As always, I’m quite a bit behind on the blog. As I write this in Valencia, we’ve been to every city, town, and village on the trip. One full day left in Valencia today, a split day in Valencia and Madrid, then a noon-time flight home.
Some were better than others, but only I’d only classify one as a dud, and that’s Vallalodid. I know why I picked it, but hindsight being 20-20, it would have been better to go directly to Segovia and cut one day off the trip.
The problem is that I had seen pictures of Castillo La Mota, which is 35 miles south of Vallalodid and really wanted to go there, so I thought it easier to get there from Vallalodid. More on that in a future blog post.
Anyhow, we got to Vallalodid and it was meh. For some reason, I booked a hotel room about three miles away from Center City, and, instead of driving and parking, it was just easier to cab in. However, every other place we stayed, we could walk to everything (well, nearly everthing – in Segovia we drove to a couple of things outside of town, and in Madrid we took the Metro a few times). We didn’t get nearly as many steps in Vallalodid as we did in the other cities. We did have a very nice chat with the cabbie, as his English was pretty good, so even I could participate.
The hotel we booked turned out to be more of a business hotel than a tourist hotel. That’s fine, but it just had a different feel to it.
We cabbed into center city Vallalodid, to Plaza Mayor. It was a somewhat sleepy Plaza Mayor, but we were lucky at around 3:30 pm to find a restaurant that would serve us lunch. Many kitchens are closed at that time, not re-opening till dinner at either 8:30 or 9pm when they open for dinner. The Plaza Mayor in the city served as the model for others.
For some unexplicable reason, lunch in Spain is hard, and I’ll save more details for the riffs I will write on the flight back to Dulles.
Anyhow, after lunch we wandered around Vallalodid, checking out the intricately carved facades of Iglesia de San Pablo, where I spotted two carvings of wild men. There are many highlights among the carvings we've seen in Spain, and wild men are high on that list.
One of the three facades (one of which now houses the National Sculpture Museum) was under renovation, covered in scaffolding etc. The church itself was closed, but the facades are the main attraction of the church built between 1445 and 1616 and belongs to the Dominican order.
From there we went to another church (also closed). The modestly unfortunate part is, across from the church, there is a statue of a Semana Santa penitent greeting a young child. Semana Santa penitent march in their garb during Holy Week (Semana Santa) and the different brotherhoods (which now allow women) wear different colors, such as red, blue, and the unfortunate white.
The white colored robes and hoods are unfortunate because they look like KKK marchers (funny family story about our first trip to Spain, but I won’t write about it here – just ask me when Maddy’s not around, she’s tired of hearing it!). Anyhow, I took a picture of the statue (which is in black), but won’t post it because I don’t want people drawing the wrong conclusion.
After that, it was time to head back to the hotel. Wouldn’t you know it, we got picked up by the same cabbie who took us downtown. He noted that there are 500 cabbies, which means there was a one in 250,000 chance to be picked up by the same cabbie twice.
(Editor’s Note: Not really, as not all 500 cabbies are out driving at that same time. But yeah, the odds are significantly against being picked up twice).
Later in the evening, we walked from the hotel to a restaurant that the Internet said was open. It was closed. So instead we went to a Kabob place and had one of our cheapest dinners of the trip.
The next morning, we high-tailed it out of Vallalodid, vowing never to return!
(Editor’s Note: That’s not as impressive as it sounds, as you’ve already said it is highly unlikely you will return to any of the cities on this trip – not because you don’t like them, but because one visit is enough. Writer: Yes, but I was going for drama!)
Plaza Mayor of Vallalodid.
You can't fight it. . .city hall!
Iglesia de San Pablo
The Wild Men of
San Pablo.
The Lion King (hey, it was a crown)
is sticking its tongue out for some
unclear reason.
The brave-hearted lion has an
impressive set of chompers.
(Editor's Note: Do people refer to teeth
as chompers anymore, or did that go
out of style in the cartoons from our
youth? Writer: Good question. Here's
another one. Should our readers
be concerned that you are referring
to this Editor/Writer conceit as "our"?)
As you know from all my Facebook
photos of the bald eagles I see whilst
kayaking, I love eagles (except those
from Philly), but this eagle looks a
bit deranged. I don't think that's the
look they were trying to convey.
A workman immortalzied.
Whenever I see these guys
I get a Duran Duran song
stuck in my head. Now
that it has happened to
you too, you are welcome.
By now you've figured out
I love fountains too.
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