We did get to Paris yesterday. The airplane showed up at the departure gate about 30 minutes after we did. Flew to Paris, got a taxi (we long ago gave up on the "take the train, it's so easy" alternative after some really not-fun experiences), spent an hour in traffic (going into Paris late afternoon; go figure), got to the hotel, didn't get the room we requested 9 months ago, did get a room in a large closet (we'll get moved to the good room tomorrow), checked the weather forecast (big mistake-rain all week) and then went to our favorite tavern, Henri IV, where we had a fine bottle of wine and some excellent food. Now, that is what Paris is all about.
Rue de Rosiers
What a life...
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Transit days
Things are never as easy as you'd think they'd be on transit days - days we're going from one place to another, and when the transit involves a flight, stand by for stress. Today we left España and flew to le belle Francais. Easy, right? Check-out, drive an hour to the Madrid airport, get on the plane and go, right? Right.
We did all the calculations and figured we needed to leave our hotel in Segovia about 9 this morning to get to Barajas (Madrid's airport) for our 12:40 flight. Then we got a notice from Expedia, through whom we'd made these flight reservations, that the flight had been re-scheduled for half an hour later. Great - we'll have more cushion at the airport. So, at 9 exactly, we're on the road to Barajas, the Madrid airport.
Whoops, a traffic jam; stop (mostly) and go (occasionally) for quite a while. But, though we've used up some of our cushion, we get to the airport with plenty of time to spare. Then, the fun begins...
We drive to Terminal 2 for our flight, then realize that rental car return is at Terminal 1. We backtrack, and see a sign that says, "Rental car return" with an arrow. How easy is this? But why do I have to take a ticket from the machine? And why am I now in the public parking garage, separated from all the rental car agencies by a big fence? After driving around the parking lot, I realize we are hosed.
I try to leave the public parking, but the machine says that I have to pay before I can leave and, of course, the paying place is a long way from the exiting place and I still have not the slightest idea how, once I get out of the stupid parking lot, I can get into the rental car return.
I give up. I park the car, walk to the car rental office and, before I can even ask, the employee there says, "Public parking?" I'm obviously not the first bozo to do this. He gives me a printed map showing where to pay for my parking, how to exit the public parking, and how to get into the rental car return. Yes, they have a printed map because so many people end up in the wrong place. Turns out you follow the signs to rental car return and then, just before you get into public parking, you make a turn that is completely unmarked and has a gate across it for good measure, to get into the car rental area.
We do all that and get the car returned. We then walk 17 miles through the terminal to the Air France counter, where there is one - count 'em - one employee doing check-in. And remember, yesterday many flights were canceled because airlines were worried about the general strike in Spain, so people are trying to re-book and make new connections and all that. Maybe all the Air France employees thought today was the general strike and stayed home.
Finally, we get checked in, speed-walk another 17 miles to security, where we are held up because a guy in front of us has his wallet attached to his pants by a chain and insists that he can't unattach it and starts to take his pants off (really) so he can go through the metal detector without setting it off. He also has a dog and wants to take it through, leash and all.
We practically run the 17 miles to our gate because we have used up every minute of our cushion and it's getting close to departure time. Sweating, panting and gasping, we get to our gate with 10 minutes to spare.
There's no plane there.
We did all the calculations and figured we needed to leave our hotel in Segovia about 9 this morning to get to Barajas (Madrid's airport) for our 12:40 flight. Then we got a notice from Expedia, through whom we'd made these flight reservations, that the flight had been re-scheduled for half an hour later. Great - we'll have more cushion at the airport. So, at 9 exactly, we're on the road to Barajas, the Madrid airport.
Whoops, a traffic jam; stop (mostly) and go (occasionally) for quite a while. But, though we've used up some of our cushion, we get to the airport with plenty of time to spare. Then, the fun begins...
We drive to Terminal 2 for our flight, then realize that rental car return is at Terminal 1. We backtrack, and see a sign that says, "Rental car return" with an arrow. How easy is this? But why do I have to take a ticket from the machine? And why am I now in the public parking garage, separated from all the rental car agencies by a big fence? After driving around the parking lot, I realize we are hosed.
