Europe 2012: Day 10 - Vienna/Bratislava

Saturday was a very strange day. In some ways, it was one of the best days of our trip, and in other ways, it was the worst.

We started the day by grabbing some breakfast at Anker, which was a chain where you could get bakery items to take away. We sat and ate it in front of the opera house. That morning, we also stopped at a Bipa which is pretty much like a CVS. We couldn’t find diapers and feminine items at the regular grocery store and the Bipa stores had really limited hours, so we had to do this during the day.

We had tickets to go to Bratislava, Slovakia for the day, so we chose a train time that worked for us. We headed for the train station, thinking that we had plenty of time. However, about five minutes before the tram was supposed to arrive at the stop, all the signs started flashing something in German. The only word we could make out was the German word for “demonstration.” After attempting to communicate with a few people who only spoke German, it appeared that there was some kind of demonstration happening where the metros and trams were coming from, which was causing backups in the transportation system. At that point we had no idea when the tram would get there, so we walked quickly to the metro and hopped on a train there.  Of course, there was construction at the train station and the metro didn’t drop us off exactly at the train station. There was a bit of a walk, but thankfully there was a girl who spoke English where we got off who was able to point us in the right direction. We literally ran to the train station and thankfully made it before the train took off. Needless to say it was a very stressful morning.

Once we got on the train, we were able to relax a little. The ride was a little over an hour. Here is Anya looking at the map...

After getting off the train, we headed to our bus stop to wait for the bus that would take us to the old town area. This is where things got a lot worse. Eric was carrying Anya and I was pushing an empty stroller. I was running/jogging to catch the bus and all of a sudden, my left ankle twisted and I was on the sidewalk. It happened so fast, I wasn’t even sure what happened. My theory is that when I went to push the stroller, I was expecting it to weigh more (as if Anya were in it) and I walked with more force than was necessary and tripped. I guess I will never really know, but my ankle hurt so bad when that happened that I could hardly get up to walk onto the bus. When we got on the bus, the bus driver started talking to us in what we think was Czech. We think he was trying to tell us that this was only the drop off point and we were supposed to get on the bus across the street, but he used hand signals to tell us to stay put, seeing as I had just fallen and we had a small child with us. I was afraid to look at my ankle, so I guess I really didn’t even look at it at that point.

Of course, we missed the bus stop where we were supposed to get off and had to get off at the next stop and backtrack, but that only put us behind by a little bit. Once we found the right spot, we began walking around in the old town area. It was beautiful. It reminded us so much of Prague, which would make sense, seeing that Bratislava was in the other half of what used to be Czechoslovakia. On the forums, several people had said that Bratislava was not worth visiting, but we beg to differ. We actually wished we had had more time there and would definitely consider returning there to explore a little more. Here are a few pictures of the old town.

While we were walking, my ankle was still hurting quite a bit so I decided to check it out. I lifted my pant leg and panicked. My ankle was at least three time its normal size; I had never seen it like that before. It freaked me out so much I couldn’t look at it or touch it. Now, I wish we had taken a picture, but I think I was so shocked by its appearance that I didn’t want to see it. We found the main square where we were meeting our free tour and I sat on a bench with Anya in her stroller (she was sleeping) while Eric ran all over the old town area getting Advil and ice (which is hard to come by in Europe!)

I probably should not have gone on a 2 hour and 15 minute tour after spraining my ankle that badly, but I decided that we didn’t come all the way to Bratislava to miss out on anything, so I took the Advil, iced it, and sucked it up for the next few hours. I was glad I did, because the tour was very interesting and took us around various parts of the old town. After the tour, we did a little shopping at an outdoor market area in one of the squares and purchased a cheap ankle brace so that I would have at least some support on my ankle. We also found some anti-inflammatory cream there. It isn’t sold in the US, but it worked nicely. It had Ibuprofen and Heparin in it. Then, we headed back to the train station to get back to Vienna.

