Saturday in Mexico City

Mexico, Travel, ,

Feb 24 – Our hostess, Rosario, fed us a five star breakfast, with warm fresh brown bread, cucumber juice (yummy), fresh yogurt, pancakes with warm raspberry jam, sliced banana and a huge mug of strong coffee. Fuel for the day!

Walking out in the morning, we encountered many poor men sleeping barefoot on the street, and beggars grinding street organs for spare change. No upscale buskers here. Our first excursion was to the National Palace, a magnificent structure longer than a city block that includes a cultural museum.

The Fountain of Pegasus.

Here, the artist Diego Rivera painted huge murals all around the second story, back in the 1920s. He hoped the Mexicans would unite as Communists to make their lives better.

The Spaniards branding slaves.

Not sure what the turquoise feathered guy is doing with that arm…

I listened to an English tour guide describing this one to his group. Karl Marx is at the top, like God. The pipes are filled with the blood of the Mexican workers, which turn into money for the government at the bottom. The priest kissing the prostitute on the left represents the corruption of the Church, which should be helping the people, and likens the Church to the Nazis by showing the line of crosses with a swastika included on the right.

Below, the good Communists, including Rivera’s girlfriend Frida Kahlo (with the eyebrows), are taking charge and teaching the poor children to read. Thank you, tour guide. He was the only we one we encountered today who was not guiding in Spanish.

I liked these little sculptures, and the two big ones flanking Jim.

In the afternoon, we walked through several markets, which underscored just how poor this country is. We saw lots of energetic selling, but very few were buying. A peso is worth about five cents, or 20 to the dollar. We wandered into an area where small animals, birds, puppies, hens and goats were packed together cruelly, and a man, seeing our cameras, shouted at us to leave. We left.

We are only spending a few days in the city before flying south to the beach. We have mastered the bus system, and tomorrow we will take the subway (Metro). The other travelers we met at breakfast said we are brave to try the Metro. I’ll report tomorrow!

Down Mexico Way

Mexico, Travel, ,

Feb 23, 2018 – Jim wanted to take a break from winter and warm our bones in someplace sunny. We had tried a short cruise to the Bahamas in December, and discovered that cruises were just not our cup of tea. So this morning we got on the big iron bird, and by lunchtime we were in Mexico City!

Our plan was to take a city bus from the airport to the city center, guided by our trusty phone GPS. As we exited the airport, I was dismayed to discover that the phone would not connect, no matter what I tried (yes, of course I tried turning it off then back on!). We pestered the bus driver to tell us when we reached our stop, as the stops were not announced or posted. Very nerve wracking! We got off at the right stop, and Jim found our B&B by some miracle, as there was no sign at all, upstairs in a office building. Once we got WiFi, I spent an hour troubleshooting the phone with the guy from T Mobile, doing everything including a factory reset, but no luck. Finally, I did what I should have done first, and texted Peter. He solved the problem in two minutes! Now we will be able to find our way around this big city.

Our very nice B&B Chillout Flat is in the Centro Historico, very near to the Metropolitan Cathedral.

The cathedral was built by the Spaniards by taking the bricks from the ancient Aztec Templo Mayor, leaving the temple in ruins.

Next to the ruins, several groups of natives drummed, played, chanted and danced.

Our B&B hostess recommended several tourist restaurants nearby for dinner, but Jim had a more authentic experience in mind. We ate chicken with spicy salsa verde, green beans, soup, rice and tortillas at a second floor walk up family restaurant, where we were the only foreigners in the place. A good first day!

Oviedo to Madrid to Chicago to Norfolk VA

Backpacking, Flashpacking, Hiking, Spain, Travel, , ,

July 2 – Had to get up early this morning to catch our train.  Our hotel graciously set out our breakfast buffet a half hour early, so we wouldn’t have to travel without our daily caffeine and jamon allotment.  We booked our train ticket to Madrid about five days ago, and were surprised to find all the second class tickets sold out, so we are riding first class in reserved seats.  This turns out to be the same as a second class seat, except you are offered a free Spanish newspaper and charged twice the price!  Four hours of high speed rail later, we are in Madrid.

To simplify our lives, Jim booked us in at a very nice hotel right at the train station, so we can easily catch the train to the airport in the morning.  We did a final day’s worth of laundry, watched some strange but English language tv, and repacked our packs to go on the airplane, stowing our hiking sticks and everything that was in the outer pockets.  We had purchased some fragile souvenirs, which I will hand carry, rather than entrust to the baggage handlers.  We are ready to go home.

July 3 – Walked back to the train station, and waited on a 20 minute line to purchase a ticket for the 10 minute ride to the airport.  The very nice man at check in informed us that he could only see one flight for us in his computer, from Madrid to Chicago, and that we would have to go to American Airlines in Chicago to print our second boarding pass for our flight to Norfolk.  Oh well.  Air travel!

