Epic Crocodilian Road Trip Day 1

We got up just before 8 and rolled out.

First stop:  Auspicious Baking Company.  I may or may not have planned this entire trip as an excuse to stop here.  It was as excellent as anticipated, but I am glad we don't have one close or I would be there entirely too often.  Sam threw shade at Auggie for ordering a $15 slice of chocolate cake for breakfast.  Auggie was unrepentant.  I would report on the cake, but he is refusing to share.

Left ABC to head toward our first crocodilian stop, the Okefenokee swamp.  I have clear memories of this stop on our Florida Road trip in 1987, mostly of my dad picking up Andrew and throwing him into the van because he was about 6 feet from a big gator.  I'm hopeful today will be memorable for less dramatic reasons.

Saw wild hogs on the side of 95.  What?

Fun and gross fact for those of you here for the schadenfreud:  we're all wearing yesterday's clothes and none of us brushed our teeth.

Epic Crocodilian Road Trip Day 0

Welcome back, everyone, to your vicarious thrill of bad ideas, questionable parenting, and less than coherent rambling.  In this edition:  thousands of miles of driving, car sick kids (and me), Florida heat in June, and the prospect of being eaten by more than one species of crocodilian!

We left Bristow yesterday before 5pm after a day of last minute laundry, shopping, and panicked packing.  Auggie had his last day of theater camp until 4 and somehow this all seemed much more reasonable when I scheduled it.  Shoutout to LM for their amazingness in stepping up to being Auggie's 1:1 so he could thrive at camp and just generally making our week so much better than it would have been without their presence.  Shoutout to Christine for staying with Anzio in his geriatric stage so we could go.

Who would like to get an over/under on the number of Chick Fil A stops we make on this trip?  The running total is 1, in Colonial Heights once we got past the requisite Northern VA Friday evening traffic.

Both boys had some tablet time in the car and started their trip journals.  I started a list of things we forgot and put an Amazon order in to have delivered to our hotel in Orlando.  Lyle, heroically, drove.

We made our first ever Buccee's stop somewhere in SC (Florence?).  Put a check in that box.  

We got to Savannah sometime after 2am.  Yay for digital check in.  Set an alarm and collapsed into bed.

Spain, Day 8

Easily our best day in Madrid.  We got up this morning to the hotel breakfast again, and took a cab downtown to the Prado Museum.  Rebecca and Rob walked over from their hotel and our guide met us promptly at ten, as arranged.  I'd gotten the Prado tickets online, but the Bosch special exhibit had shown "no capacity" at that time.  As I'd hoped, our guide immediately took the tickets, jumped the line, and squared that away, getting us timed tickets to the Bosch part too.

Hernan took one look at Lyle, who at that moment was downing the ibuprofen Rebecca had brought him, and suggested we could get him a wheelchair.  Lyle tried to wave that off, but Hernan was quite concerned, and we had to really reassure him Lyle could manage the walk.  Lyle, needless to say, did not immediately love Hernan.

We got an excellent tour of the "best parts" of the Prado, including lots of stuff by Goya and Velazquez and some notable pieces by El Greco and Titian.  Along the way, we got excellent personal commentary, and "Don Roberto" and "Don Leo" got big props any time they answered a question correctly.  Hernan would frequently say, "Please be so kind as to follow me."  Don't ask me why, but I loved this.  Clearly, our best guide in Spain.  For me though, the chance to see Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights" in person trumped everything else.  Super, super awesome.

We could have spent several more hours, if not days, at the Prado, but unfortunately we didn't have the time.  Hernan brought the BMW around to pick us up and suggested we take a siesta on the way to Toledo.  Rebecca and I did, though I believe the boys stayed up and chatted.  Hernan dropped us off for lunch at a place he'd arranged, and we enjoyed our best meal in Spain.  The cheese plate appetizer alone was noteworthy, and the salad was enough even I ate about half of mine.

After lunch we went back out into the heat, and walked around the Toledo sights.  Toledo is a World Heritage Site and the cathedral there was the most impressive conventional cathedral we saw in Spain (Sagrada Familia is in its own category).  We enjoyed the sights and the history, and then got back in the car and drove out of town to a small hotel across the river for a final beer and a panoramic view back at the city.  Hernan dropped Rebecca and Rob off (who were planning to go out and enjoy the nightlife) before taking us back to our hotel so we can crash.  

