No longer Solo and Toledo

The boots... Brian taking snaps in Toledo

View of the City of Toledo I'm not as contrary as I look!

This is the municipal square in Toledo

The Cathedral:Saint John of the Kings and the San Martin Bridge with roman ruins in foreground

The sculpture of a south American aboriginal by artist Victorio Mattio and the Monastry garden

The Cathedral in the Monastry

The Damasquinados Suarez Facility and artwork

Day 3 started out with a great walk around Madrid, northwest quadrant. I pretty well stayed around the downtown area. That night I was shopping around the cool army surplus stores and got a call from Brian Bonnell, a colleague of mine from Ottawa. We returned to the Irish Pub for a few Guiness... it was a St. Paddy's celebration night(s). What's the deal in all these south American and Spanish places celebrating St. Paddy?! I guess it's got a whole lot to do with drinking... ya think?

We settled into the main square for supper later and again... watched the ladies solicit duties on the male tourists. Madrid is crawling with prostitution... every corner and then some. As devout science people, Brian and I correlated the profession with heal and boot style. Kim calls them hooker boots. They kind of look like puss 'n boots style... no pun intended just a Shrek reference.

Today, Brian and I headed to Toledo... Like Holy Toledo. 1 hour outside of Madrid, Toledo is a absolutely beautiful historic city. It was founded in 500BC... imagine! It has Jewish, Muslim and Christian history and still respects all three in their promotion of the city. Of course, the Catholic religion here is overwhelming. Kind of sickening with the wildly ostentatious presentation of wealth. btw... I am catholic but see history for what its worth. The crusades were our form of jihad, taking hundreds of thousands of lives in the name of God. Pretty well on every major continent! The church could sell 10 or so masterpieces here and pay off a lot of abuse lawsuits instead of leaving it to bankrupt countless community churches. OK... I'm done.

After visiting the cathedral and monastery, we went to a metal manufacturing facility that still practices a form of gold leafing that was brought here by the Muslims. The also have a silver process for processing metals for knives, scissors, swords, etc. We saw some beautiful handmade jewelery and weapons. The perfect shop of man and wife.

Tonight we are back in Madrid and hopefully meeting up with Leanne, another colleague of mine. I think I'll have something that doesn't moo for a change... perhaps a Baaaa... or a ______ (Can't do a fish sound on a keyboard). Adios!

A Few Pictures II

The demo by IT Workers and the VERY organized market... too neat!

This is the Palacio Real: The State Palace with a beautiful Plaza

Imagine... Spain and statutes?! OK, it's officially a forestry visit ;)

The square outside my hotel at night and the Prado Museum (No cameras inside)

Find a bit of garbage! Dare ya!

Effective signage... but why only terriers? The Prado entrance

A whale at the botanical park and the Museum of Anthropology

A statute... they got that down pat! Followed by this band of 500 that entertained me at lunch...

A Few Pictures...

Why cats can't be guards and shoes for Sean!

Typical storefronts

Architecture

My hidden spot... shhhhh and more rain.

Day 1 and 2: Rain, Rain, and more... Rain

Pic 1: The main square near my hotel, Petit Palace Londres.

Pic 2: Madrid's airport (spotless!)
The flight from north America was fairly uneventful except for the possible terrorist attack and the plane's swerve on take-off out of London; must have been a bit of road kill in Heathrow. It funny how everyone just quietly looks around and thinks, "What the #$% was that??!!" then our blind faith in the pilots sinks in like a catholic and our priests... hey... wait a minute!! Back to the tourist attack, as George W. would say. I'm in line to get on the plane in that thingie that connects the plane to the terminal (does that have a name?) Jesse will know. The airport police begin pushing their way through the crowd and everything stops... no talking, no loading, just unconscience (this damn thing has no spell check!) accusing looks from passenger to passenger looking for a Koran or something... sorry I'm profiling... blame shows like '24', CSI or Fox Network (that's a TV Network Kim ;) Anyways, a Nigerian woman around 28, pregnant and alone was the target of the situation. They knew her seat, her name but didn't know what she looked like; thus, every passport was checked and she was escorted off the plane. I know she was smuggling a baby... or was she? Hmmmmm? OK, excitement is over, back to the adventure. I said to Kim that it reminded me of the book, Little Bee.

I landed in Madrid after around 2 hours of sleep on board... I thought crossing an ocean should take a lot more time... didn't factor the 3 1/2 hour loss in time (or gain?!). Madrid is clean and orderly... what a contrast to Buenos Aires; same typical look but the architecture is more... harmonious. They must have strict building codes, "Don't build crap that doesn't fit with the damn building next to you!". People are very busy except for the tourists... they just tend to zone out and be impolite. Learn 2 phrases in spanish, "please" and "thank you". In BA (Buenos Aires), the locals seemed to be more relaxed and lively... perhaps its just the location. The men are very fashionable in a euro kind of way... no skidoo jackets here! And the women are surprisingly normal (?!) See Kim's reference to Argentina's grip on women's place in the aesthetics of the BA - ie: Breast augmentation and skin tight clothing.

