Running in Spain

Madrid, Toledo & El Santo Reserve: Spanish Road Trip Part 3

Madrid and Toledo itinerary; breakdown on a godforsaken highway; traditional English breakfast near Albacete; based in Pozuelo for Madrid and Toledo itinerary; wobbly bits and wrinkly knees at Museo Prado; G&T culture big in Spain; Zara closed! – gran sorrow on the Gran Via; triple hat-shop saga: in pursuit of a pointy Panama; birthday lunch on Plaza Mayor; day trip to Toledo; cobbled alleys, knights and swords in shiny Toledo steel; traditional menú del día in historic centre of Toledo; indescribably stunning El Santo Reserve, an exclusive reserve near Madrid; on to Córdoba!

As part of our Madrid and Toledo itinerary, we had planned to drive to Madrid so as to be in the capital for Roy’s birthday. Thank goodness Hertz was reasonably on the ball, and we didn’t end up spending his big day day sweltering on a dark desert highway.

Getting to Madrid by car … eventually!

Have you ever broken down on a remote highway? Were you far away from home, driving a rental car in a foreign country? Well, for us this was a first.

Rudely interrupting Roy’s carefully crafted Madrid and Toledo itinerary, the drive to Madrid was abruptly halted when the Skoda from Hertz broke down on the A-36. In the middle of nowhere. Within minutes, a traffic police vehicle arrived with a man who wanted to make sure we were okay and to put out half-a-dozen of those crucial cones.

ChatGPT kindly reconstructed the moment for us – stranded on a highway on the way to Madrid

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7 Days in Dénia, Costa Blanca: Spanish Road Trip Part 2

7 days in Dénia on the Costa Blanca; why Dénia?; UNESCO City of Gastronomy; getting there, no thanks to Trevor the Twat; mostly about Wendy and a bit about Bob; the joys of jogging; smelly seagulls and civil servants at Dénia Castle; Els Magazinos market; grape-vine blight and toy factories; free vs paid museums; market bar vermut and tapas; mediocre menú del día; warding off scurvy at Origen; ode to aioli; Altea and Jávea; Jésus Pobre gastronomic and cultural market; pondering the plight of blight-benighted peasants; farewell to Wendy; on to Madrid!

Verne, Wendy and Roy at Café Opera, Altea

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7 Days in Barcelona: Spain Road Trip Part 1

7 Days in Barcelona; GPS Catch 22; Sant Adrià de Besòs apartment; cheap and easy trams and metro; cathedrals, churros and chocolate in the Old City; Sant Roy the Goody-Goody; no Gaudi at the history museum – nada!; Barceloneta beach and Port Vell; Roy the Spontaneous ascends Montjuic; La Sagrada Familia; Roy the Wanderer at Park Güell; solace at Bar Vell; menú del día at D’Ins; menu ouvrier flashback to 2019; pig’s feet and buttifara at Mussol; A Tale of Two Markets; Barceloneta Restaurant with the Gidlows; bitterly failed Zara expedition; pricey cocktails at speakeasy Paradiso; vermut with Jefferson; paella at Port Forum

How did anyone ever get anywhere without GPS? I remember the days of paper maps and I admit they weren’t pretty. But now it seems we need two or even three devices to help us do the job of a single paper map, albeit badly mis-folded and usually held upside down.

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