Seeking the Sun

So, the sun in Paris wasn't playing nice...and the weather person on the news was making big arm movements across all of Western Europe for the next week (she was swirling around to show how big the 100km gust of winds were..which would be funny except for all the people who have to ummm...fly in the sky on airplanes in that wind.)

So, after Mark left for the airport to get to Bratislava and the rest of his Eastern Europe schedule, I set off to test my French language skills and see if I could arrange for a train ticket to Madrid (seeking the sunshine for photos seems like a southernly goal.)

Thankfully my time in Señora Peña's French class didn't completely fail me...although I have no idea how, since her native language was Spanish, French second and English third - which left most of her students able to conjugate verbs on paper but mostly tri-illiterate when it came to using any of the languages she was yelling at us in!



It didn't help me much with the taxi driver who was using a bluetooth headset for one mobile phone while holding two others (yes TWO) and texting and searching at the same time as driving the winding roads to the train station...but hey it's Paris.


I love trains...especially overnight trips that whisk you from one country to the other for the price of the hotel you would have stayed in overnight before getting on a plane in the super windy sky.



The Elipso Trainhotel system stops several times along the way so it isn't as fast as it could be, but you go to the Gare Austerlitz and have a cup of citron glace (which they pour vodka over without telling you - or maybe that is what it said in French and I just missed it?) Then you board a nice, clean, train car that has a tiny closet of a space with your name on it.





At first the space seems immposibly small, especially for those of us who have to carry an extra bag filed with camera bodies and lenses with them. But once you get settled in and figure out how to open and close all the kooky compartments they have hidden around the space, you realize that it is exactly the right size.

The train ticket included dinner in the dinning car - an experience that always makes me think of Eva Maria Saint and Cary Grant in North by Northwest. Of course on this train my biggest problem was that the Spanish aren't exactly known to be vegetarian - so I spent a fair amount of time switching from French to Spanish to the tiny bit of Catalan that I can speak trying to explain why it wasn't alright with me that the listed vegetarian choice included the large stack of diced Jamon and Veal hidden inside the rice. In the end, the very very nice Steward came back with a plate of grilled vegetables and Fideo noodles that was probably one of the best meals I've had in a long time.




OH! and of course the best part is that the RIOJA is actually cheaper than the bottles of Agua con Gas...so naturally I did my part to keep costs down. : )

Madrid is an amazing city, I've only been one other time - and that was mostly to catch a train to Barcelona, so I'm really looking forward to the opportunities for great photos and squeezing a bit of touristic endeavor in during the low light times. I've been lucky enough to make contact with the head of the Jardin Botanical in the city center who is going to allow me to bring my tripod into the gardens to shoot at first light tomorrow (usually places like this won't let you do that so you end up hand holding a 4.5lb camera rig while trying to keep any movement from causing photos to be blurry.)

Our Swank Kahuna, Judith has taken the time to list several key locations in Madrid that are must see if I have time...she's one of those people that live life to it's fullest, so a list like this from her is a treasure trove of options...it mostly makes me wish Mark was here to go through it with me, and of course that we had more time to do it.


Can you tell which of these two fellows is real and which is the carved foam one he carries around? Neither could these tourists...they screamed when he moved his hand.



A large display of sculptures being set up near the Prado...I don't think the artist meant for this tree to be sticking out of the face he created, but then again maybe this is exactly what he was hoping for.


more pics soon...

best wishes to you all!

bh