What did I last write? I just made Peggy look it up so now I know - we had shopped and eaten. We didn't go out for a drink but we did find chocolate cake at a random Mexican restaurant near our hostel.
We made it an early night, but our dorm was quite loud so we didn't sleep well. We had a massive day planned and managed to get it all done! Up at 6.50am, out by 7.30, train station at 8am, bought all our tickets for the day and left our big bags in a locker at the station to make our way to Segovia.
A pretty little town half an hour from Madrid, it is famous for it's impressive Roman aqueduct, which was supremely cool. It also has a big cathedral and a fairytale-esque fortress. We skipped going through the cathedral and made our way to the Alcazar, which has princess turrets and a big tower. We climbed all 152 steps of the tower - which was more really because just before the tower Peggy made us go to the cellar so that was added to our total. It was quite a tight spiral, but well worth the effort (and the two euro) for the view. We wandered the palace for over an hour, and spent four hours altogether in the pretty town, and took a ridiculous number of photos.
After Segovia we headed back to Madrid and got there at 4.30pm, then took the metro all the way to the other train station to see the modern art museum, Reina Sofia, which has a lot of Picasso and Dali works, including Guernica. It's free after 2.30 on Saturdays and we got there about 5.30pm but it wasn't too busy, except in the Guernica room. All the Picasso works were fantastic - he communicates stories and emotions so well. I'm not as much a Dali fan. I have the constant feeling that I don't "get it". We only spent an hour there because we skipped the top two floors, which are mostly temporary exhibits. Then dinner out and a metro all the way back to Chamartin train station arriving at 9.20pm, an hour before our night train to Lisbon arrived. How romantic does that sound? I took the night train to Lisbon. I slept through most of it, although neither of us slept all that well.
Today we got to our hostel early, ate breakfast, chilled out for a bit then headed to Sintra, the "must do" day trip from Lisbon. It's a lovely town, with lots to see. I figured out we walked more than 10 kilometres over four hours, with half that uphill. It was tiring but great. I saw the Moorish Castle - an 8th century fortress with stunning views across Lisbon and towards all the other, more recent, palaces in the area. It was a great trip topped with really good hamburgers. We keep meaning to try local foods, but our budget likes the hamburger deals offered at tourist places. Six euro for a cheeseburger, salad, fries and drink? Yes please...
Back at the hostel we've just chilled out. We're kind of amazingly tired but we're fighting it off so we can sleep well tonight. Overall it's been a huge couple of days including seven metro rides, five train rides totalling 13 hours, plus about ten hours of walking and not nearly enough sleeping! I wasn't going to post again so soon but I figured if I didn't post today I'd end up with 20 pages of news next time.
We made it an early night, but our dorm was quite loud so we didn't sleep well. We had a massive day planned and managed to get it all done! Up at 6.50am, out by 7.30, train station at 8am, bought all our tickets for the day and left our big bags in a locker at the station to make our way to Segovia.
A pretty little town half an hour from Madrid, it is famous for it's impressive Roman aqueduct, which was supremely cool. It also has a big cathedral and a fairytale-esque fortress. We skipped going through the cathedral and made our way to the Alcazar, which has princess turrets and a big tower. We climbed all 152 steps of the tower - which was more really because just before the tower Peggy made us go to the cellar so that was added to our total. It was quite a tight spiral, but well worth the effort (and the two euro) for the view. We wandered the palace for over an hour, and spent four hours altogether in the pretty town, and took a ridiculous number of photos.
After Segovia we headed back to Madrid and got there at 4.30pm, then took the metro all the way to the other train station to see the modern art museum, Reina Sofia, which has a lot of Picasso and Dali works, including Guernica. It's free after 2.30 on Saturdays and we got there about 5.30pm but it wasn't too busy, except in the Guernica room. All the Picasso works were fantastic - he communicates stories and emotions so well. I'm not as much a Dali fan. I have the constant feeling that I don't "get it". We only spent an hour there because we skipped the top two floors, which are mostly temporary exhibits. Then dinner out and a metro all the way back to Chamartin train station arriving at 9.20pm, an hour before our night train to Lisbon arrived. How romantic does that sound? I took the night train to Lisbon. I slept through most of it, although neither of us slept all that well.
Today we got to our hostel early, ate breakfast, chilled out for a bit then headed to Sintra, the "must do" day trip from Lisbon. It's a lovely town, with lots to see. I figured out we walked more than 10 kilometres over four hours, with half that uphill. It was tiring but great. I saw the Moorish Castle - an 8th century fortress with stunning views across Lisbon and towards all the other, more recent, palaces in the area. It was a great trip topped with really good hamburgers. We keep meaning to try local foods, but our budget likes the hamburger deals offered at tourist places. Six euro for a cheeseburger, salad, fries and drink? Yes please...
Back at the hostel we've just chilled out. We're kind of amazingly tired but we're fighting it off so we can sleep well tonight. Overall it's been a huge couple of days including seven metro rides, five train rides totalling 13 hours, plus about ten hours of walking and not nearly enough sleeping! I wasn't going to post again so soon but I figured if I didn't post today I'd end up with 20 pages of news next time.
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