Madrid to Segovia to Madrid to London
We staggered out of Madrid in sweltering heat (well, wearing heavy jeans didn't help, either) to take a bus to Segovia for a quick overnight stay. Segovia has an amazing Roman aquaduct that's something like 700m long, plus a bizarre (Disney-style) castle, plus the specialize in roast suckling pig.
The aquaduct was fascinating (built without morter, it all just depends on the weight and shape of the stones to hold it together), the castle okay (well, there was a cool room devoted to the history of the artillery school there, but it was mostly in Spanish), but the sucking pig rocked.
We found a really old-school restaurant, with white-coat clad waiters and very fancy silverware and amazing food. now, I don't like fanciness for the sake of fanciness, but this was actually a fabulous dining experience with friendly and very attentive service. The leg of roast suckling pig that I had was tender and crispy and fallin' off the bone good. And the rest of the dinner was not bad at all.
Then we raced back to Madrid to do some last minute shopping. Our buds, I & M, who'd put us up in the UK (and have put us up on many occasions, and have been just great folks) had asked for some cured meat. That'll learn 'em to be non-specific.
All of Spain is full of these hanging haunches of ham, complete with hoof. They are really amazing looking, lining the back wall of the shops. I kinda decided that it'd be fun to bring back a whole haunch to I & M, and M. really grooved on the idea. After much searching, we found a 10 pound haunch that wasn't too expensive (the amazing high-end hams can cost as much as $300!), and I staggered back to the hostal with it to chill out and take it easy.
M. continued on her quest for cool shoes and junk. I hit the Internet, watched in horror as several hundred thousand people marched through Madrid protesting against gay marriage (ugh, that pissed me off, but it appears that very complete domestic partner benefits are available in Spain as a matter of course, so Spain is actually probably a bit more advanced than the US in these things), and just hanging out.
We had one last tapas crawl, and hit the sack late. We were up early the next morning to grab a taxi out to the airport -- with our new baby, Porky Pig, along, we had too much junk to brave the metro. We had a great flight back , and were picked up by I & M at Heathrow, where it was just as sweltering as it had been back in Spain! Argh.
The aquaduct was fascinating (built without morter, it all just depends on the weight and shape of the stones to hold it together), the castle okay (well, there was a cool room devoted to the history of the artillery school there, but it was mostly in Spanish), but the sucking pig rocked.
We found a really old-school restaurant, with white-coat clad waiters and very fancy silverware and amazing food. now, I don't like fanciness for the sake of fanciness, but this was actually a fabulous dining experience with friendly and very attentive service. The leg of roast suckling pig that I had was tender and crispy and fallin' off the bone good. And the rest of the dinner was not bad at all.
Then we raced back to Madrid to do some last minute shopping. Our buds, I & M, who'd put us up in the UK (and have put us up on many occasions, and have been just great folks) had asked for some cured meat. That'll learn 'em to be non-specific.
All of Spain is full of these hanging haunches of ham, complete with hoof. They are really amazing looking, lining the back wall of the shops. I kinda decided that it'd be fun to bring back a whole haunch to I & M, and M. really grooved on the idea. After much searching, we found a 10 pound haunch that wasn't too expensive (the amazing high-end hams can cost as much as $300!), and I staggered back to the hostal with it to chill out and take it easy.
M. continued on her quest for cool shoes and junk. I hit the Internet, watched in horror as several hundred thousand people marched through Madrid protesting against gay marriage (ugh, that pissed me off, but it appears that very complete domestic partner benefits are available in Spain as a matter of course, so Spain is actually probably a bit more advanced than the US in these things), and just hanging out.
We had one last tapas crawl, and hit the sack late. We were up early the next morning to grab a taxi out to the airport -- with our new baby, Porky Pig, along, we had too much junk to brave the metro. We had a great flight back , and were picked up by I & M at Heathrow, where it was just as sweltering as it had been back in Spain! Argh.
posted by K at
6:16 AM
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