Pat and Dave’s Intrepid Iberian Interlude – PART 1: Madrid, Toledo, Lisbon

Winter temperatures have arrived in Minneapolis with highs in the low teens, though we only have a light layer of snow so far. Fortunately, I can conjure up some warmth by fondly reflecting on our most recent travel experience and writing this latest installment of my travel blog series. Perhaps your first question might be “why are you calling it your ‘Intrepid Iberian Interlude?’ ” So, let’s start there.

The travel blog series was born back in 2018 when, at the urging of family members, I began documenting a 10,200-mile RV trip during which Pat and I visited 11 states, 9 National Parks, 2 National Monuments, 1 National Recreation Area, and 12 or more State Parks in Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Since then, I’ve documented a total of fourteen trips. Here’s a list of the travel blog series so far:

1. Pat and Dave’s Excellent Adventure (12 parts)
2. Coming Soon to a Blog near You – Another Winter RV Trip (1 part compendium of 4 trips)
3. The Saaris’ (Sorta) Safe Sojourn (10 parts plus Summary)
4. Pat and Dave’s Eastern Escapade (4 parts)
5. Pat and Dave’s Eclectic Electric Road Trip (4 parts)
6. Pat and Dave’s Post-Covid Continental Caper (4 parts)
7. Pat and Dave’s Tremendous Tropical Trek (3 parts)
8. Pat and Dave’s Magical Maritime Meanderings (3 parts)
9. Pat and Dave’s Easy EV Road Trip (3 parts)
10. Pat and Dave’s West Coast Wayfaring (2 parts)
11. Pat and Dave’s Nifty National Park Lark (2 parts)

(For the convenience of readers who may be real gluttons for punishment, the list provides hyperlinks to the final part of each installment.)

You’ll notice that, beginning with the third one, I took to naming the narratives using clever alliterative titles that provide hints about each trip. So, in keeping with this approach, the current narrative’s title includes: 1) “intrepid” because traveling abroad at our advanced ages seems rather bold and daring, 2) “Iberian” because we visited the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal), and 3) “Interlude” because the last four trips have been in North America as will be our next one (to Arizona), so going to Europe was a sort of interlude. (And because I couldn’t think of a better word that started with I, OK?) Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get on with the story.

The trip was booked with Viking River Cruises, and included pre-cruise stays in Madrid and Lisbon before boarding a ship in Porto and sailing up and down the Douro River, described poetically as Portugal’s River of Gold.

ASIDE: We’ve become huge fans of Viking, this being out fourth journey with them. Previous trips included numbers 6 and 7 in the above list and a 2014 cruise down the Danube before I began blogging about our trips. The beauty of Viking is that all we need to do is arrange one booking, and all the details are planned and executed for us, efficiently and luxuriously. We truly can “travel the world – in comfort,” as their tagline says. (Sort of diminishes that “intrepid” business a bit, but hey.) Just to be clear, I do not receive any compensation from Viking for writing this blog even though I may deserve it; I’m sure they don’t even know the blog exists.

Here are maps showing the main places we visited along the way. I’ll provide more detailed maps of specific areas when appropriate as the story unfolds.

We left our condo in Minneapolis on Wednesday, November 6 at 7:28 AM CST, catching a Lyft ride to MSP airport, then flew to Chicago O’Hare and then on to Madrid on Iberia Airlines, arriving at 7:45 AM CET (Central European Time) on November 7.

