Holy Toledo

My trip to Toledo will stand out in my mind for two reasons. The first is for the gorgeous church; the second is for getting lost. My day started off so well too. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Atocha, the train station in Madrid, while a departure point for trains, was also a tropical rain forest.
After a beautiful train ride I got off at a very historic looking station. Toledo used to be the capital of the Roman Empire and Spanish empire and it’s very medieval, which is a nice change from the more modern (1500-1900) architecture I’ve been exposed to here in Europe. So after leaving the train, I set off for the tourist office (like I always do).

I had a little map from my Let’s Go Europe book, but where I was didn’t seem to be on the map. So I paid €2 for a map I didn’t really think was that good. Turns out, it didn’t even matter because I still got lost. And not just I-don’t-know-where-to-go lost, but I-have-absolutely-no-idea-where-I-am-and-where-I’m-going-and-I’m-in-the-middle-of-nowhere-and-could-very-easily-die-from-a-snake-bite-or-heat-stroke-and-no-one-would-ever-know lost. I ended up walking half down the Don Quixote trail—which I should have known, being named for an explorer was not somewhere that was going to lead me to civilization—and back and forth for an hour between the old and new section of Toledo not knowing where the heck I was. I finally crossed the Bridge of San Martin leading into Toledo and all was well.

My promised land: the Bridge San Martin

The River Tagus which I crossed three times in my wild goose chase

The second most memorable part was the church. The Cathedral of Saint Mary of Toledo, is, by far, the most opulent church I’ve ever seen. I read in the guide book that it was ostentatious. I didn’t see what it could mean in a church until I went in. Sadly, I couldn’t take any pictures but here are some I found from Wikipedia.



That’s just one part of the church. Now, take that and apply it to a massive church: gold everywhere, intricate carvings, stain class everywhere. I sat in a pew and thought, “No wonder there was a Reformation. Look how much wealth is in this church alone.”

The back of the Cathedral

While some sacristies in most churches are just one tiny room, this had several large rooms filled with works from Goya, Vasquez and El Greco (he lived in Toledo for a while). In the Treasury, there are pieces of 3 feet statues made of solid gold. And there’s also the sword of fascist dictator Francisco Franco which was a real treat (it was much smaller than I thought it would be). But a really interesting part of the church is that it contains a Visigoth chapel (a form of Catholicism dating back to the 7th century), and is the only place the Visigoth mass is still celebrated. How cool is that? This church is, in a word: ostentatious. If you are ever in the neighbourhood, it’s worth the €7.

Toledo is also known for its excellent sword craftsmanship, so if you’re in the market for a sword of some kind, Toledo’s the place.

Sword makers in Toledo are artisans

Green Thumb

One thing I was struck by in Madrid was the frequency of parks and gardens. I’m no stranger to European parks—Brussels has two formidable ones which I was a frequent visitor of— but the scale of Madrid’s greenery is quite opulent (there's that word again). Most date back to the grandeur of the Spanish Empire when having a large, well-tended garden was a matter of pride. In any case, they’re gorgeous. The royal gardens (the ones beside the royal palace) where pretty impressive in their scale.



Then there were the Royal Botanical Gardens. These were for more scientific purposes than for show. There were flowers and cacti and other groupings of plants that I can't name. Each had the name of the plant and throughout there were statues of famous Spanish botanists. Can you every imagine a Canadian botanist getting their own statue? Can anyone even name a Canadian botanist?

Pretty flowers

Did I mention they have a greenhouse on site?

Royal cacti

Rows upon rows of famous botanists

By far the best is El Retiro. The Central Park of Madrid, it is located right beside the Prado. I meandered into it after my foray into the Prado and I was looking for a quite spot to read. It offered that and more.

This isn't even the half of it. Maybe 1/24

It's what I call perspective. My shadow and the length of the park

After I read a few chapters, I remembered that there was a memorial to the victims of the Madrid bombings in 2005 located somewhere in the park. I set out to find it, not knowing where it would take me. What I realized is that they should really offer maps of the park itself. There are so many things to see inside it. There’s the memorial, then there’s a pond where people row boats in front of a huge statue of Alphonso XII. There’s also various statues to famous Spaniards.

