{"id":30,"date":"2010-09-27T10:45:17","date_gmt":"2010-09-27T17:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mrnanay.com\/?p=30"},"modified":"2019-09-01T10:11:18","modified_gmt":"2019-09-01T17:11:18","slug":"spain-day-1part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mrnanay.com\/index.php\/2010\/09\/27\/spain-day-1part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain-day 1,part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This is part 2. Part 1 is still on my iPhone and i will upload it later.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sunday, September 26.
\nArrived in Madrid around 7 in the morning. \u00a0We were one of the last to exit the plane and had to wait for someone to get mom to escort her and her wheel chair to customs. The walk to customs was something out of a Steven King movie, the one where folks find themselves all alone at an airport. \u00a0The handicap escort told us to walk down a long tunnel and he would meet us at the other end since he had to drive mom to the customs station. During the long walk there was literally nobody around, making me question if we took a wrong turn somewhere. \u00a0We just kept following the signs to luggage pick up. \u00a010 minutes of walking we found the customs station. \u00a0We had to wait a couple of minutes for mom to arrive via shuttle.<\/p>\n

In the movies, going through customs is a major undertaking. \u00a0However in Spain, it was a mere hiccup. \u00a0I just handed them our passports, they opened them up, stamped them and gave them back to us. \u00a0No questions, no looks, nothing. \u00a0Heck there was no line to wait in to be passed through. \u00a0It was much different than going through customs via Canada or Mexico.<\/p>\n

Since we were late getting there, our luggage was waiting for us we walked up to the carousel which was kinda nice. \u00a0I did laugh because next to the luggage was a cubicle where people could light up their favorite tobacco product. \u00a0OMG, these Spaniards love to smoke. \u00a0Luggage in tow, we made our way to Alamo to get our vehicle. \u00a0I had reserved two vehicles because I wasn’t sure which type would be best for us. \u00a0For those who haven’t been to Europe, it is a bit of a quandary to figure out what they have against automatic cars. \u00a0Perhaps they get some masochistic thrill of driving stick shifts, but, yeah, all the vehicles they had were stick shifts which meant that for the next two weeks I’m the only one who will be doing the driving.<\/p>\n

The first vehicle was a 7 passenger van which was just that – a van for 7 passengers, 7 passengers WITHOUT luggage. \u00a0Really Alamo, you rent out a vehicle at an airport and don’t consider that maybe they will have luggage? \u00a0Would it hurt for you to add 4-6 inches of cargo space? \u00a0Since option #1 was out the door we had to settle on option #2, a Opal Jumpie 1.8. \u00a0It seats 9 people and their luggage. \u00a0The down side it is tall and not that smooth of a ride. \u00a0I bring that up because mom was unable to get into the vehicle on her own and the drive was painful for her. \u00a0Have I mentioned how much I hate round abouts and hidden speed bumps?<\/p>\n

Since we weren’t able to check in until 3:00 p.m. We decided to go and check out Segovia. \u00a0It is a small and old town with a rather unique castle that inspired Walt Disney when he built tinker bell’s castle. \u00a0The drive was very windy through the mountains which made for a lot of gear changes. \u00a0I couldn’t help but recall the phrase ” if you can’t find them, grind them”.<\/p>\n

We made it to the town and was able to see the castle from a distance. \u00a0We were hungry, so I punched in a restaurant that uber travel guide Rick Stevens recommend and off we went. \u00a0What I didn’t anticipate was that the route would take us through the old town. \u00a0Okay, if you are driving a mini Cooper, this would have not been a problem, but I was in a full sized van, driving on cobblestones. \u00a0We never did find the restaurant but did come away with an exciting story. \u00a0Since the roads are small, many of them are one way roads meaning you can go back. \u00a0I bring this up because I came face to face with a one way road that went between two buildings. \u00a0To put you in a better state of understanding the situation, I’m driving a stick shift van, going down hill with no way to turn around.<\/p>\n

Before I go any further, I wanted to tell you of the time we went drove to Oregon and had the opportunity to drive through a redwood tree. \u00a0It was kinda fun to drive through it as the walls of the tree were inches from our van. \u00a0I bring this up because I was now forced into a similar situation. \u00a0This time the stakes were raised as the space between us and the buildings were less forgiving. \u00a0We are talking less than an inch on either side of the van, not to mention I had to swing both mirrors inward to fit, forcing me to drive blind. \u00a0Since this damn van was a stick shift, their was literally no redo. \u00a0It was as Yoda said. “Do or do not… there is no try”. \u00a0Inch by inch I made my way through with the boys in the back exclaiming “oh no, oh no!” in anticipation of the sound of metal scraping stone. \u00a0But alas, we made it through unscathed. \u00a0It was my first indication that there was someone looking out for me, which wouldn’t be the last time before the days end.<\/p>\n

We decided to head back to Madrid to check into our hotel room. \u00a0We decided to take a longer route back that didn’t have roads that were so windy. \u00a0I guess I should mention that with the exception of the 2 hours before we left for the airport, I’ve been awake for 40 hours. \u00a0With the driving taking its toll on me, I was starting to feel the effects of sleep. \u00a0I pulled over and took a shot of my Stackers 5 hour power to give me a pick up so I could make the two hour drive back to Madrid. \u00a0In short, it took awhile to kick in. \u00a0Unfortunately before it kicked in I started dozing off. \u00a0I was doing a pretty good job of staying awake, thanks in part to those roundabouts and hidden speed bumps. \u00a0But once I got onto a major highway, the effects caught up with me.<\/p>\n

In Spain the roads don’t have those grooves on the sides to alert you when you are drifting off the road but thankfully Spaniards have mastered the use of their horns, which saved me from running off the road and into the median barrier. All I remember was being in the #3 lane and waking up in the #1 lane. \u00a0It is a miracle in itself that I didn’t hit anyone in the process. \u00a0I will say this much, after the awakening, I was fully awake for the rest of the way to the hotel.<\/p>\n

Prior to coming to Spain, I read up on the driving habits and was at awe at how accurate the write ups were. \u00a0When driving in Spain, you take the attitude that it’s you against the world…and everyone is out to take your lane from you. \u00a0Counter this with the fact that street names are not on signs but on the corner of buildings in very small font, not at all unlike driving in Boston. \u00a0Now you get the idea of getting around in Spain. \u00a0I did mention how much I hate roundabouts, right? \u00a0But the thing that just made me say WTF, is that locals use the right lane as their own parking space. \u00a0You’re driving along and the car in front of you stops, puts on his flashers and the driver high tails it to where ever they need to go. \u00a0In a span of 2 miles I witnessed this seven times.<\/p>\n

We did make it to our hotel safely, and thankfully there was a parking space right in front of the hotel! \u00a0Saved me 17\u20ac.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is part 2. Part 1 is still on my iPhone and i will upload it later. Sunday, September 26. Arrived in Madrid around…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mrnanay.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mrnanay.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mrnanay.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mrnanay.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mrnanay.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/mrnanay.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32,"href":"http:\/\/mrnanay.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions\/32"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mrnanay.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mrnanay.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mrnanay.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}