The hotel, Petit Palace Londres, is pretty nice. Small and efficient, no big frills. My room is tiny but everything fits and I have one of those 'spray your butt thingies'. Very handy... why don't they catch on in Canada?? One cannot go back willingly to toilet paper once you've partaken in the finesse of water cleansing... although, the force of the water should be observed before pointing at anything a tad delicate. See reference to India and Sean's painful water boarding experiment... Surprise!

The first night was a visit to the local Irish Pub for a few Guiness and some chicken shaped into wings (I'm not allowed to eat wings in front of my wife anymore... see reference to dying from heart attack via clogged arteries - don't look, just kidding). Being so close to Rome, you'd think that their Caesar salad would be better... perhaps we have it wrong?? Thus, no more Caesar salads until I get home. A soccer game was going on at the pub... what an experience. Spanish people lose their minds during, before and after soccer. I settled into a nice corner table that had one chair... it must have been for the town dunce... or me... whatever, it was a nice vantage point. A goal was scored and every chair in the house was toppled with flying bodies and men hugging and kissing one another. Hey... no problem, just leave the Canadian, no spanish speaking dude out of it! I just smiled and quietly emitted the thought, "Go Blue team or whoever just scored... just don't think I'm with the other team". Great night... slept 10 hours and woke up to another day of Madrid rain but lots to see and do.

Day 2: I walked and walked and was amazed at the wonderfully screwed up street layouts. That's why they need triangular buildings... it's like a maze here with plazas (like concrete parks) at every turn. Umbrellas... I'm just tall enough that every third or so umbrella misses my cornea by millimeters... eye-kabob. I have a sore neck from bobbing umbrellas from killer nannies and old men... I guess they have more to be concerned about than my sight... they are dying in a few years and have to look every direction except forward.

I went to the Museum today... the Prado. I saw the most amazing works of art. You know... the stuff that you grew up looking at in books and bibles. El Greco, Velazquez, Goya, Bosch, Rubens and Titian to name a few. 5 hours of wandering the halls... pretty cool. It's something to think how works or art have been so influenced by the church and monarchs. Quite the history lesson.

Tonight I eat at an Argentinean restaurant... imagine! Didn't get enough clots in my pulmonaries in BA. I had an awesome steak and another salad that was 6 inches high... the salad Kim, not the steak. I sat at the counter with a crap load of other men that didn't want to sit alone at a table. Da boys... if only I knew what they were talking about... "Let's watch the gringo eat that mound of leafy crap... he must have a list for dinner from the el wifo!" It was gooood. On the walk back, I was approach by a wonderfully affectionate lady from Africa wanting to know certain personal answers pertaining to my state of loniness and desire for interracial experiential learning. I thanked her for picking me out of a sea of pedestrians as being the one pathetic enough to need her services. It cost me 2 Euros to buy my arm back.

On to day 3... what to do?? I gotta make a list :(

btw: I'm not going to go through my grammar so I apologize to anyone that reads this and has the need to correct - and - why do the pictures want to go to the top on this damn program?? Is there anyway to imbed then where they belong... next to the text?

The Rain in Spain... Sean's Solo Trip

OK Kimmie... here it is. I'm blogging; is that a verb? or is it, I blogged today. Anyways, for those not in the 'know', I'm in Spain on business (hee hee). It IS true for the second week. This week I decided to take a few days and enjoy the sights and sounds of Madrid without my truly beloved. Later I will write something on flying solo on vacation... more research needed. As a preview of that discussion, I've observed that there is a knack to NOT looking like a pervert... look like you're suppose to be there. A laptop helps, a book, a map, a blank lost stare... oops, that's a pervert thing, isn't it? You see... I've never really gone anywhere by myself except on business. I'm a planner and I don't necessarily like surprises... except if I can eat it or drive it... just a boy?! Thus, waking up every morning without a list is disarming. I like lists... I apologize to all men that take a list as a sign of feminine control. Men, in general, organize their work environment, their car trunks, their work clothes and workshops; everything else... chaos theory! Except Bruce Simmons. Soooo, for the last few days, no list, no plan, no guide, no translator, no #$% spanish phrase book (that was on Kim's list)... and I'm doing OK. Now, I will attempt to share the trip... the good, bad and boring! BTW... this is the intro. One main theme per post... right? Otherwise, it may get a bit unruly.