The pond and row boats

But the real interesting thing is the Crystal Palace, which is indeed made of crystal—OK, glass, but that ruins the romance of it. I spent, without exaggeration, 2 hours in there looking for the Palace and memorial. And I still didn’t find the memorial, try though I did. But here’s the palace.

Notice how the light has changed. That's how long I was there.

An Egyptian in Madrid

The architecture in Madrid is very Mediterranean. It reminds me a lot of Portugal: Red roofs, stucco buildings and warm, multi-coloured houses to keep cool in the summer. That’s why this stuck out a bit.


It’s called Templo de Debod and is actually an Egyptian temple. It was a present to Spain from Egypt for its role in saving the temple of Abu Simbel from the floodwaters of Lake Nasser following the construction of the Aswan Dam in southern Egypt. Go figure.

I tried to go in but I happened to have hit the four hour window where it closes each day. I was leaving for Lisbon that night, so it remained a mystery to me. But I’m told from people who went in (my sister and brother-in-law) that it was quite something.

The Golden Triangle

When I was debating whether or not to go to Madrid before I went to Portugal, I asked a co-worker who’d been there. “Depends what you like,” he said. “If you like museums and culture, then Madrid is beautiful.” Although not a stellar review I decided to go for it. I like museums and Madrid is known for its “Golden Triangle:” the Museo del Prado, the more modern Reina Sofía National Museum and Art Center and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum of Art, known for its collection of Egyptians paintings and artifacts.

I read about the Prado and knew that its collection was extensive. I decided to check it out my first day. I purposely went after 5pm because that’s when entry is free. It seems like a few other people had the same idea.

This first visit was intended as a scouting exhibition. I wanted to see what it was like, get the layout, see what kind of stuff was in the collection and develop a strategy. There’s nothing I hate more than microwaving a museum. What is microwaving a museum you ask? The term was introduced to me by my friend Cassandra. Microwaving a museum is doing it really fast and only really getting to see the famous stuff. Just like when you microwave food, all the backup flavour is gone, when you microwave a museum you see the famous stuff and breeze through the other perhaps more interesting things. There are some museums you have to microwave for time constraints (ie. the Louvre). I microwaved the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, because we didn’t have enough time. But the Prado is known for so much beautiful art I wanted to take my time. I was in Madrid for four days, (minus one spent in Toledo) and on my own so I could take as much time as I wanted.


All in all I spent about 8 hours there. I spent two hours that first day perusing the first floor. Then I came back Tuesday (for free because I’m a European student), and spent another six hours seeing everything. Every floor, every painting, every sculpture. I even listened to the audio guide. I brought a snack in case I got hungry, which I did. Afterward I was so exhausted I sat in the gardens to rest my tired feet. But it was worth it. I saw not only the masterpiece’s but some unknown stuff that I liked. I developed an appreciation for Goya and highly recommend his Black paintings.

The next day, I checked out the Reina Sofia, the modern art museum. The Reina Sofia is known mostly for its Dali and Picassos. Those were all really interesting. Guernica is really moving once you know the context. Otherwise I feel you might thing it’s just odd—it is modern art after all. I may have experienced a bit of the prom effect because it was hyped so much. But there were other paintings that really resonated with me.

Dali’s Girl at a Window

Hermenegildo Camarasa’s “Retrato de Sonia Klamery."

Despite these favourites, I have to admit I microwaved this one a bit. After the first 8 or 9 rooms of Picassos and the Dalis, there’s just a lot of really modern art, as in squares of colour or coat hangers suspended on a wire. I walked by a ten foot shelf stacked with old books and asked myself how that was art. I can’t really handle things like that. I’m too much of a linear thinker. So I just walked past them, doing my best to assess the artistic quality in them for 2.5 seconds, then moved on.

Even the building is modern with a glass elevator and avant garde statues in the garden.

The Reina Sofia

View from the glass elevator

Statues in the garden

I didn't check out the Egyptian museum because a) I don't really care about Egyptian art, b) I didn't have time and c) I had to pay, which after free entrance into the Prado, I was not feeling.