I try to leave the public parking, but the machine says that I have to pay before I can leave and, of course, the paying place is a long way from the exiting place and I still have not the slightest idea how, once I get out of the stupid parking lot, I can get into the rental car return.
I give up. I park the car, walk to the car rental office and, before I can even ask, the employee there says, "Public parking?" I'm obviously not the first bozo to do this. He gives me a printed map showing where to pay for my parking, how to exit the public parking, and how to get into the rental car return. Yes, they have a printed map because so many people end up in the wrong place. Turns out you follow the signs to rental car return and then, just before you get into public parking, you make a turn that is completely unmarked and has a gate across it for good measure, to get into the car rental area.
We do all that and get the car returned. We then walk 17 miles through the terminal to the Air France counter, where there is one - count 'em - one employee doing check-in. And remember, yesterday many flights were canceled because airlines were worried about the general strike in Spain, so people are trying to re-book and make new connections and all that. Maybe all the Air France employees thought today was the general strike and stayed home.
Finally, we get checked in, speed-walk another 17 miles to security, where we are held up because a guy in front of us has his wallet attached to his pants by a chain and insists that he can't unattach it and starts to take his pants off (really) so he can go through the metal detector without setting it off. He also has a dog and wants to take it through, leash and all.
We practically run the 17 miles to our gate because we have used up every minute of our cushion and it's getting close to departure time. Sweating, panting and gasping, we get to our gate with 10 minutes to spare.
There's no plane there.
Location:Rue Le Regrattier,Paris,France
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Huelga General
Spanish unions today held a general strike, "huelga general," calling for all workers to not work today to force the government to withdraw efforts to deal with the huge economic problems facing Spain. (Without going into detail, suffice it to say that Spain's problems make those of the U.S. look puny.) The news media are now reporting the results of the Huelga General. The unions have announced that 70% of Spanish workers observed the strike, while the government reports that 7% of government workers failed to show up for work.
Our response here in Segovia: it was neither 70% nor 7%. Maybe 0.07%. There were about 50 strikers in the Plaza Mayor this morning and after milling around smartly for half an hour, they marched down the main commercial street, going into stores urging employees to join them, with a notable lack of success. An hour later, the only evidence of the General Strike here was the litter from all the leaflets the strikers threw as they walked.
By the way, some of the measures the strikers are protesting are government efforts to make it easy for Spanish companies to hire workers (and fire them - companies don't hire as much if they can't fire or layoff a worker). The government wants to reduce the amount of severance pay a laid-off or fired employee gets; as of now, it's 45 days(!) pay for every year worked. That's right; if you work for a year and get laid off, you get 9 weeks of severance pay. The government also wants to make it easier for employers to fire a worker for not showing up at his/her job; now, only if a worker misses 20% of the workdays over 2 months - not counting sick leave or vacation days - can the employer start the firing process.
Now, this may not be as bad as France, where the unemployed once went on strike (try to figure that out), but it seems crazy that in a country with 20%+ unemployment, anyone would think it was a good idea to go on strike. Especially over those oppressive conditions. And it seems that the huge majority of Spanish workers agreed.
P.S. There was another rally here in Segovia in support of the General Strike. About 100 people showed up. The funny part is that it was held after the workday so people could support the general strike without, you know, actually going on strike themselves.
Our response here in Segovia: it was neither 70% nor 7%. Maybe 0.07%. There were about 50 strikers in the Plaza Mayor this morning and after milling around smartly for half an hour, they marched down the main commercial street, going into stores urging employees to join them, with a notable lack of success. An hour later, the only evidence of the General Strike here was the litter from all the leaflets the strikers threw as they walked.
