boardwalk before crashing for the night.


Sun, July 12
Today we woke up and met Juan in the morning and then decided to go visit Moncho and his wife Vinceta (sp?). We took a train there, which was about an hour and then Moncho picked us up so that we didn’t have to catch the second train. We walked around Altea for a little, had some drinks, and then went to a restaurant where they had mad some reservations. It turned out to be very good, we got Paella de Huerta (veggies) and a few appetizers. Turns out that I actually like natural anchovies! Who knew! I’d never smelled them outside anything in the can so it was like it was a totally different animal. Not to say I’m ready to put them on pizza…..dad! (Way to ruin something good…) But anyways, the food was great. Then we headed back to Moncho’s and just spent some time chatting and hanging out with Tor (their lovable guard dog). We were talking for so long that we actually missed our train back to Moncho and Vinceta decided to drive us back to Alicante which, while being an inconvenience to them I’m sure, was nice because it meant that everyone (Juan, Carmela, Ana, Moncho, Carmelita, spouses, kids (minus Carmela) and us) could all have some drinks and ice cream together. It also gave mom and I a chance to show the others some pictures from Grandma and Grandpa’s 50th anniversary and Thanksgiving, which was nice because they didn’t have any pictures of mom’s side of the family together for years. After that we headed back to the apartment and stayed up (somewhat) late packing, but managed to make things work.

Mon, July 13
Today Juan and Rosa picked us up bright and early and took us to the Alicante airport to catch a fight to Barcelona, Barcelona to Santiago de Compestella. After arriving in Santiago we had to wait an hour to catch a bus to Lugo, which is about 2 hours long. Once we arrived in Lugo we checked into the hotel, relaxed a few minutes and headed to visit Alicita. We went just to chat, but it turns out that she cooked us both dinner (which was really really good!) and we got a chance to meet Ramón, her husband who suffers from Alzheimers. All-in-all even though it was a long day, it was worth it to go to Alicita just because she was so so happy to see us.

Tues, July 14
Today we slept in late and then met Alicita at her home and looked through some pictures (both hers and on my computer). Afterwards we met Gracita and husband for lunch. We visited, and I had the chance to try “pulpo”, which is what Galicia is known for (aka HUGE purple octopus) and I have to admit that it was pretty good though it certainly is not a new favorite. After some more chatting we headed back to Alicita’s to walk her home and went back to our hotel to mail some things home (aka my textbooks and other large heavy things). After successfully doing that we went for a walk (got some ice cream) and went along the village wall for some time. The wall in Lugo is well-known because I believe it is the longest continues/oldest wall in Spain (though the Ávila wall is more impressive). We poked our head into the Cathedral, which was something that Mom turned out to recognize which was kinda neat. We then hung out a little more and ended up getting some cokes at a café and reading for a while and mom got some pizza for a late-night dinner. After that we both were pretty tired for some reason and crashed.

Wed, July 15
Today we woke up in time to catch the 9:30 bus to Santiago from Lugo and then checked into the hotel. We weren’t allowed into our room yet so we left our baggage and went exploring. We stopped by a fresh fruit market and a bakery and got some food for a schmorgasborg lunch in front of a seminary. We did a little halfway shopping and then went to the Cathedral.
The Cathedral was packed with people, backpackers, visitors, tourists…I have to admit it was a bit disappointing in that everyone was talking like it was just another tourist site, there wasn’t very much respect for it being a church. Nonetheless we did see St. James’ tomb and wandered around using Rick Steve’s mini-tour. After that we walked back towards the hotel and stopped by a little garden café for some cokes in which I decided to stay and read in for a little. We then spent some time relaxing in the hotel room and then went back out for a little shopping and then had dinner at a crepería for dinner, which may not have been French, but was fantastic!! After that we walked around the city a little more and headed back to the hotel. And, for the first time since I left the states, I was able to go on instant messenger and had a nice chat with Mary Elizabeth and Jesse…silly yes I know, but quite exciting to have ‘real-life conversations’!

Thurs, July 16
This morning we woke up in time to say goodbye to Spain and to catch our flight from Santiago de Compestella to Dublin. Or rather flight to Madrid, layover in Madrid, Madrid to Dublin. After arriving in Dublin we managed to catch the 2:30 bus (thanks to an hour time change) to Waterford and checked into the hotel. After checking in we went downstairs and grabbed some much needed food, which actually turned out to be very good. And had our first truly Irish beers in Ireland. (Though mom’s may have been a German beer, who’s checking) I had fantastic seafood chowder (among other things). After dinner we went for a short walk around Waterford and then grabbed our books and went downstairs for some Bailey Hot Chocolate and desert. Very satisfying dinner! After desert we were both exhausted and crashed fairly early.

Fri, July 17
Today we got up, sent a few things to laundry and had breakfast in the hotel. Then we went over to the tourist information and the “Museum of Lost Treasures” to see an overview of the history of Ireland. While a little cheesy, it did give some interesting information about Waterford. (Such as it is the oldest known city in Ireland, was home to Nordic Vikings from 914 A.D. on and home to Meagher, leader of the Irish Brigade during the US Civil War.)

After the museum we took the bus to the Waterford Factory and spent a long time in the visitor’s center looking through displays, the shop and many demonstrations of craftsmanship. Sadly they don’t give tours anymore after recent changes in ownership and economic situation, but we still enjoyed ourselves.
Then we took the bus back and headed to the Reginald’s Tower, which is the oldest in Ireland and tagged-along on a guided tour by one of the guys who work there. It was actually fairly interesting; there were a lot of things about castle-building/military building from medieval times, which I had noticed in other buildings, but never fully appreciated previously. In case you were wondering Waterford was the only city sieged by Cromwell, which failed to fall to him.
More Info: http://www.waterfordtourism.org/
After the tower we headed back to the room for a little bit before dinner.