Once we got back to Vienna, we ran into another problem. We realized that we couldn’t find our metro passes. We looked everywhere before we decided to call it a loss, which wasn’t good because our passes were expensive and we still had 2 days left on them. We had to buy two 48-hour passes to get us through the next couple of days. Chances are, we would not have been checked by the police but if you do get checked, you get some really hefty fines that cost way more than the passes. Eric had found 20 euros on the ground a few days prior to this, so we decided that it didn’t really set us back too much.

After stopping back at the apartment, we went back out for dinner. On the way, we stopped outside the opera house. In the summers, they have a big screen outside and seating set up facing the screen. The screen shows the opera so that people can watch it on the street. It is free so we stopped for a few minutes, though we didn't understand any of it becasue the subtitles were all in German.

Then, we had dinner at Rosenthaller Beisl. A beisl is kind of a tavern. This one was suggested in one of our guidebooks and it did not disappoint. We had homemade sausages, sauerkraut, fried potatoes, wiener schnitzel, salad, wine, and beer. Anya stood up in the booth the other entire time and ate a TON of wiener schnitzel. Remember how I said before that she wouldn’t eat meat when we were back in the states? Well, she was shoveling in the wiener schnitzel so fast that we couldn’t cut it up fast enough! Kids can be so weird sometimes…

We decided to stop by Café Sacher for dessert. This particular café is known for its Sacher Torte, which is basically a really fancy chocolate cake. We added a café latte and shared a slice of it. We were exhausted after that, so we headed back to the apartment. This is a picture of of Anya and I getting ready to eat our cake:)

I can’t remember which night it was, but one of the nights we spent in Vienna, we were watching the news and saw a huge protest taking place in Madrid. It was a protest concerning their current financial problems, though I didn’t quite understand all of it. However, the news showed probably thousands of people gathered in Puerto del Sol, which was minutes away from where we stayed. We were so glad we had been in Madrid the week prior to that!

There was also one night (can’t remember which it was) where we heard lots of loud music going on outside at around 11 in the evening. (Our windows were usually open because there was no AC in the apartment.) When we looked out the window, the streets were all completely blocked from traffic and there were hundreds of people riding their bikes through the streets. After a few minutes, they were all gone. We never did find out exactly what was going on with that. We were also never able to find out anything about the demonstrations that caused the backup in transportation that day in Vienna.

Europe 2012: Day 9 - Vienna

Needless to say, our first day in Vienna did not go as planned, due to me being up sick all night. I had planned for us to go to Schonbrunn Palace, but I didn't think I wanted to be that far away from the hotel. I also had a really hard time getting moving in the morning. I felt like I was going to vomit, though I think it was mostly because of my blood sugar dropping. I finally had to send Eric and Anya out to get some breakfast while I tried to take a shower at my own pace. They brought back different kinds of rolls, donuts, and bananas, but I couldn't really eat much without feeling sick.

We ventured out for a bit after that. We purchased an 8-day metro pass for Eric and I to split (Ani rode free) and rode the Ringstrasse, which is basically a ring around the main part of Vienna. We had an audio tour (from Rick Steves, of course), so we listened to that while we rode. I was hoping it would give us an introduction to where things were but I felt like I spent most of the time dealing with my nausea. It was the strangest thing. All the smells on the streets made me nauseous and I couldn't hardly even walk in the grocery store because it made me feel really sick. I was also carrying around a small trash bag in case I had to throw up. I know that sounds crazy, but I didn't know what else to do. I put it in the back of the stroller and when we walked past something that smelled, I would take it out just in case. Luckily, I never actually threw up.

We stopped for lunch at Rosenberger Market, which is kind of a cafeteria style diner. Eric had bratwurst, sauerkraut, french fries, and beer. I ate some fruit and saved the rest for Anya. I knew I needed to eat something, and I thought fruit was probably the safest. While we were eating, I realized that I just couldn't keep up without getting a little more sleep. I absolutely hated that I felt like this on my first day in Vienna, but I was miserable. I told Eric that I needed to go back to the apartment for a couple hours to lay down so that maybe I would feel better later. Eric agreed so he got some cake from the buffet line and he and Anya went to a park to eat cake. I actually cried, I was so upset about having to go back, but I knew things weren't going to get any better if I didn't. After taking a few wrong turns, I finally found the apartment. Luckily, Eric took pictures of Anya eating cake in the park....

