Weekend 12
and 13! Madrid and Evian-Les-Bains
Friday October 31st –
Madrid, Spain
We
got into our very nice hostel room right off the center of Madrid at about
midnight or so. Just in time to get ready to go out! ;-) The streets and metros
were filled with people celebrating Halloween with and without costumes! But it
was a long day, so we enjoyed the sounds of the city from our hostel and then
went to bed.
Saturday, November 1st
– Madrid, Spain
We
slept in then went to San
Gines for the churros and chocolate! We got a nice hot fresh order of 6
churros and really thick, dark, syrup-y, hot chocolate to dip the churros in. A
classic Madrid drunk food.
After our nice
breakfast we started a nice little walking tour through town on our way to the
Reina Sophia modern art museum. I (Stevie) never got to tour that museum while
in Madrid, so it was fun do something new in Madrid. However, the museum was
for modern art…so we saw some interesting things along with Picasso’s
Guernica while we were there.
Next on our
home-made walking tour through the center of town was the Town Hall where the
Kilometer 0 mark is (all roads in Spain start there so the kilometer markers on
the highways show how far from the country’s center you are). This is where the
center of Spain is, or Puerta del Sol.
Making our way
across town, we saw the Plaza Mayor, Plaza de España, the Palacio Real, the Cathedral, and ended at the Temple de Debod (an Egyptian
temple that Egypt donated to Spain for helping to save the Abu Simbel by
relocating it up the river).
We ended the first
half of our day with a snack at Cien
Montaditos in Madrid. Worth it. They’ve got a menu with hundreds of cute
little sandwiches for only a euro each.
We went back to
our hotel room for a quick siesta before our night out on the town.
After a mini
siesta, we went a street over for a Flamenco show!!! There was a large flamenco
group (9 or 10 people) that rotated dancers throughout the songs. Orlando
Bloom’s cosmic Spanish twin was there too. We had some nice Spanish red wine
and sangria while we watched the show.
After the show we
got some more red wine and a tapa down calle Cava Baja – a street known for its
tapa bars. We found my (Stevie’s) favorite old place from study abroad. This
tiny bar only had wine and a toaster oven! We got a nice big piece of toast
with some Spanish ham/chorizo type sausage on it. Delicioso!
Sunday, November 2nd
– Madrid, Spain
Time
for church! We got up and made our way to the cathedral only to get stopped by
thousands of lambs getting led to their slaughter! We have no idea why there
were so many sheep running down THE MAIN STREET of Madrid. There are some good
pictures of this!
After this sheep
parade, we had a quick Spanish breakfast (tortilla for Stevie and ham and
cheese croissant for Stuart paired with the fresh squeezed Valencia-n orange
juice) then went to church. We saw the remains of the old church in the city’s
streets while going to the new cathedral. This cathedral was only built in the
1900s and St. Pope John Paul II ‘opened’ up the cathedral so there’s a nice
statue of him outside the church as well as a relic of his in the church. The
microphone system went out during mass so the bishop just decided not to do a
homily that Sunday since 2/3 of the church couldn’t hear…
After church we
went made our way to the ROSTRO, one of the biggest open air/flea markets in
Europe! It took hours to get to the bottom of the hill. I (Stevie) showed
Stuart where I used to live when I was studying in Madrid when we got to the
bottom of the hill the Rostro uses.
After that, we got
some very nice and cheap Spanish candy for the ride home and hung around the
Plaza Mayor for a bit.
For lunch, we made
our way across town to Retiro, the central park of Madrid. We stopped along the
way to see the Plaza de Cibeles (super pretty!). Lunch in the park was very
nice and we walked around and saw the Palacio Crystal (an exhibition area for
the Reina Sophia museum) and got some ice cream.
Then it was time
to leave L.
Coming back to Madrid felt like coming home to Stevie. Although we have almost
been in Paris as long as I (Stevie) was in Madrid, Paris just doesn’t feel like
home as much as returning to Madrid felt.
Friday, November 7th
– Antwerp, Belgium
I
(Stevie) just had to put this in the Blog. I got to travel for the day to our
company’s plants in Antwerp Belgium for some filming for my project. It was
very cool to see the size of the plants (there are 4 of our plants on BASF’s
site). BASF is HUGE and we got to drive around it. It was pretty much on its
own island type thing since there are canals everywhere that link to the North
Sea (??).
Saturday, November 8th
– Evian-les-Bains, France
We
took a nice 4.5 hour high speed train ride over to Evian France, just across
the lake (Geneva, or Lac Leman) from Switzerland to celebrate our 4-day
anniversary weekend.
Upon arriving to
our hotel, we got a very nice room upgrade to a ‘junior suite’ with a free gift
from the Hilton for celebrating our anniversary (hooray for free champagne,
chocolate, and Evian water).
After settling
into our room, we walked around the town and got some snacks at the grocery store.
Little did we know that NOTHING opens for dinner before 7pm in that town, so we
made our way back to the hotel before dinner.
On our way, we booked our spa treatment at the Evian Les Thermes for Monday.
