Day 1: How blessed we are.

After a late night of packing and a few hours sleep, our great friend Irma arrives to pick us up and take us to the airport. We load up and say goodbye to our pup, Rio. Irma is one of those special souls that has a level of generosity and sweetness that motivates you to emulate. After dropping us off, she parks and returns to help sort things out at the ticket counter, she walks with us thru security. Now, not only was she so kind as to go out of her way to take us to the airport, contribute her companion passes (she works for one of the major airlines), but she also brought us water and yummy breakfast burritos. See what I mean about special souls?
The second leg of our flight, the one over the pond, was awesome. We were able to fly business class over the Atlantic (thanks to our special friend, Irma). We were greeted with a glass of bubbly and sank into our extremely comfy seats that hug your body and have leg room to spare. After the quite excellent meal, many glasses of wine, and a good movie, it was time to catch some ZZZ's. We hadn't even arrived in the UK and we already have been treated like royalty. We have already had a great trip and we haven't even landed in Europe yet.

Day 2:

Arrival to London and lovely waves
Waking up to breakfast was a treat, although we were a bit groggy. I calculated we were able to get 3-4 hours of good sleep before we awoke to the hustle of getting passengers fed and ready for landing. Add that to the 4 hours of sleep from the night before in sorting last minute details for our 21 day trip and I am going on 40 waking hours over the past 48.
Our gracious host, Rodrigo (one of my dearest friends), is waiting for us as we exit a seemingly painless and efficient Immigration and Customs process. It is also a little after 6 AM, London time. After the hugs and traditional dude ribbing, we are loaded up and chauffered to the lovely residence of Amanda (Rodrigo's even lovelier girlfriend). We will be staying with Amanda and Rodrigo during our stay in London and they will be meeting us in Spain in a couple of days. We were treated to a lovely english breakfast (our second breakfast of that day) by Rodrigo, whom is wearing his chef's jacket that he recently earned from a cooking school in the south of England. We enjoyed the lively conversation in Amanda's marvelous kitchen and home. We showered up and lounged around for a bit, then were off to downtown Wokingham, lunch in Ascot, then Windsor. Windsor Castle was massive and we only walked around the outside perimeter while taking photos of the of the quaint historical town. I am guessing most towns in Europe are somewhat historical since many of these towns existed before the US was even a sovereign country. It was around this time that the tide of jetlag started rolling in. Rodrigo came up the the analogy of the jetlag coming in waves. I guess he saw the heaviness of my eyelids while we were driving from place to place followed by the excitement of seeing the sites and catching up, then heaviness again when we situated at a local cafe.
Needless to say, we the waves of jetlag made it difficult to maximize the Windsor experience. We returned to Amanda's and Rodrigo's place for a nap before our hosts took us to one of their favorite local Italian restaurants. The food, wine and especially the company of our lovely hosts topped off our first day in England. There is something to be said for English hospitality. When you add great friends to the mix, it equals a lovely experience. By the way, my favorite word of our English experience is lovely, of course.

Day 3: Look kids...Big Ben, Parliment, and Pounds...

With a restful nights sleep, my first decent one in awhile, we started the day refreshed. Rodrigo was a little hung over from the wine and scotch we shared the night before, but still managed to make us some damn good migas with Thai peppers that give the Serrano serious competition in heat and flavor. Lovely Amanda then drove us to the train station where she helped us buy our day pass to London and our tickets to Gatwick airport for journey to Spain tomorrow. She had a conference call, Claudia slept (she has the gift of being able to sleep whenever she closes her eyes), and I listened to music for our one hour journey by train to London from Wokingham. The trains are quite comfortable and quiet. I thought about how important and convenient the rail system is in Europe and how much of the US still lags behind in commuter rail system.
We arrived in London, gave our thanks to Amanda and were off to explore London for the day. We walked to the London Eye, which our daughter, Becca, asked if we where going to visit. We marveled at the this enormous ferris wheel with pods that can hold 20+ people in each one. Claudia went to investigate the price of the tickets; 25 pounds per person. Hmmm, 25 pounds = about US$40. Wow, that is one pricey farris wheel ride. I know, I know, but its a uniquely London experience, however we both decide to keep on trekking to the next point of interest. Big Ben and Parliment are to London what the Eiffel Tower is to Paris. One can only truly appreciate the magnificence of this monument when it is right in front of you. Many photographs later we walked a short block to Westminster Abby, the church where William and Kate were wed earlier this year. We looked into doing the tour, 16 Pounds or US$25. I risk starting to sound like a penny pincher, but man this town is expensive. We opted to stroll thru St. James Park to Buckingham Palace. I don't think I can say that St. James Park is the Central Park of London, but you definitely see why it is designated a Royal Park. The trees are hundreds of years old, the gardens are lush and colorful, and grass is better manicured than a golf course. Even the local birds, water fowl and squirrels seem regal. The hunter instict in me was definitely being activated as I saw how fat and healthy the ducks and squirrels in the park were. As we were enjoying our stroll, we heard the sounds of a marching band in the direction of the palace. We arrived to the sight of thousands of people all around Buckingham Palace. By chance, we saw a sign explaining that daily in May - July the Changing of the Guard ceremony is open to the public. We wriggled our way between the crowds to an opening which allowed us some great views of the Guard making their way to the Palace Gates. It was quite impressive as military parades so often are. This one just happened to be in front of the home of the Queen and you got to love the uniforms of the Royal Guard. As we made our way to Picadilly Circus, the sound of the military band playing the theme from Superman faded into the distance. By the way, as movie themes go, the Superman theme is one of my favorites. The rest of the day is made up exploring Soho, lunch at an Indian tapas bar (cool concept), and taking the tube to Harrod's, London's premier department store. That was not on my list of things to do in London, but as I make up 50% of the travel group(less when it comes as to whom is really in charge), visiting the world's premier department store became the priority of the afternoon. Claudia endulged me by agreeing to take the tube to Harrod's from Picadilly Circus. I have this thing for having to take the local rail or subway when I travel to a new city. I guess it is the challenge of having to grab a map and figure out how to get to point B. After buying the kids some small gifts (and a detour thru the most expensive lingerie shop I have ever been to, not that I've been to that many ;-), we make our way back to Waterloo train station for the ride to Wokingham.
Rodrigo made dinner consisting of damn good fish tacos and beans which we enjoyed in Amanda's lovely backyard. We didn't last too long after dinner as jetlag was still very prevelant and we had an early train to catch, 4:45 AM London time, so we could make our flight to Madrid and begin our Spanish adventure.