A couple hours later, Anya and Eric returned and I felt much better after having some sleep and eating just a little bit at lunch. We decided to go back out and do Rick Steves' City Walk, which took us past the opera house, St. Stephan's Cathedral, and Hofburg Palace. We actually went in St. Stephan's Cathedral because it was free. We wanted to go inside the opera house, but there were no tours going at that time and that is really the only way to get inside unless you go to a performance.

This next picture is from one side of the opera house.

We ran across a couple of street performers. We have seen a lot of those on our travels, but this one was really interesting. It was set up to look like the person was floating in mid-air.

For dinner, we decided to eat at a heuriger, which is kind of a "wine garden." We had to take a bus further out than most of the touristy things, but it was well worth it. We got to sit outside on a picnic table and the waiter came up and we ordered some of the house wine. A few minutes later, he came back with two huge glasses of wine. I normally drink dry red wine but the wine Vienna is known for is white wine, so I opted for that. Then, we went inside to choose our food. Basically, heurigers have a kind of "buffet" and you pay by the pound. We opted for slices of pork, dumplings, noodles, and a side dish with of eggplant and tomatoes. I am not normally a big meat person but it was pretty good. I was still a little hesitant to eat too much but I was thankfully feeling much better by then. This is a picture of the area we were in...

For dessert, we split a large piece of apple struedel with sugar and vanilla creme. Of course, this was Anya's favorite part. We were all exhausted (especially me), so we just decided to go back to the apartment after dinner.

Europe 2012: Day 8 - Budapest/Vienna

We enjoyed one last breakfast at the hotel on our last morning in Budapest. Then, we stored our luggage before heading to the Parliament tour we had scheduled beforehand. It began at 10 but we were supposed to have been able to pick up our tickets 15 minutes beforehand. It was kind of confusing because the guards were only allowing so many people to enter the ticket booth at a time. If we hadn't been one of the first people in the line, we wouldn't have gotten the tickets we reserved. Thankfully, it all worked out and we didn't get pushed to a Spanish tour or something. Both the inside and outside of the building were absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, we got stuck in the same tour as a large tour group of people who were really annoying. For example, when we got to the room that housed the crown jewels, we were asked not to use flash. Of course, several people in this tour used flash. The tour guide gave several warnings and said that if she saw one more flash we would have to leave the room. Again, someone in the group used a flash and we had to leave. Besides the people on the tour, it was really neat to see the inside of the building.

Next, we headed to St. Stephen's Cathedral. We went inside part of it because it was free, but we didn't stay long. We were getting hungry, so we headed back to the Great Market Hall to have one last Langos before we left Budapest. We also did some shopping while there. Then, we headed to Gerbeaud, which is a cafe that is supposed to have really good dobos (which is a type of cake eaten in Budapest - it has something like 7 layers). it was pretty amazing. This is a picture of us sitting outside at the cafe...

We walked around a little and then headed back to the hotel to get our luggage and wait for our ride to the train station. While we were waiting, Eric ran down the street to get some open-faced sandwiches to take on the train for dinner. Apparently, those are also really popular in Budapest.

When our driver showed up, we headed to the train station and were able to board the train right away. Even though the ride was only 3 hours or so, it felt like an eternity because Anya was horrible. I think she was tired but she wasn't able to sleep on the train. Here are a few pics of us on the train...

We were really glad when we finally pulled up to the train station in Vienna. Of course, no one was in a good mood because we had spent so much time trying to contain Anya, but we managed to find the ticket office so we could purchase our tickets to Bratislava which we planned to use a few days later. Next, we found a taxi and met the renter at our apartment. 