My Sizzlin' Siesta

After spending four months in a country that considers 18 degrees summer, it was beautiful to get to Madrid and be bathed in warmth. Literally. I almost forgot what that kind of heat is like (It's awesome, just for the record). Madrid is gorgeous. The best word to describe it is opulent. Everything was bigger and more impressive: architecture, squares, parks and museums.

My hostel was beautifully located off Gran Via, Madrid’s version of Broadway and appropriately lined with various theaters and shows. One I was a little more shocked to see than others.

I was also a ten minute walk from the three big areas. Puerto del Sol is the heart of Madrid and really busy. It’s located at the center of a few shopping streets packed with stores—Spanish stores are pretty awesome, Sfera being only one example—and merchants selling boot-legged movies. (Note: El Corte Inglés is awesome. A Spanish department store, it has everything you could need, from shampoo to fruit to Gucci if you're so inclined). Then there is the square. It’s mostly known for Kilometer Zero, the beginning of the national highway. There’s a plaque to commemorate it. There’s also a statue of a bear, climbing the madroño tree, which is the symbol of Madrid.

The shopping promenade

Puerto del Sol

Plaza Mayor was really fun. It’s a giant square, complete with arched gates at the entrance. The day I was there they were setting up for a Run for the Cure (what is it about me that I seem to attract them?—same thing happened in Cologne). My favourite part of the square was the paintings. One side of the buildings has paintings of various scenes. From what I could make out, they were bullfighting scenes.

Plaza Mayor

But what was really interesting was the Palacio Real, or Royal Palace. Directly in front of it there are gardens with statues of various Spanish monarchs, which made me think that these were the gardens. Then I found the actual gardens beside it were even bigger! Although I went when I first arrived, I came back on my last day to get a tour of the palace (for free because I’m a European citizen, thank you Portugal). The castle is still actually used by the Spanish royal family. The rooms we saw were all opulently decorated and it really reminded you that Spain used to be a big deal in the world at one point. There were rooms from Spanish monarchs and 200-year-old Stradivarius violins. A personal highlight was when I stood in the room where Spain signed the document that brought them into the European Union.

Royal Gardens

It was a great tour but it put me in a foul mood that they didn’t allow pictures. Being crafty as I am, I sneaked one in. Too bad I didn’t realize my flash was on and the security guard immediately admonished people for taking pictures. Luckily, I have great reflexes and so he thought it was the girls in front of me. Here are the highlights.

The Royal Palace

The illegal photo

Inside the Royal Palace

A Lesson in Time

When my time to leave Brussels finally arrived I’ll admit I was a bit melancholy about it. By the time I left, I’d be there for almost four months. I’d lived there, worked there, traveled there, made friends there and improved my French there. But things have to end and I eventually got over it.

My last few days passed in a daze of souvenir buying, fitting everything I'd amassed into two suitcases and making travel plans. My flight to Madrid left at 8:30 in the morning so I set the alarm for 6am. Fueled by the adrenaline of potentially missing my plane and not being able to leave Brussels, I was up and out of the house by 7am. I got to the Brussels airport at 7:20am and waited to check in. Pleased with my organization and promptness, I handed the Brussels Airline’s travel agent my passport and reservation with a smile.

“Hmm.”

Not a good sign. “Is there a problem?” I ask, my heart beating in my head.

“This ticket is in English,” says the woman, speaking perfect English. I’m still not sure if this was a question or a statement. I nod my head and she turns the paper to me.

“This isn’t your flight," she says precisely, as if I was a child. "The flight you booked leaves at 8:30pm. PM means night time.”

I wanted to hit her. OF COURSE PM meant night time!

To this day, I still don’t know what happened. The only thing I can think of is that I picked 8:45 am and then it was somehow changed to pm. So I could either pay to upgrade or wait for my actually flight at 8:45 that night. I ended up paying to upgrade. This story does have a silver lining. By paying I upgraded to first class and increased my baggage allowance. Which was fortunate because although I was allowed 20kg I brought 36kg. I would have had to pay €10.50 for each kilogram that I was over. And because I was so late (I had to wait in line to switch and then check in again), I didn’t have to pay for the six kilos I was over. So I actually ended up saving money. I also got a free breakfast on the plane. And then as I was leaving for dinner in Madrid, I got an email that my plane from Brussels had been canceled. So it was for the best.

