An Extra-ordinary Holiday
foreign [Music] [Music] Ty and I want to share with you the trip we took at the end of last year two months touring Spain and a little bit of France and Portugal [Music] foreign [Music] at the beginning of October we landed in Madrid where we spent 10 days visiting family and friends we looked for a central place to stay from which we could walk to most of our destinations but not so Central as to have too much traffic so we chose lodgings on the banks of the manzanari's river which runs through Madrid a river that until not so long ago was polluted and filthy and thanks to a good regeneration plan today has beautiful clean flowing water and a good variety of bird and other Wildlife we walked back and forth along the banks of this River quite a lot numerous parks and the famous huge Madrid park Casa de Campo stretched down to these Banks not surprisingly this was also the meeting point with friends like Vicente and Charo who cooked us a Madrid specialty coffee Vito Paco and Jorge and Carlos a Cuban follower of santi's marginal media and his family whom we had also caught up with three years earlier as for family gatherings we enjoyed a barbecue at the house of santi's sister Maria Eugenia in the company of her and her family Bibi another sister and her family and Raul and nephew and his wife Patricia who we also visited at their home with nephew Jaime Ignacio his wife Patricia and Brother Carlos Alberto we went for a walk through the mountains just outside Madrid between morning and afternoon Santi and I walked 18 kilometers that day it wasn't our record but close [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] we spent the rest of October in the province of Salamanca first we went for three days to what was santi's Father's Village and is now ours [Music] San Martin del castanar is a Charming medieval Town scientist sister Bibi and her husband Antonio have a house there and they always extend us a warm welcome we spent a few days with them walking through the surrounding Sierra de Francia Spain was greener than we thought we were going to find it after a summer of drought and fires our village is always beautiful in Autumn castanar means place of chestnut trees at this time of year the ground is carpeted with chestnuts with Bibi and Antonio you always eat and drink well santi's Brother Juan coral and our sister-in-law muddyloth joined us for one of these meals [Music] thank you [Music] after the days in the village we stopped in Salamanca City where we had family and friends to visit Salamanca is for some the best Spanish City in which to reside the historic Center is spectacular and everything can be explored at a leisurely walk actually you can walk almost anywhere in the city and since Santi and I love walking the weather was good and there are also beautiful Riverside walks every day we covered more than 10 kilometers exploring Gardens and beautiful hidden corners of course day and night we were always ready to enjoy delicious Tapas Salamanca is a city resplendent with Legends the most famous maybe that of the Frog on the facade of the University they used to say that the student who found the Frog would be lucky would pass these exams and get married if he was already married he could make a wish and it would come true it is not easy to find the little frog unless someone tells you where it is but moving on the real secret of Salamanca is on this other wall of the same University Courtyard what is that stone student doing there in Salamanca we visited with friends Miguel and Tomas and their families we also spent time with our niece Marty Loth and her family and with santi's Aunt nutty with his brother Juan Hall and sister-in-law marilus we spent a day in Samora a city near Salamanca that is full of Romanesque monuments [Music] good on this [Music] and an unexpected and special meeting was with these two brothers another Santi and Juan Santos although it seems unlikely they are santi's nephews Santi lives in the Dominican Republic so having the opportunity to meet him was a happy coincidence quality time with family and friends in the Charles City Charles being a form of ancient adornment typical of the city [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] on October the 31st we rented a car and headed for France with a long drive ahead to where we wanted to go we stopped overnight in a navarrey's town called estea in the north of Spain estea is a Monumental town in the middle of the Camino de Santiago it has existed for more than one thousand years and has many churches convents palaces Bridges and houses emblazoned with family crests settled in the Meander of a river it is surrounded by mountains the good thing for us about traveling in Spain in Autumn is that most locals are back at work after the long summer break so you have all the tourist routes almost to yourself and the weather is usually very pleasant and it's easy to find good accommodation from one day to the next [Music] just before entering France it is worth mentioning another navarrees town unknown to us that we came across on the way judge its beauty for yourselves foreign [Music] we had deliberately avoided the highway that Google or any GPS suggests as the route by which to enter France in the Pyrenees we wanted to encounter the mountain range in an authentic way without traffic stopping at our leisure so we went our own way and though very circuitous it was very well worth it as it had been since we started the trip the weather was on our side we were in France [Music] laughs [Music] our time in France was the first week of November in the French Pyrenees there are