Day 1:
Arriving in Madrid
Day 2: Madrid to Toledo to Cordoba
Day 3: Cordoba to Granada
Day 4: Granada to Costa del Sol
Day 5: Costa del Sol
Day 6: Costa del Sol to Gibraltar to Seville
Day 7: Seville
Day 8: Seville to Lisbon
Day 9: Lisbon
Day 10: Lisbon to Salamanca
Day 11: Salamanca to Madrid
Day 12: Madrid
Day 13: Madrid (extra day after tour ends)
The Toronto Reunion (plus additional links)
Sign my Guestbook
View my Guestbook
Me in front of the Gothic Cathedral
The streets of Toledo
Me, Naureen, Audrey and Holly having a rest in Toledo
Tuesday, August 29, 2000
After a rather uninspiring breakfast of rock hard bread, watered down juice, as well as milk and bowls not being replenished quick enough for the 5 some odd tour groups all having breakfast, we were on the bus and heading towards Toledo. We met our bus driver for the next 2 weeks, Manuel, who would be the object of desire for most of the females during the whole trip. Jacquie also bombarded us with lots of info on what was to happen in the next few days. It was during this time that I had this fear that I left my bag of toiletries (toothbrush, toothpaste, contact lens solution, medication, etc.) back in my hotel room. It would bother me for most of the day, and therefore prevent me from actually enjoying the time in Toledo. But I suppose it could have been worse; I could be one of the ones who still had yet to receive my luggage! After Jacquie finished telling us all we needed to know for the next few days, she popped a music CD into the bus' stereo system. Pretty much the whole time we were on the bus, there was at least some music playing. Jacquie said the music was pretty much going to be "middle of the road" stuff, with no "gangsta rap" or "death metal", but the invitation was always open for anyone to bring up their own CD's to pop into the stereo system.
We approached Toledo, a small city that literally stuck up from the ground. We drove through the newer section of the city and got off the bus to walk up into the older area of the city, which sat atop a hill. It was unusual to see escalators within this old town that would take us up into the old city. The old part of the city consisted of very close-quartered buildings along small winding nameless streets. How some cars could drive in between some of the buildings was remarkable, although there were a fair share of scrapes and gouges in the walls of the buildings as well as on cars, particularly their outside mirrors. We were allowed time to get some money exchanged and wander around the small city. While waiting for the Gothic Cathedral to open, some of us went to El Greco’s House, which was actually a whorehouse frequented by El Greco and just named after him. It turned out to be just a room with 2 paintings and some guy talking about the paintings. We couldn’t believe we actually paid money to go in. At least it was only 200 pesetas. We then headed back to the cathedral, which had just opened. A magnificent cathedral, it rivaled any of the several others I had seen on my previous year’s European tour in terms of size and architectural detail. Some people grabbed a quick lunch before we were back onto the bus to continue our drive to Cordoba. During the drive, we did the usual stand in front of the bus introductions. Jacquie said we could say anything we wanted about ourselves, where we were from, what we do, and if we wanted, share our sexual fantasy. Only two people actually mentioned their sexual fantasy: Kristy (travelling with her newlywed husband, Pat) said hers was to have sex in as many public places as possible during the trip, and Armando (from Los Angeles, California, always eager to "party like a rock") said he had far too many to X-rated ones to mention.
We got into Cordoba in the late afternoon to the Hotel Selu. The bus couldn’t drop us off at the hotel due to the extremely small streets leading up to it, so we walked a few minutes to the hotel and our luggage would be picked up by a van and taken to the hotel. Like most of the other hotels we would see on our trip, the elevators were extremely small and not in abundance. Also on the trip, I would usually find myself in a room with twin beds despite I wasn’t assigned a roommate. When we got our luggage, I immediately opened it up and was relieved to find that I did indeed pack my bag of toiletries in my luggage. Soon after, it was time for dinner in the hotel restaurant. It was easily the worst meal we would have on the whole trip. Included was salad to start and then we got scrambled eggs with the largest mushrooms I had seen in my life, and the main dish: slices of roast (we think it was) beef and greasy “chips” (we North Americans know it as french fries) with a side of some very strange tasting peppers. The only redeeming part of the meal was the ice cream dessert.
Jacquie recommended a place called Café Malega for us to go out to for drinks. After getting lost, we did find it. It was completely empty, but then it was rather early (around 10:00PM). In Spain, they have siesta where just about everything closes between 1:00PM and 5:00PM and dinner isn’t usually eaten until at least 8:00PM or even as late as 10:00PM. Therefore, people don’t come out at night until after midnight and they usually stay out until 5:00AM or 6:00AM. The place did begin to fill up as more and more Contiki people showed up, some of which had left the hotel before us and only just then managed to find the place after getting very lost. It was a nice night of drinks, music and people on the tour continuing to get to know one another.