Better Late Than Never...?

It's November now. And with the start of a new month, comes the start of my blogging (again). I know I promised to write in September, but what's a month between friends? I know you've all been waiting at the edge of your seats to see what I've been up to. So I bring you my September. And some of my October. I'll try to keep blogging as much as school work will allow. Please bear with me.

As always, feel free to comment. Enjoy!

Gone Fishing...

So that's it for me. No, I'm not deleting this blog. But I am going on vacation. By the time you read this I'll be in Portugal, hopefully sunbathing on a beach and rotating every 40 minutes like a chicken on a rotisserie.

I'll update when I can but my access to Internet will be sparse and rare. But feel free to read the posts, comment and obsessively think about me and what a great tan I'm getting.

I'll be out of commission until the end of September. But after that, I'll be coming at you from London, England. So, stay tuned and have a great September.
Dee

Travel Tips from Yours Truly

A few weeks ago, a few of us interns were talking about our summer and how tired we are. "That's because vacations are relaxing, but traveling isn't. Traveling is hard work." Truer words have never been spoken. Traveling in Europe, cheaply and safely isn't easy. It can be overwhelming.

When I found out I’d be spending most of the summer in Belgium, I immediately started doing research. If I were going to spend the majority of the summer in Europe I was going to make the best of it! I subscribed to whatever travel blog I could find and read every article on Europe, traveling and doing it cheaply I could find. Added to that is the last three months I’ve spent actually traveling. I’ve taken planes, trains, buses, trams and subways. Based on these credentials, I think I’m as qualified as anyone to offer some advice on traveling. Feel free to take it or leave it. Here are a few:

1. Tourist offices are your best friends. A lot of people dismiss these places because being seen in one is like tattooing the word “tourist” on your face. Well, I’ve got news for you: you are a tourist!
   
   
   You might as well get used to it. People who live in (insert name of place you’re visiting) don’t usually walk around carrying maps and camera bags, squinting at signs and coming to abrupt stops at intersections. If you can overlook the lameness factor, these places can be incredibly useful. Most of the tourist shops have given me pretty great maps for free or close to free—in Cologne they charged me €0.20. They’re also staffed with pretty competent people. In Bonn, the woman directed me to where I wanted to go and sent me along the prettiest route. She explained the transit system (which stops I needed and prices) and gave me two maps for free. They’re also located close to big tourist areas or good starting places.
   
2. Learn the language. I’m not saying be fluent, but learning a few key phrases would be helpful. I learned this the hard way in Germany. Several times. I don’t speak a lick of German. Well, other than Volksgemenshaft, which means “national community” and is not useful for catching trains. And don’t rely on the belief that “everyone speaks English.” Because they don’t. I was astonished at the amount of Germans in Cologne (population 1 million) and Bonn who couldn’t communicate in English. At one point at the Bonn train station I resorted to sign language and then had to speak French as my go-to-language (which was even more fruitless). In Spain it's the same. They speak very little English and French and Portuguese have been no help to me. Important phrases like, “Where is this train going?” or “How much does this cost?” or even the German word for “main station” may save your life. Or at least a two hour train ride back to where you were going. Sites Like BBC Languages might give you the primer you need.
   
3. Carry that map. You’ll look like a tourist but it’ll help. See #1 for any “I’ll look like a lame tourist” complaints. In smaller cities like Bonn or Lille this isn’t so important. They’re small and easily navigated on foot. But in cities like Amsterdam or Madrid “wondering” can get you very far from where you want to go, to the point where you have to waste time and money on transit to get back or walk for hours (that’s what happened to us our first night in Amsterdam). Maps are also good because there may be information on what you’re seeing in them. There have been many a time I’ve walked past a church/statue/Roman ruin and thought, “What the heck am I looking at?” Maps will tell you.Finally, they sharpen your navigational and orienteering skills and that is always a good thing.
   