Madrid and Toledo (November 7-9): On Thursday the 7^th, Pat and I were met at the Madrid Airport by a Viking driver, who drove us and our luggage to the Hyatt Regency Hesperia Hotel in the Paseo de la Castellana neighborhood of Madrid. There we met our Madrid Viking Host, Susana, who explained that we were the first of a dozen Viking tourists to arrive for this pre-cruise extension and provided us with a map of the area and suggestions for exploring on our own before meeting with the entire group later that evening. Thus armed, we trundled off to wander the streets of Madrid, observing many interesting buildings and sculptures. I confidently led us off in the wrong direction, but after Pat activated the Google maps app, we made our way to the Retiro Park, established in the mid-17^th century for the enjoyment of King Philip IV. The nearby Puerta de Alcala, erected in 1778 by Italian architect Francesco Sabatini, is a triumphal gate that was once the main entrance to the city. It was commissioned by King Charles III (later nicknamed the Best Mayor of Madrid), who was unimpressed by the gate that welcomed him when he first arrived in 1759.

On our way back to the hotel, we passed by a large plaza including a sprawling monument to Christopher Columbus, including inscriptions of the crew members’ names from the famous 1492 voyage.

After returning to the hotel and taking a brief nap in our room, the Viking group was briefed by Susana on the plans for the next days before she led us on a brief walk around the neighborhood. Later, we went to a local café that Susana had recommended. The two young men manning the place spoke no English and were convinced we wanted beer, but with the aid of Google translate to decipher the menu and much gesticulating, we managed to order some delicious jamon de bellota sandwiches. The meat was carefully carved in thin layers off a huge pork leg, from a free-range pig fed only on acorns to produce the best Iberian ham.

On Friday the 8^th, we had a bus and walking tour of Madrid, during which we visited the Mercado de San Miguel (a bustling marketplace) and the Plaza Mayor, a huge square established in the 17th century by King Philip III, whose bronze equestrian statue stands in the square. We then passed by the Royal Palace and other landmarks before heading to the famous Prado art museum.

We spent a couple of hours in the Prado, including lunch in the cafeteria. Photos were not allowed except in a few rooms, so I can’t show any, but some favorite things we saw were “The Washing of the Feet” by Tintoretto and “Las Meninas” by Velazquez (amazing perspective works), “Garden of Earthly Delights” by Bosch (intricate details, some bizarre and unsettling), and a series of paintings by Goya throughout his career, including the disturbing “black paintings” from his early 70s and his later return to using vibrant colors after moving to France. After the Prado, we elected to return to the hotel on our own by city bus rather than with the Viking tour bus. Unfortunately, we missed getting off at the bus stop nearest the hotel and ended up walking an extra eight or ten blocks. All in all, we found Madrid to be a clean, bustling, pleasant city. That evening, we had an excellent dinner of seafood paella at a restaurant near the hotel called La Gaditana.

On Saturday the 9^th, we rode a bus some 45 miles south to Toledo, the original capital of Spain before Philp III made Madrid the capital in 1603. Toledo is strategically located on a high hill on the north bank of a bend the Tagus River.

Toledo is known as the “City of the Three Cultures” for the cultural influences of Moors, Christians, and Jews throughout its history. Toledo has long been known for its production of fine steel for weapons and jewelry, so we first visited a touristy factory/retail outlet just outside the town and saw how some of the products are made today. We then traveled into the city and rode to the top of the hill on a series of conveniently located escalators before beginning our walking tour. While the streets of the old city are very narrow, many houses have beautiful courtyards just inside their doors.

Our first visit was to the gothic style cathedral, which was begun in 1226 and completed in 1493. Among its treasures is a magnificent gold artwork called the monstrance, made for Queen Isabella in 1515-1523, that is carried through the city during annual festivals.

Another highlight was the Church of Santo Tome, the lobby of which displays the El Greco masterpiece “The Burial of the Count of Orgaz” which commemorates a local legend and is known for its use of multiple schools of art and for inclusion of a self-portrait of the artist as one of the funeral attendees.

We also visited the Jewish quarter, including a former Jewish synagogue that has been established as a national monument although given the unfortunate name of Santa Maria La Blanca (St. Mary of the White Virgin).

We then strolled through the old town area and emerged into a street with modern shops, even one in which Pat and I encountered some friendly inhabitants.

