Travel in Spain - Part II

I will back track a bit so that you can see some photos from our morning walk yesterday morning. This trip we are staying in an rented apartment instead of a Hotel. So far we like this option very much. Our rooms are on the backside of the building with no view, but is very quiet with not noise from the street. So quiet that we almost slept through the pre-arranged meeting the morning before going on the wine tasting tour, but I don't intend to tell you that story now.

Now is the streets of Madrid.  The architecture, in the buildings surrounding the square were we are staying in the old town center, is in the French design - five stories with symmetrical fronts, and wrought iron balconies. The street and the buildings are clean and meticulously kept.

The opera house is of a simple design compared to many opera houses. The Royal palace which is across a formal garden from the Opera house is of pure white marble with a backdrop of red roofed buildings and at a distance a faded view of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

 

 

 

The church that sets beside the Royal palace - as we found out after paying to visit its cupola - is just 14 years old. It opened 14 years ago after 114 years in construction.  The interior and its stained glass windows are distinctly modern in design. Not a disappointment by any means with its basic basilica design, just not the traditional church of Europe that we are familiar with. The view of Madrid from the Cupola is well worth the 4 euro in entrance charges. We off to another dinner.... kisses all

 

 

GingerV

 

    

Madrid Spain

I don't know if I can be coherent or not, I am suffering either jet lag or 'Beth and Silverio Lag.'

We have been in Madrid since Thursday morning. The new airport is Fantastic-Futuristic, including the line waiting for taxis. The airport experience from start to finish took about 2 hours.

 

Thursday night, the start of the birthday fiesta, we went to the Plaza Santa Ana for wine and tapas.

 

On Friday morning to vineyards with tour, wine tasting, and tapas, and more tapas. Friday afternoon was a quick tour of Segovia and the Aznar,

 

all with Beth directing and keeping us -more or less- on a schedule. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Camillo and I walked the local streets in central this morning, had breakfast, took many photos of the Royal Palace, a church that is apparently only 1 year old, and watched the people in the Plaza Mayor - all at a more leisurely pace. Now Camillo is in catching a nap and I will soon follow. Tonight is Silverio's birthday dinner. It starts at 9:00 so I suspect we will be up most the night with food and drink.

Nap Time!

Jardim Botânico - Botanical garden - Part one

 

Last weekend our apartment was being fumigated for some little bug feasting on our furniture, and we needed to leave the apartment closed for four hours. Camillo had a list of errands and I decided to walk to Jardim Botânico. I have been to the botanical garden in almost every city were I have live and visited. By far, Rio's is the best I've seen. This isn't a Carioca speaking but an Houstonian, and I think the gardens are the best of what Rio has to offer. I have been to the park 4 times now, and have only explored the left hand side. The front, along the Rua Jardim Botânico, is lined with Imperial Palms, very tall, very straight and very elegant.   From the main entrance the park is bisected by a path also lined in the imperials, no matter the season this sight is very impressive. There are examples of many trees from Brasil and a few from other countries. This is were I have seen my only Southern US Cypress.  Within the left-hand side of the park there is a bookstore, an Orchid greenhouse (mostly the most common orchids), a Bromeliad (Bromeliaceae) house (Fantastic), a small greenhouse with carnivorous plants (truly interesting), the toilets (very important to know) and many, many park benches along the trails to encourage sitting peacefully, romantically or meditatively under a tree.

 

Life cycle of the Coqueiro Anão-verde

A walk around the lagoa in Rio always brings some surprise. There is always some tree or bush with a flower that I have never noticed before. This Sunday it was a plant (tree) that I did not recognize. Only about 12 feet tall (4m) with this spiny group of buds growing from the trunk's side about head high (That means 5'6"). I stepped off the path for a closer look and, of course, a photo or two. I said to Camillo, isn't this interesting - look at this, is it a fruit?

No it's a coconut! A Coqueiro Anão-verde: A dwarf coconut now being grown on plantations in Brasil. Fast growing, fast fruiting, long lived and easy to harvest. Just what is needed to supply the


locals with their agua d0 coco after a hot walk in the sun. I had never seen the flower or the young fruit so close-up before. Buds, flowers, young fruit, mature fruit and what appeared to be a dry brown seed/nut all on one tree.

Made my day!

Cultural or just bad business

For the passt four weeks, I have been pulling out my hair trying to get online, receive emails, send my latest paper back and forth looking for free editing help, doing banking and to write in the blog. It has been constant, horrible, random, seemingly unrelated problems.
We called our ISP (NET) in Rio and were told we needed to reconfigure our computers and to call GigaLink, our provider in Friburgo - HOW COULD IT BE GigaLink's PROBLEM?

Next time in Rio, we called NET again because it was even worse, now I couldn't get to my Yahoo account in Houston, the one I talk with my grandchildren through, or get a good connection to SKYPE and I am NOT a patient person. NET sent someone out 3 days after we called, "to check our system". Of course, there was no problem with THEIR CONNECTION so had to pay R$100 for some outside consultant to spend 10 minutes tapping keys and telling us he'd fixed 'IT'. Ten minutes after he left - NO INTERNET. Are you starting to see a pattern here?Two weeks ago, we came to Rio with intent to make time to find a solution. Poor Camillo, I think he finally believed me that it had nothing to do with our computers, but only after I resorted to yelling at the man. You just can't believe everything they tell, it didn't make sense that it was our problem. He called NET again - and again through some type of 'pinging' they determined that there 'was nothing wrong with THEIR connection - AGAIN someone would come out on Saturday - FOUR days later.

OKAY I went to the gym to relax - and when I came home Camillo says, there is nothing wrong with our connection - BUT the Technician said that.... You won't believe this.... "NET has been trying to change their server from S. Paulo to Rio and can't seem to get it right, They are working on it though." Pulleze! why not just tell us that three weeks ago. That we could have understood. With that answer we could have saved R$100.00 and hours of frustration.
Can you understand this? ..... Can You?