4. Do your homework. I give a lot of credit to people who can travel with just a backpack and their wits. My friend Kyla is like that—and is currently touring the Western Balkans doing her thing. I am not like that. I need order, I need a plan. I hate wasting my time, especially in a place I will probably never see again (I’m talking to you Lille, Bonn and Trier). Doing some research beforehand can tell you what sights to check out and what to stay away from and how much the trip will cost—and if it’s worth it. It’ll also minimize the time you spend looking at a map thinking, “Is this worth doing?” It’ll also give you a feel for when things close. In Ghent I really wanted to see the castle, but I couldn’t because last tickets were available at 5pm, an hour before it closed. I got there at 5:30. Planning can also save you money. Trains and planes offer discounts for booking weeks in advance (like my first class train ride). Books like the Lonely Planet and Let’s Go series are helpful. There are also a lot of good cheap European travel blogs too. My current favorite is Euro Cheapo. It’s not only given me travel ideas but tips on free walking tours and the best times to go to museums to capitalize on their free entrance fees. Wikitravel is also a great resource. But the greatest resource is people. In Amsterdam, we had Matt’s friend as a de-facto tour guide (she had been living in the city for a month) and it was great. She could tell us what was good and bad and worth spending money on. People who have been where you want to go are an excellent help and you should mine those resources if you have them.
   
5. Read hostel reviews! I cannot stress this point enough. Hostels are a great, cheap place to stay, but they’re not all created equal. I’d never stayed in a hostel until this summer and I was scared the first time I booked mine. What if I got bed bugs or the toilets overflowed? But I did my homework and read up on the places on sites like Trip Advisor and Hostel World (but don't book using the site as they'll charge you a fee). Every hostel’s website will claim to be great so these reviews are a great unbiased perspective. But don’t let yourself be thrown by one bad review. Look at what the majority is saying. Most sites have a rating system which is helpful. So far I've stayed in three hostels, in three different cities, ranging from a 69 to 85 per cent rating, and I’ve never had a problem.
   
6. Read signs—especially on trains—carefully. This is straight out of my own life. While in the Cologne train station headed to Bonn I jumped on a train headed to Bonn. This train made every stop in Bonn except the one I wanted. I was looking for Bonn hbf—central station— and it turned out I’d grabbed a train going in the opposite direction. It took me two hours to get back to Cologne and then another 20 minutes to get to where I was actually going. If I had looked at the sign carefully I’d have had more time in Bonn.
   
7. Always know where you are (and where you're going). This is more applicable to those of you traveling in groups. When you’re in a group you have the tendency to relax and let others take the lead on certain things such as directions, remembering where the hostel is and where the sites are.
   
   
   This is not always good. You should at least have a map and the address of your hostel. If you get separated—voluntarily or not—you don’t want to be the one without a map and no clue where your hostel is except that “there’s a yellow sign across the street.”
   
8. Always ask if you’re on the right train. My wrong-train-in-Bonn story is exacerbated by the fact that I stood there and didn’t say anything for twenty minutes. I knew the train to Bonn was supposed to be 20 minutes and when the trip stretched into 30, 35 then 40 minutes I consoled myself that maybe it was late. It wasn’t. You shouldn’t be afraid to get up and ask people. Now, before I get on a train I double check that it is going where I want it to go.
   
9. Pick and choose. This isn’t new. I’ve read it in tons of blogs and books and heard many people say it but it bears repeating. I still say it to myself every time I'm in a new city. You’re not going to be able to see everything, so get over it. You should read what’s available and pick what sounds good to you. That way you’ll make sure you see what you want and everything after is a bonus.
   
10. Don’t go to every museum. Tourism is a big business here. Every city, town and village claims to have “world class cultural and art museums.” It’s just not true. I’m not against museums, I love them and some of them have been great (Anne Frank and the Rijksmuseum spring to mind), but some of them have been less so (Trier’s city museum sticks out). Don’t go to the museum because “we’re here, we might as well.” No, stop, turn around and move on to something else. This kind of practice gets expensive and it’s just plain silly. Go to a museum you’re generally interested in! Here’s another hint, unless it’s a city like Amsterdam or London, the history of it probably isn’t that interesting, so don’t waste your time (or Euros) at local or city museums. You can just look it up on Wikipedia. Or learn about the history from the other interesting sites you might miss by spending time in the museum.
    

So I hope these tips were helpful. Some you won't need and some won't apply to you. But they're good to know. Anyone else have other tips?