We had chosen to rent an apartment halfway through our trip so that we could wash clothes. We were mainly concerned about Anya and her messy eating, and it was a good thing we did this. She was starting to run out of clean clothes. The apartment was huge and super nice. The only problem was that it was not air conditioned. Weather had been fairly cool so far but of course, that night was warm. It did have a lot of fans so we set those up and opened the windows. Eventually, it cooled down to a bearable temperature.

We headed out to get a snack and ended up getting some Asian noodles to take back to the apartment. For some reason, we were hungry again and they were really good. Then, we got Anya to bed and were headed that way as well when we realized that there was construction going on outside our window. And I'm talking jack hammers, etc. Right outside our window. At like midnight on a Thursday night. It took awhile, but we finally were able to sleep.

However, the construction went on until around 4 in the morning. I am certain about this because I woke up after only an hour with an upset stomach and ended up spending most of the night in and out of the bathroom feeling like I was going to puke.

To be continued....

Europe 2012: Day 7 - Budapest

We began our third day in Budapest by having another great breakfast at the hotel. Then, we did the Andrassy Ut (one of the main streets in Budapest) walk, which went by Budapest opera house and ended near the House of Terror. Here is a picture of the opera house.

The House of Terror is kind of a memorial/place of remembrance for those captivated by the Nazis and later, the Communists. It is a fairly new museum that showcases the double occupation of both parties. I hadn't paid much attention to the history of communism in Eastern Europe before, but we definitely learned a lot on this trip. Hungary was occupied by the Nazis for several years, and then later were freed by the Soviets. Unfortunately, the Soviets overstayed their welcome and forced Communism on the people. The country was under Communist rule from something like the late 1940's until 1989 (not sure if the dates are exactly right) when the Soviets left the country (and the others they occupied) quite abruptly. Another significant part of the House of Terror is that it is housed in an actual house where people were tortured. This is definitely a must-see for anyone visiting Budapest.

The House of Terror was horrific for other reasons - Anya was awful in the museum. We were hoping she would fall asleep before we got to the museum, but we didn't get that lucky. It was really rough and of course, she fell asleep within 5 minutes of leaving the museum.

Next, we took the metro to the City Park so that we could visit the baths. We had a snack outside of the Sczechenyi Baths. This is definitely another highlight of Budapest. Apparently, the area is known for its thermal baths and there are several baths in the area that you can visit. Some are segregated with separate areas for women and men. I think some are also nude. The one we chose to visit was a coed bath where people were fully clothed. We paid a little extra for a separate changing room and got dressed in our swimming suites. We rented some towels and headed for the pool.

I have to say this was a really awesome experience. There was a big pool where people were just lounging around, but we spent most of the time in an area that was a little more fun. There was a circular section of the pool where people were lounging in, surrounded by another circular area around it that was like a whirlpool. We went around in that several times and Anya giggled the whole time. She loved it. Here are some pictures from the pool:

Inside the buildings, there was a spa where you could get massages. There were also jacuzzis, each set at different temperatures. We took turns trying a few of these out but didn't spend much time there because Anya couldn't get in the hot pools.

After leaving the pool, we explored the park a bit on our way back to the hotel. We went to dinner at a super nice cafe next to the opera house. We had beer, wine, chicken paprika (a Hungarian favorite), noodles wrapped in bacon, cucumber salad, chicken and noodles in mushroom sauce, chocolate ice cream with a brownie, another chocolate cake-type dessert, and a cafe latte machiatto. We also ordered raspberry cream soup, hoping Anya would eat that. It was the pinkest soup I have ever seen.

This was the after picture:



Somehow, the 3 of us walked away clean, but we felt bad about the table because it literally looked like someone died on it. Anya kept trying to clean it up with a napkin, but it was a lost cause.

(Note the chocolate gateau in the bottom right!)