We were amazed and amused to encounter a singing trans stewardess belting out “I’ve Gotta Be Me” in a husky baritone in the duty-free shop.  We slugged the free Jagermeister shot offered, and applauded enthusiastically.

Then we were up and away for our nine hour flight back to the USA.  Adios, Spain, we’ll miss you!

After getting through Customs and retrieving our bags, we tried to collect our boarding passes for Norfolk.  The not-a-people-person service rep informed us, quite harshly, that we had no reservation, and weren’t going anywhere.  Jim produced the paper booking confirmation he had been toting around for three months, and she told us that American no longer had that flight, and so had canceled our reservation.  Hadn’t they informed us?  Well no, they hadn’t, but as they also hadn’t refunded our fares, I thought we were in a pretty good position to insist that it was incumbent on American Airlines to get us home.  Seeing that we weren’t going to go away, the rep eventually relented and put us on the next flight.  Peter came and picked us up, and we were home by 11pm eastern, which was 5am the next day as far as our bodies were concerned.  A little sleep is all we need.  Until next time!

More Oviedo

Flashpacking, Hiking, Spain, Travel, ,

June 30 – What a wonderful city!  We were encouraged to try the unique Asturian cuisine, so we headed to the street of tourist restaurants.  Here we dined on cream of seafood soup, Asturian beans, fried veal and chicken filets stuffed with ham and cheese (like a cordon bleu except with red sauce), and Asturian hard cider.  Very good, but that much food almost killed us.  I guess our bodies are remembering that we are no longer hiking.

We visited the Museo Bella Artes, displaying paintings of many renowned Spanish artists.  There was a room filled with El Greco that contained his renditions of the twelve Apostles.  I hate to tell you this, but he used the same model for many of them.  In some they were even wearing the same outfit!  I guess he never considered that someday they would all be displayed side by side…

Lots of Mary Magdalenes here:

This little angel, up in the corner, had more detail than the rest of the whole painting.  Look at those dimples!

Can you tell these are by the same artist?


I liked the clouds in this one:

There is a Picasso here:

And a Salvatore Dali:

Lexi and Emma – your art could hang in a museum someday!

We walked through the Parque de San Francisco.  Cool and green.  You’ll notice it is still jacket weather here – in the 50s this morning.  I could get used to this kind of summer weather!

The native dancers and pipers entertained us in the square, and buskers filled the streets with music.


One more church before we go, the Iglesia Juan Baptiste:

I kind of like the scruffy look of these apostles, don’t you?

Inside there was a columbarium with some unusual art:


Woody Allen, you are right – we love Oviedo!

Gijón to Oviedo

Flashpacking, Hiking, Spain, Travel, , , , ,

June 29 – Today’s journey is just 30 minutes south by bus to Woody Allen’s favorite Spanish city, Oviedo.  This Asturias city is also part of the Camino del Norte (Camino de la Costa) and the Camino Primativo, and will be our last stop before returning to Madrid for our flight home.  

We arrived at the bus station at 10:45, and bought tickets for the 10:45 bus.  Two minutes later, we were on our way!

Our hotel is in the Old City.  The buildings are beautiful.

There are lots of statues on the street:

There is a statue of Woody Allen here, as he declared Oviedo his favorite city when he was here filming Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which I guess has a nicer ring than Vicky Cristina Oviedo.

We visited the Archeological Museum, housed in an old monestery.

This is St Anne, holding Mary, holding Jesus:

How nice to die with a dog at your feet!

Even nicer with a dog and trusty servant at your feet!

Jim tried a sample of the local cheese – very nice!

We visited the Catedral de San Salvador de Oviedo, one of the most preeminent cathedrals in Spain.  They say, “Who goes to Santiago but not to Salvador, visits the servant but not the Lord.”

The main altar tells the life of Jesus in pictorial form, for those in centuries past who could not read.

Riding into Jerusalem:



The assumption of Mary.  The scene to the left shows the wedding at Cana.  Although the story says there were six jars of water turned into wine, the retablo only shows five because…

One of the jars is here at the cathedral!

The cathedral also houses the companion piece to the Shroud of Turin; the cloth that was wrapped around Jesus’ head when he was laid in the tomb.  This is a picture of the cloth, as the actual cloth is stored to prevent deterioration and only brought out three times a year.  Analysis of the cloth indicates that Jesus’ blood type was AB.  The room is called the Camera Santa, and also houses relics of many saints and the Virgin Mary. Don’t ask how you get relics from someone who was assumed into heaven – it’s a mystery.

The Apostles surround the relics.  St James with his shell and walking stick is shown with St John:

St Thomas has eyes of blue sapphire, for those who believe but have not seen.