two large areas of national parks and we chose one of them to explore the regional natural park of the Aries Pyrenees I hoped for opportunities to practice French which I've been studying throughout the pandemic we both wanted long walks in the French Countryside we had more of the latter than the former France is not like Spain where you can find a bar or Cafe anywhere in the rural area we chose we didn't get to see many people at all we stayed on the outskirts of a beautiful small hill town called sun litier on the second day we already knew the town from top to bottom it seemed like we had it all to ourselves walking through it was a bit like walking through a big house it was a lovely week doing the best thing to do on a holiday as the days presented themselves just exploring as took our fancy we did what I suppose is typical of the Pyrenees headed up the mountains like goats we discovered small towns like this one called aye [Music] foreign [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Music] of yourself [Music] and mountain passes like this one called the cold [Music] this less mountainous one which caught our attention on Route is remon this other pretty town is called safe [Music] [Applause] from our accommodation we walked up the river past sun lizier to the next somewhat bigger Town San Diego we had to wait for a market Saturday to realize that the area is actually well inhabited not only that but it has a vibrant Multicultural community that market allowed us to fulfill another expectation that we had about France and indulge ourselves with a variety of delicious cheeses Frances as the week progressed we expanded our exploration area and found the small town of fua with its spectacular Castle one of those that if you see it from below you immediately want to climb the highest tower to see the view from above as well [Music] [Applause] [Music] what I loved most about this Castle was the period dressed workers reenacting medieval activities such as forging metal [Music] but as spectacular as this Castle was wait because there was another one that impressed us even more [Music] would catch [Music] right at the end of our time in France we found the place that surprised us the most this Square looking like it's straight out of an Asterix and Obelix comic here you really do feel like you are in the Middle Ages you get in under those arcades and you don't want to leave exploring in these arcades and the medieval Center of this town mirepoix was a golden highlighter of our lovely week in France [Music] since [Music] and if the French Pyrenees were fantastic the Spanish Pyrenees were Sublime since Santi was little he had heard that there was nowhere better to visit in the Pyrenees than the Valle de Aran in the province of Leda we'll leave the comparisons to the experts but we didn't know the place and went into it with enthusiasm also because we were going to spend time with santi's sister Marie ayorenia her husband Jaime and our nephew Carlos Alberto [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] Santi never tired of taking photos from our beautiful lodgings courtesy of Patricia's family we spent three days there and as the weather was good we didn't stop moving apart from the most important town in the area Vieja we visited several towns such as this one called arties [Music] the Sun every day we did an hours-long walk some of the many that the valley has to offer the first day we experienced snow we walked along the plat de beret [Music] so how many cows [Music] one two three six cows [Music] and went up to the baker Beret ski resort just before the bulk of the snow arrived and it opened for business [Music] the second day we toured the beechwoods of Cadillac starting from balsin and witnessed spectacular views Target [Music] foreign [Music] deep in leafy forest we went up along a river Welsh death Joe to finally reach an unexpected surprise [Music] a huge Vista of enclosed Valley opening up before us wherein the distance we could see waterfalls disappear beneath the mountains to later reappear and form the river that we had been ascending all that landscape for our contemplation alone it almost felt like he could die happily right there as in France the Spanish Pyrenees had reserved for us the best experience for the last day is real [Music] ity [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] on the second weekend of November we had a commitment in the cantabrian town of santonia but again from the Valle de Iran it was too long a journey to do in a single day so we decided to make another overnight stop we chose another navarrees town olita remember I mentioned a castle even better than the one in fua olite is well worth a visit if only for its Castle [Applause] thank you we so miss hearing church bells ring in Australia the bells reminder community that we all live together on the same time [Music] if you imagined a fairy tale Castle it would be something like this one I think we went up to all seven towers that you can access that and discovering all the rooms and nooks and crannies of the castle is enough of a good walk for the day a perfect place to play hide and seek [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] before tasting some good wines and some good tapas if Spain has something it is that almost anywhere you go you can find good food and good drinks at more than reasonable prices it's difficult not to leave the country weighing more than when you arrived [Music] the next day we arrived in suntona to spend the weekend more quality time with friends this was santi's high school and these are his friends from then and still now in San