Lisbon (November 10-11): On Sunday the 10^th, we were transferred by a Viking bus from our hotel back to the Madrid airport, where we boarded a flight to Lisbon operated by a regional carrier for Iberia Airlines. We were again met by Viking representatives and were driven to the Corinthia Lisbon Hotel, where we met our Viking Cruise Director Tamara and the local Viking Host. We spent some time wandering around the neighborhood and ate a light lunch in one of the hotel restaurants, then joined the Host at 3:30 PM for an introductory walk-and-talk, then attended a welcome session by Tamara at 6:00 PM for an overview of Lisbon and plans for our time there. After a short walk to a nearby restaurant for a delicious meal, we retired to our hotel room. My only complaint about the elegant five-star hotel is that the electronic safe in our room did not operate properly so we could not store away our passports.

On Monday the 11^th, we headed off on a bus and walking tour of Lisbon, during which we took in the sights and learned quite a bit of Portuguese history. (Now known as a well-functioning democracy, Portugal was actually ruled by a dictator, António de Oliveira Salazar, from 1932 until he died in 1970. His successor was deposed in the bloodless Carnation Revolution in 1974, and Portugal transitioned to a constitutional democracy by 1976). We drove through the hilly city to the tourist area called Belém near the Tagus River – the very same river we saw in Toledo, by this point grown very wide before discharging into the Atlantic – where we saw the Belém Tower, a 16th-century fortification that served as a point of embarkation and disembarkation for Portuguese explorers and as a ceremonial gateway to Lisbon. It was built during the height of the Portuguese Renaissance, and is a prominent example of the Portuguese Manueline style, but it also incorporates other architectural styles, such as the minarets inspired by Moorish architecture.

After visiting the tower and a surrounding park, we moved on to the Maritime Museum, dedicated to all aspects of the history of navigation in Portugal. Our guide pointed out many of the interesting features and explained how Spain (Castile at the time) and Portugal signed the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 to divide the world in half – Portugal was given the lands to the east and Spain those to the west of a line of demarcation. The two countries explored and claimed much of the world, with Portugal establishing colonies in Africa and India and conducting trade as far east as Japan beginning in 1543. Portuguese explorers continued to sail the east coast of North America – an inscription carved on Dighton Rock in 1511 supposedly commemorates Miguel Corte-Real – but did not settle there in accordance with the treaty. Portugal was allowed to establish their colony in Brazil since it lay to the east of the treaty’s demarcation line, although the western part of what became Brazil is actually to the west of that line.

Following the museum visit, we had free time to visit the Jeronimos Monastery, erected in the early 1500s near the launch point of Vasco da Gama’s first journey, and nearby shops, including the Pastéis de Belem bakery, established in 1837 to make the original, world famous Pastéis de Belém from an ancient recipe developed by the monks of St. Jerome at the monastery. The recipe remains secret, and these delicious custard pastries are made every day “by hand,” supposedly using traditional methods. Amazingly, they produce and sell 20-40,000 of them per day. Pat and I each had one, and they more than lived up to their reputation. We explored the nearby Vasco da Gama Garden while savoring them, before returning to the tour bus.

Another stop on the tour was the Parque Eduardo VII, the largest park in central Lisbon, covering 62 acres. The park was named after King Edward VII of England, who visited Lisbon in 1903, and provides a gorgeous view of Lisbon and the Tagus River.

Once back at the hotel, we spent some time exploring a nearby park before heading off on a 3 ½-hour walking tour of Lisbon restaurants, where we sampled a variety of Portuguese delicacies and libations. One of the spots was called the Pastéis de Nata bakery, where they make a custard tart very similar to the Pastéis de Belém, using a non-secret recipe well known to millions of Portuguese. We were told by our Viking host that the Portuguese people are divided on which of these delicacies is better. For my part, I thought they were equally delicious.

OK, that’s it for Part 1. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned as we head north toward the Douro River and our ship, the Viking Helgrim, coming in Part 2.