Until yesterday, I was a bullet train virgin, but that all ended at 2:10 PM. Woooosh! At 300 Km/H (186 MPH) it took 1.5 hours flat yesterday to get to the Mediterranean from Madrid. For those of you who were thinking something akin to the mile high club, sorry to disappoint; I'm talking about my first bullet train ride. The tracks are exclusively used for the AVE bullet trains, with very few bends and no stops along the way. Each car has an speedometer so that the passengers know how fast the train is going, and Chris snapped this photo when it hit 301 Km/H.
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| Windmills in LaMancha from the AVE bullet train |
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| From the AVE bullet train |
Originally a Roman outpost built in 138 B.C., Valencia is a charming old city with some great new modern buildings. The city was devastated by a flood in 1957, so the river that originally ran through it was diverted around the city, and the riverbed converted into a linear park. Winding through the old city with old, beautiful bridges crossing what was once a river, the sunken park is a fantastic urban recreational area. What a great idea!
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| At the front gate of the "compound" |
In homage to Teresa, Mary, and Pat, I dragged poor Chris this morning through a tour of the Lladro factory in a dumpy neighborhood on the outskirts of town. I've always been very interested in ceramic sculpture, so I was very interested in seeing the process of the great Lladro maestros. The tour was limited however, and they unfortunately didn't show me anything that I haven't done myself. We then toured their extensive showroom. While their "bread and butter" business is the figurines that made them famous, they're also turning out pieces these days that ain't your mama's Lladro. They are producing pieces from outside artists as well as their own more current designs. I wasn't interested in buying their traditional pieces, but I did buy a bisque figurine of two fútbol (soccer) players, not because I care so much about the sport, but because the detail of, and the movement in this particular sculpture are so amazing.
We're going to see some modern architecture this afternoon ... more to come.
Until yesterday, I was a bullet train virgin, but that all ended at 2:10 PM. Woooosh! At 300 Km/H (186 MPH) it took 1.5 hours flat yesterday to get to the Mediterranean from Madrid. For those of you who were thinking something akin to the mile high club, sorry to disappoint; I'm talking about my first bullet train ride. The tracks are exclusively used for the AVE bullet trains, with very few bends and no stops along the way. Each car has an speedometer so that the passengers know how fast the train is going, and Chris snapped this photo when it hit 301 Km/H.
Originally a Roman outpost built in 138 B.C., Valencia is a charming old city with some great new modern buildings. The city was devastated by a flood in 1957, so the river that originally ran through it was diverted around the city, and the riverbed converted into a linear park. Winding through the old city with old, beautiful bridges crossing what was once a river, the sunken park is a fantastic urban recreational area. What a great idea! 
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