Alsguth Travel Blog

Hello from Meckelfeld, Germany (Carsten's hometown!). We are hanging out with family and friends for a few days before heading home on May 5. For now let's talk about Madrid. We of course started with a free walking tour. This 3 hour walk gave us an overview of the city. This statue is of someone whose father had a nice statue. He wanted something grander so he had this statue made.  The problem was that the face looked nothing like him. So - he had the head removed and a new head made - looked more like him but it is out of proportion.  The head is too small for the body. The price of hubris. The cathedral. Old city hall. The Emirate of Cordoba originally founded Madrid as a defensive outpost to protect Toledo (which was the more important city and was the capital at the time). This bear with apple tree is the city symbol - it is on the flag as well. The architecture is impressive. The fountains were impressive as well but they were all in the middle of very busy traffic-circ...

Hello from Madrid! We have had some fun here but before I get into that let's talk about Toledo and Segovia. We did an excursion to see these lovely towns. Toledo was founded a long time ago by the Carthaginians followed closely by Romans. Toledo is known as the "City of Three Faiths" because it was historically home to thriving communities of Christians, Jews and Muslims (except during the Inquisition) who lived and worked together. Each had their influence on the architecture, culture and history. Toledo sits on a hilltop, surrounded by a river.  This creates it's own natural defensive position. We had fun walking in the narrow streets and checking out the shops.  Carsten made a quick stop to buy Marzipan.  It is famous in Toledo. The main stop for the day was the Cathedral. Built in 1227-1493 (one can only assume that permitting was slow...) it is a Gothic cathedral. The choir area. The chairs are carved with saints, animals and mythical creatures. At one end of th...

Hello from Madrid!  We made the drive from Logrono this morning.  Picked the car up from the parking lot at 7 a.m. and were stopped immediately at a roadblock where the police checked for drunk drivers. Carsten passed the breathalyzer with a 0.0 score.  (Easter weekend is a big party!!!) Then it was a nice drive through the mountains, lush and green. A lovely curvy road and not too much traffic. The arrival to the rental car return was pretty smooth until the last three miles. We entered a tunnel and lost GPS. It was a long tunnel that actually split at one point - and no google to say which way to go - best guess was good enough and we managed.  I have never seen a tunnel like this! We found our apartment, ate lunch, hit the grocery store and are hanging out doing laundry.  Let's take a moment for La Rioja. As mentioned in the first blog, this was a potential Top-5 destination.  We had a wine tour scheduled for Saturday. First stop was Amaren. This is a mo...