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

I love lists. If you know me, you know this. I’ve made plenty on this blog and I’ll make plenty more. But I made a particular list a few months ago, a kind of To-do list while I’m here. Given that I’ve left Belgium and essentially finished my summer, I think it’s time we check in to see the progress I’ve made with this list.

1. Learn a language. Yes and no. I am not bilingual. But my French has improved drastically in the four months I’ve spent in Belgium. I think I now know French well enough that I can “get by”: I can go to the market/store, read a menu or order at a restaurant, ask for directions, give directions (I actually did that once), or read signs; I don’t think I can carry on a conversation for too long but I can understand a good part of simple conversations. So I’m happy with my progress here. Proof that thirteen years of core French wasn’t a total waste. In the post, I said didn’t expect fluency, simply proficiency and I think I’ve got that. Or close to that. Sadly, no progress was made on the Portuguese front. But who knows what three weeks in Portugal with my parents will do?
   
2. Travel to at least two new cities/countries. Done and done. Of the list provided I have been to Antwerp, Amsterdam and Madrid. Added to the list are the following: Lille (France), Cologne, Bonn and Trier in Germany, Luxembourg and Bruges, Waterloo and Ghent in Belgium. By the time you read this, I'll also have visited Lisbon in Portugal before heading to the south. I’m proud to say that I did most of the traveling cheaply. I can say that I’ve explored the Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) and the surrounding areas. I’m going to put off the bigger cities—Paris, Berlin, Vienna—until I’m at school. That way I can capitalize on cheap-non-summer-airfare and I’ll have more time to explore.
   
3. Earn a wage/Euros/not go bankrupt. Well, I’m not bankrupt yet but I didn’t do the first two. But my time of working for free is (hopefully) over.
4. Take a ride on the English Chunnel. Done and it was everything I’d hoped for. In case you missed it, you can read about it here.
   
5. Spend a night in a hostel. Check. I’ve actually done this many times over. We stayed in a hostel for two nights in Amsterdam and one night in Cologne, in dorm-style rooms with six people. I’ve stayed three nights in a hostel in Madrid, alone and so far so good. In Amsterdam the room was cramped but fine. Cologne will always stick out in my memory, not because of the hostel but the people in it. The one time I forgot my earplugs we get stuck with the loudest snorer this side of the Atlantic (that’s saying something coming from my family—Mom and Dad I’m talking to you).
   
6. Freelance a story. Nope, never happened. I’m too lazy to do the work required. Also, I’m not at all in the journalism frame of mind.
   
7. Visit the diamond exchange. Done. In retrospect, I don’t know if it was worth being on the list, but I’m glad I did it.
   
8. Learn to cook. I don’t even think I can say I made progress here. OK, maybe I did because now I can cook bacon and chicken in a pan instead of a microwave and George Foreman grill respectively. I’ve also added Tortellini to my repertoire. Not from scratch but frozen with a ready-made four cheese sauce. I would have like to learn, but I just got too lazy and then Cassandra, my guru, my teacher, left and I lost the will.
9. Develop some kind of collection. This one I got down. It’s an idea I stole from Tara, a friend of ours from the Canadian Mission. Before she left for Canada, she had us over to her house. Her and her husband have been in Brussels for the last three years and have done a lot of traveling during that time. While I was in their kitchen I walked past the fridge and saw their collection of magnets. And then it hit me! Magnets, what a brilliant idea! Useful, small, cheap and space enough for a design so you know where it’s from. And it’s not like you’re going to run out of room on your fridge. So now I have one for every city and country (except Germany and France) I’ve been to. Except Bonn—to my everlasting regret—because it was a Sunday and most stores were closed. I’m also collecting the maps I get when I travel. I have a map for Bonn, so that’s something. It’s a good insurance policy in case the map doesn’t pan out.
10. Ride on a European tram/streetcar. For this one I went over and above the requirements. I’ve taken many forms of travel in many different cities. Here in Brussels I’ve taken subways, trams and buses. In Lille I took their subway; in Amsterdam we took buses, trams and taxis. In Cologne we took the tram (sometimes even for free!) and in Ghent I took a ride on their tram. European public transportation is pretty reliable and smooth. They’re also much quieter than the systems in North America. Nowhere will you find the squeak of the Scarborough RT or the TTC streetcars.