Madrid

Sunday morning provided another opportunity to sleep in. Although we were still interested in exploring the city, this day would be our chance to rest before the stressful day at the airport. Roxy also appreciated the rest. Two long days of driving had really tired her out.

After taking care of Roxy, we again proceeded downtown. This time we started at the Royal Palace and Opera. Getting something to eat was again first on our minds. I spotted a Turkish kabob place and craved one last shwarma meal. It’s so hard to find a good place in the States.

Later, we retraced our steps from the night before, cutting through the indoor market, Plaza Mayor and Puerto del Sol. Then we continued along a street chosen at random, hoping to find someplace to check our email. As luck would have it, our search again brought us to Starbucks. 45 minutes was just enough time to notify our parents of our well being and get some additional information about our upcoming flight.

After backtracking to the main shopping district, we strolled along the pedestrian streets popping in and out of colorful boutiques. My favorite, based on name and selection, was called Skunkfunk. The carried lots of orange wares; my favorite. Unfortunately, all were well out of my price range. Well, maybe until I start working again...

There were lots of cool stores. One entire mall seemed to be devoted to hipster styles. Mary Ann really like all of the retro accessories and sunglasses. I tried to talk her into some goth gear. At one store, I even found a wristwatch I considered buying. Instead of actually displaying the time digitally, it contained a series of 12 dots (for the hours) and a gradually increasing bar (for minutes). Not exactly practical, but I like the idea of rethinking how we might represent time. I also liked the concept of a reverse evolution from digital to analog. However, I didn’t like the idea on the price tag.

We continued on for a bit more, eventually returning to the hotel before dinner. Roxy was up and waiting for her afternoon walk. On the way we passed by a restaurant called Vips, not sure if that was meant to be VIPs. From outward appearances, it looked to be the Spanish equivalent of Denny’s. We couldn’t pass up that opportunity. The food was as expected, but at least it was a comfortable setting, and it had Wifi.

After dinner, we decided to celebrate our last night in Spain with some personally sized champagne bottles. Serious, they were like wine coolers, but with bad sparkling wine instead. I drank enough to thoroughly dehydrate myself in advance of the ten hour plane ride coming the next day. It seemed like a fitting end to our high class/ low cost trip through Iberia… or maybe that was the other way around.

Bazar Land

For some reason, the name of this store really cracks me up. It's a discount home goods chain - about half a step up from the dollar store. There are actually lots of discount stores like this in Bagnols-sur-Cèze. The French definitely know how to bargain shop. Adjacent to this store is Netto, a discount grocery store. We stumbled upon this strip mall, nostalgic for the Netto that used to be on our street corner in Denmark. I'm sad to report that the French Netto did not meet our Netto expectations.

Alés

We were lured to Alés by the promise of a large outdoor market - so noted on our trusty markets of le Gard list. Alas, we were misled. There was only a small indoor farmers market. It was far less than we have come to expect.

Having already explored the major regional cities of Orange, Nîmes and Avignon, Alés was a bit of a disappointment. As a tourist destination, it's more significant only as a launching point for trips into the Cévennes area, referring to a low mountain range in central France. We noticed a significant difference in the geography from our current home closer to the Rône.


On the day we visited, the pedestrian shopping streets seemed a bit small while still less than filled. We (my mother in law and I) did manage to do quite well at the stores however. This is the season for soldes (sales in French). A set length of time in which the stores can run their best sales is dictated by the government. The trick is to find the optimum time when stores have lowered prices to their best offers but the merchandise has not been totally depleted. I left the city with three new shirts and a fall jacket for around 50€.