We've had a great time in Madrid, and in Spain as a whole, but we're ready to head home tomorrow and get back to our own space and routines.

MartyandLyle (and Rebecca and Rob)

Spain, Day 7

Hotel breakfast was the best one on this trip.  Hiltons for the win.  We were rushed, so we didn't get to take full advantage of it, but it was still very good.

We met Rebecca and Rob at 9:45 for our first walking tour.  This was a new experience for us, a "free" walking tour (really, pay what you want, but don't be a jerk and stiff the guide).  Our guide was a very entertaining American expat who lives in Madrid with his husband.  We walked around for about three hours and saw the Royal Palace, the world's oldest continuously operating restaurant, Segovia's aqueduct, and the Puerta de Alcala.  We were quite pleased to take a break at the end of the walk to sit down for drinks and snacks.

The day's second tour was "Majestic Madrid", again with the same guide, which focused more on the various kings and the things they did.  We were interested, but also pretty tired by the end of it, and there definitely came a point where we just wanted to sit down for a beer.  Which we eventually did, for maybe an hour before we dragged ourselves off to the next tour.

The next tour was really the highlight of the day, two and a half hours on the Spanish Inquisition.  We learned quite a bit about the politics behind it, the mechanism of it, and why it was eventually stopped (again, politics).  Our guide for this tour was FANTASTIC and we were only disappointed we hadn't had the whole day with him.  

We got ice cream afterwards and chatted about Inquisition politics and contemporary American politics before we split up to return to our hotels.

Tomorrow, we visit the Prado.

MartyandLyle (and Rebecca and Rob)

Spain, Day 6

Unlike yesterday morning, this morning I slept in and dragged myself out of bed with my normal lack of enthusiasm.  We met everyone, including a somewhat tired Rebecca and Rob - who'd been out partying until the wee small hours, in the lobby and went downtown for the run.  I was noticeably more nervous the second time around, a fact I attribute to three factors.  First, obviously, I knew exactly what I was getting into.  Second, we'd decided to start from a different location to try to have a slightly more exciting run.  Third, Rebecca wasn't running, and therefore she wasn't there to absorb all the nervous energy in the city.  

Rob took a position slightly above Deadman's Curve, and I went a little past that.  This time, when the bulls came by I was actually running, not terribly close to them, mind you, and certainly not in front of them, but at least running.  Yesterday when the bulls came by, the crowd surged to the right and I kinda got pushed toward the wall.  This was still over very fast, but it was slightly less anticlimactic.  When the bulls were past, Rob and I jogged into the stadium again for the Running of the Cows.  I was significantly more circumspect this time, but Rob managed to make contact again and was none the worse for wear.  Rebecca and Lyle watched the run from the stadium, and watched us, but we didn't see them.  

We all met back at the rendezvous bar one last time for drinks, and then shuttled back to the hotel for a quick breakfast, last minute packing, and then a shuttle to the train station.

Tony Bennett may have left his heart in San Francisco, but I left my razor in Pamplona, and I am not too happy about it.  I appreciate the suggestion that one follow the native traditions when traveling, but Amazon will have a new razor waiting for me by the time I get back to the townhouse.

Most of us slept on the train to Madrid.  We're still not entirely sure what the deal was, but the train stopped several times in the middle of nowhere and wound up arriving about forty minutes late.  Our rudimentary Spanish was insufficient to figuring out what was happening.  Lyle and I are staying in a different hotel from Rebecca and Rob this time, so we each got a cab to our hotel to meet up later.

We're staying at the Hilton (of course) and it meets with our approval.  Once we were checked in and had a few minutes to relax, we cabbed back into town to the Real Madrid stadium.  This was probably the top of Rob's list, but I enjoyed the tour quite a bit and was extremely impressed with the Minority Report-esque multimedia presentation.

We found another cab from the stadium to the Flamenco show we'd lined up for the evening, and grabbed tapas and drinks beforehand.  Let me just say that Flamenco, much like bullfighting, is a Spanish tradition that I don't understand, and having seen once, I feel no special desire to revisit.  Funny story though, during the show, Lyle kept tapping my foot.  It was driving me crazy and I kept giving him the "stop it" look.  I even held his hand so he wouldn't feel like I didn't want to be connected.  Super irritating.  I also thought it was a little strange that one of the breaks between acts, the (American) woman sitting at the table next to us asked Lyle if he knew what was going on.  I mean, we are clearly gringos... and we were all looking at each other in confusion and dismay.  Well, after the show, Lyle asked me, "Was that guy limping when he left?"  I was like, "Huh?"  "That guy trying to play footsie with you.  I stomped on his foot."  Oh, the joys of travel.  Having only just barely survived the experience, we all went back to our hotels to recover.