Santa Eulalia of Mérida is entombed here.

To be continued…

Ribadeo to Gijón

Flashpacking, Hiking, Spain, Travel,

June 27 – Our whirlwind tour of northern Spain continued this morning as we hopped back on the train in Ribadeo and continued east along the coast for a four hour ride to Gijón.  Rain threatened, making for some ominous cloud pix out the train window.

Gijón is in the province of Asturias – we are no longer in Galicia, so the train announcements are only in Spanish, instead of Spanish and Galego.  It is hailed as a unique city with its own cuisine and culture.  We are staying right outside of the Old City, which is on a peninsula jutting north into the Atlantic.

There are Roman ruins here, and a statue of Octavius Caesar.

These old doors were not made with Jim in mind.

The Iglesia San Pedro has a golden chapel that was breathtakingly beautiful in the morning light.

Old battlements face the ocean.

There is a modern sculpture here called Elogio del Horizonte, which is the symbol of the city:

We walked through the old city:

There is a new clock tower built on an old Roman base:

We visited the art museum:

There was a huge retablo upstairs that was sculpted, then pressed into copper.  Below is a small section of the scene.

Cool stuff.

We walked back along the boardwalk that bordered a very narrow beach, where some brave souls were swimming on a cool and breezy day.

At the other end of the beach is a statue called Madre del Emigrantes, showing all the emotions of a mother as her children sail away:

Beautiful city!

A Coruña to Ferrol to Ribadeo

Flashpacking, Hiking, Spain, Travel,

June 25 –  Back on the train this morning for a two hour ride east around Spain’s rocky northern coast, which landed us in Ferrol.  This little town is where, back in the day, the English would land by boat to start their Camino Ingles.  The Ingles only takes about one week to walk, so Jim thought we should see the town.  Some English hikers we met in Santiago said it was very pretty.

Sure enough, Jim found the first shell marker, and we walked the Camino through town.

This is not a beach resort, but more of a working harbor like Norfolk.  Lots of cranes and military ships.

A pretty marina too.

It is Sunday, so absolutely no shops are open, but we had a delicious Turkish doner lunch and a walk around town.  

Lots of flowers in the Praza España.

The municipal palace:

A pink church:

A spotted car and a spotted dog:

The fortress around the port:

Ferrol has the distinction of being the birthplace of the Spanish dictator Franco.  We are only here for one night, and enjoyed seeing this pretty little town.
June 26 – the breakfast buffet at our hotel was truly grand, including two kinds of eggs, exotic fresh fruit, and lots of decadent breads and pastries.  At some point very soon, we’re going to have to convince our bodies that we are no longer hiking, and return to a sensible calorie count.  Today was not that day.

Walked back to the train station and purchased tickets to our next destination, Ribadeo.  This was advertised as a quaint ride on a small gauge modern train, along the beautiful rocky northern coast.  The train was indeed modern, but the track ran alternately through mountain tunnels and deep forest, so that all we could see out the windows was either the pure black of a tunnel or densely green boughs growing so close to the tracks that they scratched the windows and roof throughout our ride.  So, no stunning pix of the coast – sorry!

The view did open up for the last hour of our three hour ride, but the day turned gray and rainy.  Glad we’re not walking!

Ribadeo is a town on the Camino El Norte.  As soon as we got off the train we saw the yellow arrows, and followed them past the chapel of Lazarus.  Inside was a statue that looks like San Roche eating an ice cream.  Hmmmm.

We’re staying in a quaint hotel with no wifi or air con.  However, the hotel has a stable of bicycles for guests to ride!  Although the skies were overcast, we took some bikes out for a spin around town, and only got a little wet.  

Some interesting wall art:

Here’s this little guy again.  I wonder who he is?

I have no explanation for these very tall folks either…

It’s true what they say – it’s like riding a bicycle:  you never forget!  Lexi and Emma, there’s a bike in Gramma’s future!

Santiago to A Coruña 

Flashpacking, Hiking, Spain, Travel

June 22 – We came to Spain for 90 days, as that is the maximum time an American can spend in the EU as a tourist, and we didn’t know exactly how long it would take us to complete our Camiño.  So now our pilgrimage is done, and we have a little time left before our flight home.  We spoke to many other pilgrims who walked different routes to Santiago, and we decided to check out some other towns in northern Spain before returning to Madrid.

Our first stop is A Coruña, just a 45 minute train ride north to the coast.  In celebration of our Camiño, Jim booked us in a classy hotel with an ocean view – a real step up from an albergue!  Here is the view out our window:

We have our own little sandy beach with clear blue water, but the weather is a bit chilly for swimming.