After dinner, we met up with a night tour. It was not as described and we were really disappointed, though our guide was very friendly and we liked her a lot. She spoke something like 3 or 4 languages. I was talking to her about how I wish we learned at least one other language in the US and I wished that we started learning one earlier than high school. I told her I thought it was somewhat egocentric of Americans to think it was beneath us to learn another language and that I was jealous of people in Europe who spoke as many languages as she did. She didn't feel this way at all. She said she was jealous of us because we spoke "the most important language perfectly." This was very unexpected but an interesting perspective.

The best part of the tour was the 1-hour boat tour it ended with. We got a glass of wine and enjoyed the view. It was absolutely beautiful. This is a picture of the Hungarian Parliament building from the boat:

We finished up with everything around 11 pm and headed back to the hotel to pack and call home, because we were set to move to Vienna the following day.

Europe 1012: Day 6 - Budapest

I'll start this post with a picture of Anya sleeping one morning in Budapest. It's too cute not to include:

We got up and had breakfast at the hotel buffet, which was amazing, once again.

Then, we headed to Buda, which is the other side of Budapest. It is built on a hill so we rode the funicular up the hill. The view from Buda is absolutely amazing. We were able to find a couple of people who spoke English and agreed to take our picture...

We utilized yet another Rick Steves tour of Castle Hill, as Buda is sometimes known. There is a lot of history to the hill, but supposedly the reconstruction of the sites doesn't do it justice. We stopped and got some snacks and more streudel, of course. Then, we visited St. Matthias Church. It was beautiful from the outside and seemed to have a beautiful interior, but unfortunately, it was under some heavy construction, so I'm afraid we did not get the full effect with our visit.

When we were finished visiting Buda, we headed to St. Margaret Island. St. Margaret Island is located in the northern part of Budapest and is one large area of green. We saw lots of bikers, runners, and walkers. We stopped to let Anya play on a playground for awhile and got some ice cream. Then, we headed back to Pest where we were staying. In one of the squares, we decided to stop and have more langos though it wasn't as good as the langos we had at the Great Market Hall. Next, we did some shopping at a market. We bought Anya a new doll dressed in traditional Hungarian clothing. She wanted to hold and hug each doll they had until she finally chose the first doll she picked up. Later that night, she told us she had named her "Hugs."

After dropping some things off at the hotel , we had dinner at restaurant recommended by Rick Steves. We got to sit outside because it was a beautiful night with perfect weather. We had bread, goulash, pork with braised onions and corn mush, wine, coffe, and chocolate cake. Once again, the food was amazing, though we decided that goulash wasn't our favorite. It is one of THE dishes to try in Hungary but, while we liked it, some of the other dishes we had while in Budapest were much better. During dinner, we sat across from a couple from Australia. They had just come from Vienna, which is where we were going in a few days. It is great to sit and chat with other tourists from other countries to understand their perspectives of European cities.

Europe 2012: Day 5 - Budapest

We stayed on the Pest side of Budapest because it was closer to most of the things we were doing and had more affordable restaurants and places to stay. Our hotel was near the main square and the room was huge. It was actually probably bigger than most American hotel rooms. It had a mini-fridge which we mostly just used to put milk and juice in. We also had free wireless internet and breakfast included in our stay.

I planned a late start for our first day in Budapest because I knew we would be getting in really late and would probably be exhausted. When we woke up, we got dressed and went down to breakfast, which was full of options. There were several hot options and lots of fruit, cold cuts, cheeses, yogurt, etc.

Of course, it was raining, so on our way out, we stopped at a souvenir shop and got a little poncho for Anya to wear.

We did a Pest Town Center walk (courtesy of Rick Steves). It went through a lot of smaller sites in the middle of the Pest area and was able to help us get our bearings in the city. We walked along the Danube for a bit and saw the first McDonald's built on the other side of the Iron Curtain. It opened in Budapest several years before the curtain was lifted so it was a huge deal for an American restaurant to be opened there. We were told that when it first opened, people were afraid to eat there because they thought the secret police were watching, and when they finally did eat there, they dressed up to go because they thought it was a "nice" American restaurant.