Antonio as expected good company good conversation and good meals what more could you wish for we took marvelous walks along its beautiful Promenade we were here three years ago and like then we also took the opportunity to meet Ruben a marginal media Patron and his wife I know her or I should say Santi took the opportunity because on our last day spent in the north of Spain I came down with a nasty flu [Music] [Music] ID [Music] the following day we started the new week making our longest Southward Journey from San Antonio to the city of Carthage where our intermediate stop would be it is more than 600 kilometers we arrived at the destination almost at dark and went out for a walk between the exhaustion of having spent all day in the car the flu that I already had and the one that Santi was inevitably incubating it's not surprising that we didn't even know where we were but if you're going to get lost in the middle of the night wouldn't you want to do it in a place like this [Music] foreign [Music] would be hard to rival and if you discover it like this in the middle of the night in the half light with wet Stones it feels like you're in a tale of knights and chivalry you can easily imagine that someone might appear with a cape and sword from around any corner thank you our recommendation for choosing accommodation is that if you are going to visit a place for its history and monuments choose lodgings in the very heart of it so that you breathe and live it as soon as you get out of bed catheters was just a place of transit for us on this occasion by the next night we were in Portugal foreign [Music] [Music] our chosen Town Tavira near the border with Spain we had gone from the Bay of Biscay in the North to the Atlantic in the south in less than 48 hours our idea was to stay four nights in Tavira but weakened by the flu we ended up spending six but not feeling 100 did not stop us from going out and doing our walks in Tavira we found just what we wanted the mild climate of the South the honeyed sunsets of the coast the Portuguese Tranquility Seafood stews walks on the beach time to relax and cook at home it wasn't just that we were weak we wanted a relaxed end to our vacation and anyone who knows the Portuguese Algarve knows that they can find it there the surprise was that we also found something that three years before we had searched for in donyana without success the exuberant bird life of the marshes and Coastal lagoons that was the highlight for us [Music] from Tavira we visited some nearby towns [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] we began the last two weeks of advocation by returning to Spain and still on the coast stopped in Cardiff a city neither of us had visited before [Music] enough [Music] [Music] the immense Maze of streets and alleys that is the historic Center of Cardiff is well worth walking around you celebrate finding a square or a garden as if it were water in the desert it is worth exploring each unique neighborhood although impossible to know where one begins and another ends although we walked and walked we never got to complete the perimeter of what is the old part of Cardiff [Music] [Music] Cardiff has Coast aplenty the softness of the light of its sunsets and its warm Autumn nights invite you to enjoy [Music] what we left was time we are looking forward to visiting the Sierra de grazolemma with its white Villages next time at least we spent one day visiting De La Frontera [Music] [Music] la la la la la la we spent the end of that week in Cordoba in the company of our hosts Charro and Antonio who for two days acted as guides for us one day in the countryside and another in the city Cordoba is a truly beautiful city it's extensive whitewashed Moorish historic center with its Labyrinthian network of streets and squares means that around every corner you can find yet another magical Nook you could make a whole video only about its welcoming and fascinating patios a city to which we definitely want to return [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] on our way back to Madrid there was one more stop where we spent a couple of nights Almagro a town in La Mancha with less than 10 000 inhabitants whose historic Center has been declared a protected historic artistic site it is the town of theaters of which it has several worth highlighting is its Corral de comedias the only intact 17th Century Theater remaining in Europe and where performances are still staged here we met up with Ecuadorian Willie another Patron and follower of marginal media it was a real pleasure to meet him in person [Music] foreign [Music] foreign ers [Music] and the same day we returned to Madrid we stopped in tembleque a small town so that Santi could show me this square if someone traveled to Spain and decided not to stop in any of its Monumental cities just visiting smaller towns and Villages they would have no shortage of opportunities to find beautiful architecture back in Madrid three days of farewells to family and friends and back to Australia to our wooden house our veggie patch our walks our Australian family and friends and to work to earn the next vacation thank you for accompanying us in our remembering of this trip [Music] friends [Music] you travel to live but also for the Memories you enjoy the anticipation of a trip what you imagine it might be you enjoy what it actually is and then it can be revived in your memory by selecting the best moments and savoring them again as if you were watching the highlights of a film or compiling a best of list [Music] if love is the food of Life travel is definitely the dessert [Music] thank you
2023-03-09 08:10