A Coruña is famous for having the oldest working lighthouse, built in the first century by the Romans to keep ships from crashing into the rocks of the promontory.  Today it is called Hercules Tower, and is the town’s main tourist attraction.

Views from the top of the tower:

The tower is in the center of a statuary garden crisscrossed with walkways and bike paths.

This is Hercules on the Argonaut ship:

This one is called the Family, but it reminds me of the standing stones in the Outlander books.  Trivia:  I read the first Outlander book years ago, and read the remaining 7 books (each 800-1000 pages long) in the last two months.  Don’t judge – sometimes a little historical sci-fi romance is just what you need to get your mind off your sore feet…

Here is Jim with King Carlos III.

The city has a pretty marina.

…and white fronted art galleries frequented by Pablo Picasso when he grew up here.

The municipal buildings are magnificent:

This is Maria Pita, who bravely fought off British invaders:

We are here, by chance, on this town’s biggest festival weekend, the Nativity of St John the Baptist.  There will be bonfires on the beach accompanied by the grilling of sardines, much drinking and partying tonight.  A band and a medievally dressed parade meandered through the main streets:

The main church in town is St George’s, who adorned the altar with the vanquished dragon:

Many Marys here too:

Down the street is the Iglexa do Santiago:

There were pretty Madonnas there too.

We stopped for a midday meal at a place that advertised all things octopus, including pulpo empanadas.  Now that we’re on the coast, seafood is cheap and plentiful.

We strolled through a Museo displaying old Roman artifacts 

…a reproduction of an ancient boat made of wicker and covered with animal hides:

…and an eerily beautiful cistern.

We ended the day with a walk around the Finisterrae Aquarium.

A relaxing day in a beautiful town.

More Santiago de Compostela 

Camino Sanabrés, Camino Via de la Plata, Flashpacking, Hiking, Spain, Travel

June 21 – What else is there to see in Santiago?  Buskers of every description:

Shops and souvenirs of all types, for every price range.  There are traditional silver shops, and jewelry made of black jet.  How about a shop that exclusively sells American junk food?  One thing I don’t see in the window is peanut butter, which is just not available in Spain.  Can’t wait to get home and make a PB and banana sandwich!

This is Tarte de Santiago- a delicious almond cake on display in a panderia.

A Pilgrims Museum, for those who wish to learn more about the history of the Camiño and Santiago.  How many St Jameses can you see?

Apostolic brothers:  James and John, Andrew and Peter.

Still not sure which one is James?  Hint:  he’s the only one sporting orange.

There are protests to join:

Jazz concerts in the square:

And silly statues:

A delightful city!

Santiago de Compostela 

Camino Sanabrés, Camino Via de la Plata, Flashpacking, Spain, Travel,

June 20 – We walked into the city of Santiago de Compostela yesterday morning, drenched with sweat, smelling a little gamy, with backpacks, walking sticks and face-cracking smiles.  Pilgrims and tourists crowded the narrow streets, then spread out in the big square.  As we walked toward our pension, an English woman looked at my sweaty self, gave me a thumbs-up and said, “Well done!”  I burst into tears, of course. I am so happy to be here!  1000 kilometers – my toenails will never be the same, but we are strong, we had no injuries, and we had the best time ever!

After getting our Compostela completion certificates from the pilgrim office, we, like everyone, went to the cathedral.  The city of Santiago really revolves around this place.  At the end of our third Camiño, visiting the cathedral was like coming home.Every time we have been here, the cathedral has been covered in scaffolding.  They are trying to preserve this place for future generations of pilgrims.  Many of the external images are deteriorating:You can see which ones have been replaced.Inside, St. James still shines.…and his bones still rest in the crypt below.As pilgrims, we walked to the bones of St. James the Apostle in intercession for several of our loved ones who are going through difficult times.  We thought about you every day as we walked.  Your hopes and prayers have been laid at his feet.  May you derive strength and peace from this knowledge.

We climbed the steps behind the altar to embrace the Saint.We attended the daily Pilgrims Mass, heard our country and route called out in the Prayers of the Peregrinos, sang Ubi Caritas, and watched the grand Botefumeiro swing through the pilgrims, delivering sweet incense as a powerful anthem filled the worship space.  Although cautioned in four languages that this is part of the sacred service and not a show, a spontaneous burst of applause thundered through the cathedral as the last organ chords were played.When St James is not shown as a Peregrino, he is often depicted as the Moorslayer, who came on a white horse to lead the Spaniards in successful battle to drive the Moors out of Spain.Signs of the shell and the red St James cross are everywhere.

Although the cathedral was built in the Roman period, they went crazy with baroque additions.  So many fat little pink cherubs and angels!Some nice Madonnas too:I don’t know why these upside down heads are looking at St Christopher – do you?More about the city in the next post.