The walk ended at the Great Market Hall, which was awesome. There is a whole floor of nothing but food: meats, wines, cheeses, paprika, streudels, etc. We perused the food and got a piece of apple streudel for the equivalent of an American dollar.

The second floor has restaurants and souvenir booths. We stopped and got Langos to split. Eric and I decided that Langos should be the next big Fall Festival food. It is basically an elephant ear (without the sugar) with sour cream, a white cheese, and garlic. You can add other toppings, like meat, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, etc., but the sour cream, cheese, and garlic are the basic toppings. I know it sounds super wierd, but it was so good. Hopefully someone will decide to use this in October!

Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel to rest for a bit. Then, we headed back out for a free Communist tour. This was probably one of the best  parts of our visit to Budapest. The tour was led by two people who were around 40 years old, so they had lived half their lives under communism and half their lives under a democracy, so they were able to give a very objective view of how things were. We got to hear a lot of personal stories about what it was like during communism, what it was like when the Soviets left Hungary, and what it is like now. We were told that a lot of people in the country are angry. They expected a better life under democracy, but things were much harder than they expected, because they did not know how to make decisions on their own and did not have the means to make much money. So while they are free (and happy about it), things are still very much in transition. There are also people who were part of the secret police during communism that are still working within the government. The names of these people have never been released, so some Hungarians are a little leary of trusting the government, knowing that some of them could have been the same people who worked under the old communist system. There were also a lot of financial issues with communism. At one point, the government could no longer afford to provide the people with everything it promised.

Another interesting thing we saw on the tour was the monument the Soviets erected when they freed Hungary from the Nazi's. After they left, it was decided that the monument would stay, but now the US Embassy faces the monument, so it is somewhat ironic that those working at the embassy have to pass the monument every day to get to work and there is a nice view of it from the windows. The best part of this is that there is a larger-than-life statue of Ronald Reagan on the other side of the monument that faces both the monument and the embassy.

All in all, the tour was wonderful, and not just because it was free. It would have been worth a lot!

After the tour, we went to the train station to buy our tickets to Vienna. We had been told on the tripadvisor forums that it was better to just wait to buy them once we got to Budapest. We stopped at the grocery store for some snacks and headed back to the hotel before dinner.

We had dinner at Lugas Etterin. For approximately $30, we got wine, an appetizer (asparagus wrapped in bacon and covered in cheese sauce), a dish that consisted of chicken cooked in yogurt (which was actually pretty amazing) and parsley potatoes, chicken in mushroom sauce and noodles, bread, and sponge cake. The food was fairly cheap and was absolutely amazing. Hungarian food is apparently very savory and rich.

Despite the rain and being tired, we actually had a good first day in Budapest:)

Europe 2012: Day 4 - Madrid/Budapest

The morning of our last day in Madrid, we got up a little early to finish packing up everything and officially checked out of the hotel, though they allowed us to keep our bags there since our flight to Budapest wasn't until very late in the evening. The original plan was to find somewhere for a quick breakfast before going to Mass. However, there was nothing open in the area we were walking around in. It was so wierd, because even at 9 in the morning, everything was dead. We had brought some food for Ani, so we ended up feeding her breakfast outside the church.

We attended mass at the Basilica de San Francisco, which is absolutely beautiful - way more beautiful than Cathedral de Almudena. Of course, the mass was all in Spanish but we were able to participate in some of it.

After mass, we went to the El Rastro flea market, which is supposed to be really famous. It was crazy! There are streets upon streets of booths where people are selling anything and everything (except food, unforunately - Eric and I were starving because we hadn't had much breakfast). There was one whole street of nothing but paintings. Another street was nothing but shops selling birds and booths selling accessories for pet birds.

Next, we had lunch at Cafe de Milan, which wasn't too far away from El Rastro. We had another calamari sandwich, a tortilla espanola sandwich (a sandwich with a potato cake-type "thing" on it), garlic mushrooms, wine, beer, and a salami sandwich for Ani that she didn't eat much of.

After lunch, we headed to Retiro Park where Anya got a balloon from Minnie Mouse. Here's a picture of Anya and I...