We dropped off our
long weekend’s supply of snacks at the hotel room then went back out into town
to find something to eat. We ended up at a nice Italian restaurant where we got
some very fresh and authentic pizza.
After dinner, we
enjoyed a nice hot chocolate in the hotel’s bar where there was a live band
playing music. It was pretty good actually!
Sunday, November 9th - 1 year anniversary in Evian!!!
We
woke up and went to mass at the main church downtown Evian. After that we made
our way to the water-bus taxi thing to head over to the town across the lake
(Lausanne, Switzerland).
The whole weekend
was pretty cloudy, but on the boat we were able to get a glimpse of sunshine
and the mountains that surround Evian.
After getting off
the boat, we got some crepes for lunch with some HOMEMADE SWISS HOT CHOCOLATE.
It was no Swiss Miss, but it was pretty good!
After that we
walked down the lake a little to go to the Olympic museum. Did you know that
Lausanne is the Headquarters for the International Olympic Committee? Lausanne
is officially recognized as the Olympic Capital and the headquarters for the
Court of Arbitration for Sport. The museum was really cool, interactive, and
new. We were able to see all the Olympic torches used as well as the medals from
the revival of the Olympics since 1896 by Pierre de Fredy, Baron of Coubertin.
There were also exhibits for the youth Olympics, Paralympics, and the history
of recording time (<that was pretty cool!).
After the museum,
we made our way quickly into the old city center of Lausanne. We got to see the
cathedral very briefly then made our way back to the dock. On our way back, we
stopped at a grocery store to get some ‘swiss chocolate’ as all the
chocolatiers were closed on Sunday.
We made it back to
France and got ready for a very nice anniversary dinner at the swanky
restaurant that was located at the bottom of the hill of our hotel. The
restaurant was very modern and we were able to share a nice bottle of red wine
from the Savoy region (the Evian region). Stuart tried some liver (he didn’t
order it, but it sure tasted like liver!), and Stevie had some escargot-snails-
for a starter. For the main course, Stevie got a fera fish filet from the Lake
Geneva and Stuart got his steak and potatoesJ.
For dessert, a small pumpkin cake thing for Stevie and pineapple sorbet with
some pineapple and papaya for Stuart. It was a very nice anniversary dinner
right on the coast of the lake.
Monday, November 10th
– Evian
We slept in today
as it was a rainy, spa day. We eventually made it to our Evian spa treatment.
The Evian thermal spa was literally in the backyard of our hotel, so that was
nice! We got a 20 minute water jet massage in a pool (filled with EVIAN water)
with 6 other couples. There were 5 minutes for feet, lower back, and upper
back, then 5-10 minutes of all the jets on at once. It was pretty powerful! So
powerful our upper backs are still a bit tender to lie on. After the water jet
pool session, we relaxed in the sauna for a bit.
After our nice spa
treatment we got some lunch at a local corner café. Stevie got the Alpine
regional tartiflette (pretty much cheesy potatoes and gravy with bacon). The
Savoy region is known for its cheeses (specifically the three cheeses that go
into fondue), mountain comfort food, and white wine.
We got some more
snacks at the grocery (for the train ride home), then went back to the hotel
for a very lazy day. We enjoyed the 5 or 6 English channels on the TV then had
a quiet dinner at the hotel bar restaurant.
Tuesday, November 11th
– Evian
We
got up a little early to really explore the Evian town this morning. We had a
nice little map with a homemade sort of walking tour of the town. We started
out seeing where the Evian water spring source was in the late 1800s as well as
the old pump room for the water. It was so funny to see some townspeople
filling up their recycled glass Evian water bottles at the fountain for
drinking water.
We also saw an old
medieval hospital and castle. After that we saw the market area. Next was the
Casino. We had passed by it at night, which was a lot more impressive than in
the daytime. Next to the casino was the Theater and the Town Hall. Both very
pretty buildings too. Next to the town hall was the “Palais Lumiere”, which was
the original bath house of the town that used the mineral spring waters for the
baths. Now it’s a congress and cultural center. We also saw the old Funicular
Railway Station which, in the early 1900s, served to shuttle people between the
Royal hotels that used the mineral waters.
After that we
walked along the lake and saw the marina on the other side of the hotel. It was
a very pretty fall walk along the water. The lake’s water was super clear and
clean and you could see to the bottom of it very easily.
We checked out of
the hotel then made our way slowly back to the train station. On our way, we
were stopped by a Veteran’s Day parade on its way to the war monument in the
center of town. As today was Veteran’s
day, or Armistice Day in France (the end of WWI), we got the day off. The local
high school and townspeople performed the parade and the mayor of the town
spoke as people dedicated flowers to the monument in memorial of people who
served France in the different wars.
We made it back to
the train station then on to Paris! (The view from the train was very pretty as
we barely touched the Jura Mountains in the south east part of France).
Next on the agenda:…a weekend in Paris…then…Prague!?
à tout à l'heure – See ya later!
Stevie and Stuart
