I woke up early (GAH) and lounged a bit. I also didn’t go down to breakfast this time. To avoid temptation, and the bread, I stayed in the room and ate one of the meal replacement bars I brought with me. Was it as delicious as the egg and potato omelette and bread? Hell no, but I needed to do a little damage control after yesterday. Plus, and maybe even more to the point, going from mostly meal replacements and low carb everything to delicious Spanish food with no pause is playing heck with my body. Too much sugar and oil all at once is making me feel gross and slightly ill. Don’t worry, I’m still going to indulge, but maybe not all day every day. Damnit.
We checked out of our hotel in Madrid, and headed to our next destination, which was Toledo.
HOLY TOL...oh, never mind.
It was amazing! We had a local guide who walked us all over the city, telling us the history of the different religious sections and churches. There may be more churches in Toledo than there are in Athens, AL...maybe. It also seems to be the only place where you can literally say you walked uphill both ways, because it didn’t seem to matter which way you went, you were always walking up a hill! I'm still a little frustrated by the tour guide situation we have going on. It isn't that I don't appreciate the information, because I do, but they take us from the bus, run us through the city, we have no time to stop and see any of the local stuff except what they specifically want us to see, and then they dump us off at a place with things like McDonald's and Starbucks all around. We passed a ton of shops and restaurants that would have been so cool to visit, but no. Anyway.
We saw the third most important painting in the art world at one of the chapels, and then we went inside one of the most beautiful cathedrals I’ve ever seen. It was called The Primate Cathedral of St. Mary and we got a great, in depth tour.
We even heard a little boys choir sing, and it sounded so beautiful! We walked around for quite a while, until we were told to go grab a bite to eat before we left the city. We actually left the American Fast Food Area that we got left at and found a local place called, I think, Yogi's. I ate green peas and ham, and even though it sounds weird, it was delicious!
My grandmother would have loved this.
I also fell getting out of the bus, which was embarrassing. Luckily I caught myself before really getting hurt, or hitting the stairs, but I pulled every muscle in my right arm and upper back, and it feels like I’ve been boxing! This'll be fun on a long bus ride!
We rode for four uncomfortable hours in our tour coach while listening to examples of flamenco music and saw literally hundreds of thousands of olive trees. Spain in the world’s main producer of olive oil, and I can see why. It was the largest agricultural operation that I’d ever seen in my life, and very impressive, if not a little monotonous!
I dozed on and off the whole time, but couldn’t get any quality rest. I still feel like a zombie. As much as I enjoy traveling overseas, my body does not adjust very well!
We finally made it to our next destination, which is Grenada. I can’t tell much about it yet, but our hotel is very nice at least. We had a buffet dinner that had that same “kids menu” vibe, so I'm wondering if that’s just how things are here. At least there were some vegetables this time! My stomach is confused. Some of the people in our group are going out tonight, but we didn’t join them. I feel kind of bad for not exploring more during our free time, but I’m just too tired.
Unfortunately, we had an “Ugly American” incident, where one of the ladies in our group got upset about something to do with her room and she caused quite a scene. I’m embarrassed, as there was absolutely no reason for her to behave the way she did. Oy.
We are finally back in our room and my old, tired bones are going to sleep. Goodnight!
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