Day 4: Holy Toledo, what a view!

After an hour train to London Gatwick Airport, and an even longer wait in EasyJet's lines, we were on our way to Spain. We picked up our manual transmission VW Golf rental car from Avis and were on our way to Toledo, UNESCO World Heritage site and the capital of Castilla-La Mancha, one of my favorite wine regions. Maybe its the red earth, rich in minerals that make grapes worth of fine wines, or maybe its all in my head. I love manchego cheese and I guess the local wine should just naturally go with the cheese, right?
We check into our Parador overlooking the city of Toledo, and then we were off to find a place for lunch and see the sites. If you have never been to a Parador in Spain, then I highly recommend you do as many are rennovated palaces that have been converted into hotels. Claudia and I are staying in two different ones while in Spain. You will see via the photos why I recommend them.
At the room, I looked up a few places via Trip Advisor for lunch and we were on our way to the city. The little car we had was quite nimble and sporty. I haven't driven a manual transmission in quite some time, but I like the feeling of control you get when driving a manual stick shift. Well I did at first...
Driving thru the streets of Toledo is an adventure in upon itself. Rick Steve's Spain Guidebook even tells you to "get lost wandering the streets of Toledo", but I don't recommend following his advice by car. First of all, the streets are made of cobblestone and and extremely narrow. Remember, Toledo was the capital of Spain until 1561, so cars weren't part of the city planning. So while getting lost is cool on foot, it's not so fun drive a stick shift thru these narrow streets that ascend, decend, and have sharp turns that make it difficult to navigate in a small stick shift. Thank God for rental cars because if it were mine, I would be needing a new clutch. I am not one that is easily deterred from his mission of finding a great rated restaurant, but there are times when one has to decide which is more important, completing the mission and possibly missing lunch or find the nearest parking spot and restaurant. I relunctly opted for the second as I knew Claudia and I were becoming increasingly frustrated being lost with an empty stomach that had last savored food a whole 8 hours prior. As luck would have it, and I am blessed to be lucky a lot, we stumbled on a place that was listed in Rick Steve's guidebook and had a good lunch at Restaurante Meson Palacios. We had Judias con Pardiz (partridge and bean stew) and Pollo con salsa de Toledo. I would rank the place 2.5 out of 5, but was so happy to eat and drink a glass of wine. After lunch, we followed Rick Steve's advice and wandered the city on foot. The Cathedral of Toledo is amazing in its size and grandure. Construction of the church took 250 years (1226-1495), so it merits a visit. The final remnants of jetlag were still lingering within me, and coupled with the heat, I was ready for a siesta. We made our way back to the car and noticed how life in small town Spain is truly centered around "life". The shops were all closed when we arrived around 3PM and didn't start opening again until 5PM. The tradition of the Spanish siesta is one that I want to incorporate into my lifestyle.
Motivated by the local culture. We stopped by a local supermarket and spent less than 5 Euros for a bottle of wine, 2 tallboy local beers, and a liter of water. We then proceded to our Parador to enjoy a drink on the patio and a siesta that would have made the king of Spain jealous.
We opted for dinner at the Parador and we were not disappointed. The view overlooking Toledo was worth a king's ransom. Hopefully our pictures captured the sheer beauty of the city with views painted by El Greco. The view was matched by the presentation and flavors of our dinner. Our table was set with local olives and a tomato gazpacho. Even though we had a late lunch, my mouth was beginning to water. My goal for the evening was to have my entire meal from the local region. We started with wine from my favorite region of La Mancha and paired it with a surtido (mix) of chorizos (cured sausages) and cheese. It was so delicious, we decided to save half of it for our lunch the next day. Dinner was equally as exciting for our taste buds as Claudia opted for a steak and I opted for venison medalions served with a garlic and fig sauce. I must say that my typical dish of venison was so tender and flavorful, that I had no desire to try Clau's dish. We finished the night off with wine on the patio and Skyping the kids to let them know how much fun we were having...Oh, and that we missed them too.