We also stopped for ice cream on our way to another art museum, the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum. It was a good museum that had a lot of different kinds of art, including a few impressionist paintings, which is what we enjoy the most. We spent about an hour and a half there. Anya slept through some of the museum which made things a little easier.

We stopped for coffee on the way back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and then took a taxi to the airport. We ended up having dinner at the airport, which was highly overpriced and not that great, of course.

I was really nervous about our flight because we were flying a budget airline. There are a lot of random rules about luggage and carry-ons when you fly on a budget airline and I worried a lot about whether or not ours were ok. The plane was delayed about an hour or so, and the only good thing about that is that there was no time to deal with measuring each piece of luggage because they were just trying to get everyone on the plane. Anya did not have her own seat for the flight, but the seats were grouped in trios, and apparently no one really wanted to sit by a couple with a small child, so Anya sat in her own seat for awhile. Before we boarded, she was really antsy, so I walked her around in the stroller until she fell asleep. Of course, she woke up when we got on the plane, but did fairly well until near the end of our flight. However, we didn't land until like 1230 in the morning (it was supposed to be 1130). Luckily, it didn't take long to collect our luggage once we had landed, and we had hired a driver to pick us up at the airport since it was so late. The driver was super nice and got us to the Hotel Carat in not much time at all.

We got extremely lucky and Anya fell asleep on the way to the hotel, and we were able to change her into  her pajamas and put her in the bed without her ever waking up. I can't believe she didn't wake up, but she didn't. Of course, we were so excited to be in Budapest, it was hard to sleep. I don't think we actually went to bed until about 3 in the morning...

 

Europe 2012: Day 3 - Madrid/Toledo

On Saturday, we decided to take a daytrip to Toledo, which is approximately 30 minutes away via a high-speed train. We left around 9:20. Here is a picture of the three of us on the train ready to go!

When we got to Toledo, we had to take a 10 minute bus ride to the top of the city. Toledo was actually built on a hill and is considered to be the religious capital of Spain, as it as Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim influences and all three religions have flourished here together and the influences can still be seen.

When we got to the top of the hill, we went to the tourist office to get a free map. Then, we headed for the Cathedral. We used a Rick Steves tour and spent approximately an hour and a half there. The cathedral was built in the gothic style and was gorgeous - way more beautiful than any of the churches we saw in Madrid. The Cathedral also had a collection of relics and other valuable pieces. They even had a gift given from their sister city in Toledo, Ohio. Anya was a little grouchy during our visit and we had to get her out of the stroller a couple of times.

Next, we headed to the Victorio Macho Museum where there was a spectacular view of the city. This picture definitely doesn't do it justice!

Victorio Macho was a sculptor and the museum showed some of his works, but one of the best parts of this visit was the movie they showed in the beginning. It was about all the religions living in harmony in one city. It gave a little hope that maybe one day that can happen for the rest of the world...

Anya slept through most of the museum, which was a relief after the Cathedral but she woke up when we stopped for lunch. We had some sandwiches and once again, Anya surprised us by eating salami. We couldn't figure out what was up with her!

After lunch, we went to the Synagogue de Santa Maria Blanca. The interior itself was beautiful but the exhibit wasn't much.

We did some shopping on our way back to the main square and stopped at Santa Tome for some marzapan, which we ate in the main square. Marzapan is a sweet treat that is really popular in Toledo. It tastes a lot of pie dough, so I loved it.

Toledo is very different from Madrid in that it seems older and more "authentic." Not that Madrid isn't great, but it is a bigger city, part of which has been more modernized. Toledo still had the cobblestone streets. Some of the alleys were so rough, we were really worried we were going to lose a wheel on the stroller!

Our train didn't leave until around 7:30 in the evening, so we had time to visit the Santa Cruz Museum as well. It is an art museum that houses some of El Greco's paintings. We spent about an hour and a half viewing the art, using another Rick Steves tour as our guide.