By the way, some of the measures the strikers are protesting are government efforts to make it easy for Spanish companies to hire workers (and fire them - companies don't hire as much if they can't fire or layoff a worker). The government wants to reduce the amount of severance pay a laid-off or fired employee gets; as of now, it's 45 days(!) pay for every year worked. That's right; if you work for a year and get laid off, you get 9 weeks of severance pay. The government also wants to make it easier for employers to fire a worker for not showing up at his/her job; now, only if a worker misses 20% of the workdays over 2 months - not counting sick leave or vacation days - can the employer start the firing process.
Now, this may not be as bad as France, where the unemployed once went on strike (try to figure that out), but it seems crazy that in a country with 20%+ unemployment, anyone would think it was a good idea to go on strike. Especially over those oppressive conditions. And it seems that the huge majority of Spanish workers agreed.
P.S. There was another rally here in Segovia in support of the General Strike. About 100 people showed up. The funny part is that it was held after the workday so people could support the general strike without, you know, actually going on strike themselves.
Location:Calle de San Frutos,Segovia,Spain
Clara's First Football Day
Clara watched her first football game last weekend. Here she and Craig watch the Patriots trounce somebody.
Clara has now seen more football games in her 2 weeks than I've seen in the last five years.
Clara has now seen more football games in her 2 weeks than I've seen in the last five years.
Segovia
We're in Segovia, which has a wonderful old town. What we like best, though, is that Segovia keeps the Spanish tradition of the paseo - the evening walk - alive. From about 6 p.m. until about 9 or 10, the two main squares and the pedestrian street between them are full of people walking, talking, standing around, seeing, being seen. There are singles, couples, parents and kids, grandparents and grandkids, grandparents and parents and kids, or just friends walking together. I think it's about my favorite thing to do in Spain: just be part of the paseo.
Segovia's casco antiguo - old town - is a perfect place to walk in the past, especially after about 5 o'clock, when all the day-tripping tours from Madrid have left. Many of Spain's towns have worked hard to maintain the feel of their history; not always an easy thing to do when buildings need to be brought up to a livable condition, with electricity and plumbing. Segovia seems to have done that better than most; many of the buildings have been restored with exteriors that reflect old traditions. Here are a couple of recently renovated buildings with traditional exteriors:
That method of putting patterns on the walls is called scraffito; each house has a different pattern. We saw lots of scraffito in Barcelona, but hadn't realized how much of it there is here in Segovia. It cannot be inexpensive to do scraffito; that so many buildings are being restored with it is, I think, wonderful.
And Segovia has an iconic image: a Roman aqueduct, still in perfect condition. Built at the end of the 2nd century, with no cement or mortar, it still stands. When I first came to Segovia, in the late 1970s, the aqueduct still carried water into the old city. Sometime in the 80s, modernization made that unnecessary.
Location:Plaza Mayor,Segovia,Spain
Segovia's casco antiguo - old town - is a perfect place to walk in the past, especially after about 5 o'clock, when all the day-tripping tours from Madrid have left. Many of Spain's towns have worked hard to maintain the feel of their history; not always an easy thing to do when buildings need to be brought up to a livable condition, with electricity and plumbing. Segovia seems to have done that better than most; many of the buildings have been restored with exteriors that reflect old traditions. Here are a couple of recently renovated buildings with traditional exteriors:
That method of putting patterns on the walls is called scraffito; each house has a different pattern. We saw lots of scraffito in Barcelona, but hadn't realized how much of it there is here in Segovia. It cannot be inexpensive to do scraffito; that so many buildings are being restored with it is, I think, wonderful.
And Segovia has an iconic image: a Roman aqueduct, still in perfect condition. Built at the end of the 2nd century, with no cement or mortar, it still stands. When I first came to Segovia, in the late 1970s, the aqueduct still carried water into the old city. Sometime in the 80s, modernization made that unnecessary.
 |
The paseo, under and around the aqueduct |
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Úbeda-III
Today we wanted to take a day-trip to some small towns in the area. Got to the first one, Sabiote, with no problem except...
Sabiote falls down a hillside and as we went down the hill, the street got narrower and narrower. Here's a picture the tower of Sabiote's old church (built in the 1400's and remodeled recently - in the 1600's. The street you see is the only way to get from the newer part of town to the interesting part. What you see is the street at its widest.