Tomorrow we have walking tours all day, so looking forward to some rest.

MartyandLyle (and Rebecca and Rob)

Spain, Day 5

We're all alive and we had a great time.

Nerves this morning weren't as bad as expected.  We met the group in the hotel lobby and got shuttled into town and then walked into the bull run area.  It was still early and we hung out and watched all the people for quite a while.  Lyle and Ryan came down and said hello.  Spyns takes really good care of their runners.

We went down to the alcove where they put the statue of San Fermin, and did the prayer with the locals and the rest of the crowd.  Luckily, they brought around newspapers with the prayer, because otherwise we'd have been totally hopeless.

Lyle watched from another balcony while the three of us found positions along the course.  For me, the run was anticlimactic.  People were panicked, running, shoving each other, I had a quick glimpse of the steers and then everything was over and we just jogged into the stadium for the running of the cows.

Once the bulls have been corralled, they release a cow to come out and let the runners taunt.  One cow at a time teaches the runners to show some respect.  They release five or so cows.  Rob got close enough to get bumped, and a lot of other idiots got tossed around a bit.  The only real problem we saw was a girl that didn't get out of the way and seemed to hit her head on the ground when she fell.  She was carried out quickly and passed over the wall to (presumably) get help from the waiting EMTs.

As each cow is released, a group of runners lies down in front of the gate to let her jump over them.  Rob and I did this and got a lot of attention from the rest of the group who thought that was crazy.

When the fun with cows was over, we found our way back to the rendezvous bar, checked in with Ryan, had a quick drink, and then headed off for hot chocolate and churros on the way back to the shuttle.  Once we'd gotten back to the hotel we had a mediocre breakfast here and then showers and naps.

We met the shuttle again this evening to ride over to the bullfight.  Having seen this once, I think I have seen enough, but it was an interesting cultural experience and I don't regret having gone.  We did see a matador perform well enough to be awarded both ears, so I guess we got a good show.

After the bullfights, we walked over to where Spyns had arranged dinner and had a very nice several course meal and also saw the fireworks.  Rebecca and Rob stayed downtown to enjoy the festival, and Lyle and I have retired to the hotel.

Rob and I are running again tomorrow before we depart Pamplona for Madrid.

MartyandLyle (and Rebecca and Rob)

Spain, Day 4

We got downstairs this morning just in time to be picked up for our shuttle to the downtown area.  We met the rest of the group at the headquarters hotel and split into three groups - those going to run, those going to watch from balconies, and those going to watch from the arena.  We were all watching from the balcony, and so we wandered out through the bull run area and up to the office that had been reserved for us.  It seems like most businesses close up and most residents leave town during the festival and everyone just rents out their apartments/offices/balconies.  

We watched the police walk the course, removing everyone who hadn't lined up in the approved gathering area.  After that, the shepherds - responsible for actually moving the bulls - came down from the bullring to the cheers of the crowd.  Note the stick, used to herd bulls or whack runners as necessary.

We watched the runners wait as the police let them move farther up the course.

We watched as the runners lined up along the route.

And finally, we watched as the Bulls came through.  It was over very, very fast.  There was a pile up of runners in front of us where one guy went down and everyone wound up on top of him, but at the end of the run they all got up, dusted themselves off and went to get drinks.

We watched the recap on tv, and then met back at the rendezvous bar to be taken over to the super luxury hotel for breakfast.  It was fine, but not necessarily super luxury.  After that, we came back to the hotel for siesta!

After everyone was better rested, we took the shuttle back into town, walked around, got chocolate and churros (and beer), enjoyed the festival for a bit, and then sat down with Ryan for "runner's camp" where he goes over things to know and think through before you actually get in there.  It was really helpful and now we're all amped up for tomorrow.

When that was done, we meandered around town, got more beer, some dinner, more beer, and eventually watched the fireworks before coming back to the hotel.  Not sure how much sleep anyone's getting tonight, but we'll see.  Tomorrow is going to be a very full day.

MartyandLyle (and Rebecca and Rob)