We took the train back to Madrid and arrived in Madrid around 8 pm. we stopped by the room to drop off some of our stuff we had bought in Toledo and then headed out for dinner. I know this sounds late, but everyone eats late in Spain. We went to a place called Taberna Kaixo that served more tapas. We had sangra, beer, more toast with brie and carmelized onions, toast with jamon (Spanish ham) and mushrooms, croquettes de jamon (like fried ham balls), and some kind of egg-based tapa that had eggs, potatoes, and sausage. I know it sounds wierd, but it was absolutely amazing. Just writing about the tapas in Madrid makes my mouth water!

Europe 2012 - Day 2: Madrid

On Friday, only our 2nd day in Madrid, we got up and ate some breakfast in the room. This hostal did not include breakfast (for some reason hotels don't usually include breakfast in Spain), so we had gotten some breakfast foods at the grocery. We thought the Prado (a really famous art museum) opened at 9, so we had planned to get there at 8:45 because we had heard the lines to get in were long. We took the metro part of the way and then had to walk in the pouring rain to find that it didn't open until 10, though there were already people there waiting. It was a big fiasco trying to figure out which door to go in, but eventually we got in. We bought a museum pass which got us entry to all three of the big art museums in Madrid.

There are some great pieces of art in the Prado but we weren't all that impressed. We were following a self-tour written by Rick Steves and it seemed like most of the pieces he talked about were not where they had been when the tour was written. Maybe it was because we were already a little frazzled from having to wait for an hour in the rain, but we just weren't in the mood for it.

Once we got out of the Prado, it was about lunchtime so we headed toward Plaza Mayor and got a Bocadilla de Calamari (a bocadilla is a sandwich). I know this sounds really wierd, but it was really good. We had gotten a ham and cheese sandwich for Anya because we didn't think she would eat the calamari sandwich, but she ended up liking the calamari and ate quite a bit of it.

After we finished eating, we headed for the Palacio Royal. We got audio guides with admission and Anya slept for part of the visit but started to get a little anxious toward the end when we went through the armory exhibit. We thought the palace was beautiful (according to Rick Steves, it is one of the three big palaces of Europe next to Versailles in France which we visited in 2007 and Schoenberg in Vienna which we visited later in this trip), but it had nothing on Versailles. The rooms in the interior were beautiful but they didn't have any kind of palace gardens like most other palaces we have seen. We stopped by the Almudena Cathedral right next door. It is huge but not very attractive, especially on the inside, but it was free and considered to be one of the important churches/cathedrals in Madrid so I suppose it was worth the stop.

This is us in front of the palace.

We got ice cream on the way back to the room. After changing in the room, we headed toward Plaza de Espana, which was really beautiful. We arrived early to Las Tablaos where we had booked a flamenco show. Everything we had read said that the shows got better the later they were (some of the don't start until midnight or later), but we booked the early one at 8p because we didn't think any of us would last that long. We ordered a tapa while we were waiting. It was these little toasts with brie and carmelized onions. I know it sounds wierd, but they were soooo good. They were probably the best tapas we had while in Madrid.

Anya did so well during the show. She loved watching the dancers and listening to the music, and she clapped along with the rest of crowd at the appropriate times. The show was about an hour and she didn't fuss at all. After the show, several of the dancers and musicians came over to talk to Anya. They said they hadn't even known a small child had been in the audience until the end when they stood up to take their bows. They couldn't believe how well-behaved she was. We must have gotten really lucky! Ever since the show, Anya has been "flamenco dancing" so we got her a flamenco dress from Spain that she can wear for Halloween. Here is one of the pictures we got of the show but it's not a very good one...

After the show, we went to Cafe de Levante for dinner, which was gazpacho (a Spanish vegetable soup that is served cold), seafood paella, fruit, and sangria. We ate way too much, but the food is so good in Spain that it is hard to resist!

There are tons of street performers in Spain (there were lots in Barcelona when we were there, too) and we happened to see Mickey and Minnie Mouse at some point this day. Anya got a picture with them, but she wasn't too sure about them!