Now, I've gotten relatively comfortable driving down streets so narrow that you have to fold back the mirrors on both sides, but they can still inflict a sense of claustrophobia on me. So although we got down the street, found a parking place and enjoyed walking around a spectacular castle, it was nice to get back on a road more than two yards wide.
We headed for the next town. What I hadn't realized is that the road to that next town was a mountain road, with ups and downs and curves and switchbacks. We soon realized that the drive was going to take hours at our average speed of about 20 mph, so we gave it up.
We did see some beautiful views of miles and miles of olive orchards. There are something like 10 million olive trees in southern Spain, and I think we saw half of them today.
We came back to Úbeda, and about the time we arrived, out came the sun; it had been mostly overcast up til then. So we'll get another stroll here, a dinner of tapas, and tomorrow, on to Segovia.
Sabiote falls down a hillside and as we went down the hill, the street got narrower and narrower. Here's a picture the tower of Sabiote's old church (built in the 1400's and remodeled recently - in the 1600's. The street you see is the only way to get from the newer part of town to the interesting part. What you see is the street at its widest.
Now, I've gotten relatively comfortable driving down streets so narrow that you have to fold back the mirrors on both sides, but they can still inflict a sense of claustrophobia on me. So although we got down the street, found a parking place and enjoyed walking around a spectacular castle, it was nice to get back on a road more than two yards wide.
We headed for the next town. What I hadn't realized is that the road to that next town was a mountain road, with ups and downs and curves and switchbacks. We soon realized that the drive was going to take hours at our average speed of about 20 mph, so we gave it up.
We did see some beautiful views of miles and miles of olive orchards. There are something like 10 million olive trees in southern Spain, and I think we saw half of them today.
We came back to Úbeda, and about the time we arrived, out came the sun; it had been mostly overcast up til then. So we'll get another stroll here, a dinner of tapas, and tomorrow, on to Segovia.
 |
The patio outside our room here in Úbeda. |
 |
| The patio in its usual afternoon condition. |
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Úbeda II
Úbeda is an interesting place. For one thing, there's hardly a non-Spanish tourist in sight, which we love. We were able to get out this morning and join the town in the typical and traditional Saturday morning shopping and strolling frenzy. That is really what we like best about traveling, just being part of the country.
Úbeda really has no tourist attractions unless you like architecture, but if you do, it's pretty interesting. In the late 1500's, Úbeda's powerful families provided secretaries to King Carlos I, who was also the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, making him the most powerful person in Europe. Providing those secretaries meant that money and power flowed back to Úbeda and those powerful families competed to build the most beautiful houses and offices and churches. It was the Renaissance, and the families hired architects who had learned their trade with Renaissance architects in Italy. The result is that Úbeda is full of beautiful Renaissance buildings and what many people rate as the most beautiful and best-preserved Renaissance Plaza in all of Europe. Who am I to argue?
Here are a couple pictures of these Renaissance buildings in the middle of Moorish Spain.
The food here isn't bad, either. Here's our favorite tapa, gambas a pil-pil (shrimp in a garlic/chile sauce):
Úbeda really has no tourist attractions unless you like architecture, but if you do, it's pretty interesting. In the late 1500's, Úbeda's powerful families provided secretaries to King Carlos I, who was also the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, making him the most powerful person in Europe. Providing those secretaries meant that money and power flowed back to Úbeda and those powerful families competed to build the most beautiful houses and offices and churches. It was the Renaissance, and the families hired architects who had learned their trade with Renaissance architects in Italy. The result is that Úbeda is full of beautiful Renaissance buildings and what many people rate as the most beautiful and best-preserved Renaissance Plaza in all of Europe. Who am I to argue?
Here are a couple pictures of these Renaissance buildings in the middle of Moorish Spain.
 |
| Plaza Vázquez de Molino at dawn. Our hotel is the building at the right. |
The food here isn't bad, either. Here's our favorite tapa, gambas a pil-pil (shrimp in a garlic/chile sauce):
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)