Surprise, surprise!

I had to get up at the verrry early hour of 6:45 this morning, in preparation for breakfast, checking out of the hotel, and driving to Valladolid.  Next week I will go back to my seriously early rising hour of 3:15, but right now 6:45 seems awfully early.

I really enjoyed my stay at my hotel, and I will plan to stay here when I come back. I will also write them an excellent review on TripAdvisor.  It is nice to be in one place for several nights.  I was a little worried about getting everything packed into my bags since I had spread out so much, but all is well. Just a little fine-tuning tonight, and I will be ready to fly in the morning.

It rained a good bit of the way. Not far from Leon, the land became very flat, and I realized it has been awhile since I have seen flat land.  :)  We started to see solar farms and wind farms.  Jorge had found out that the "surprise" was only open on the weekends, but he made a call to see if maybe we could see it, anyway.  It was at least a possibility, so we continued on to the tiny village of Wampa (which Jorge says is the only town whose name starts with W).  When we arrived, we went in search of something to drink and ended up in a tiny bar with no electricity.  Hmm.  But they still had hot coffee and cold diet Coke so it hadn't been off long.  We walked back to the surprise, which was a church with something special to see inside.  Jorge called his contact again, but we were out of luck - the power was out all over. So I had to get my surprise via Google.  The church has a room full of bones and skulls from monks who lived there centuries ago.  Too bad we missed it! 

We went on to Valladolid, found a place to park the car near the cathedral, and walked to our first stop, the home of Miguel de Cervantes.  He lived here over 400 years ago, and was living here when the first edition of "Don Quixote" was published.  It was really interesting.  Next door there was a special display about Cervantes, and I found I could read much of it.  When I commented on this, Jorge said, "Well, it is meant for children."  It did have a certain comic book quality to it, but I didn't care - I could read it!

We found that we could get a combo ticket for the house and the sculpture museum, which was our next stop, so they were nice enough to let us change for the combo.  It was too late to get there, though, before they closed for lunch, so we decided to have lunch, too.  Free refills at Burger King!!!  I have never seen free refills anywhere in Spain.  Usually, you get a tiny little bottle, poured over ice, with a slice of lemon.

After lunch we walked back to the cathedral to take pictures and just hang out until time for the museum.  They are setting up for a festival this weekend, apparently, San Pedro.  There was a big music stage set up, lots of vendors setting up shop, and blocks of little craft booths (not yet open).  Looks like it will be a good time!

At 4:00, the museum reopened.  We were so sorry that we didn't know just how big and wonderful it is, because we could only spend a little over an hour before I had to get to the train station.  There was so much to see!  And as Jorge said, you really need time to study everything.  It was disappointing, but we made a quick trip through.  He will come back with Gema and Paula later.

A quick walk back to the car, then it was off to the train station, which wasn't really that far away but was hard to get to.  I arrived in Madrid in a little over an hour.  I had had tentative plans with one of the Spaniards for dinner, but that had fallen through, so I was headed out to get a taxi to my hotel, when who should appear in front of me but the Spaniard herself!  I had absolutely no idea she was going to be there, and I was thrilled to see her!  We went to dinner, then she brought me to my hotel.  That was so nice of her - and an incredible surprise!

I just checked in for my flight, and the hotel shuttle is booked for first thing in the morning.  My flight leaves Madrid at 11:05.  It has been such a great time, even when things didn't go completely to plan.  I'm anxious to be home but also can't wait to come back.

And guess what? Phone, passport, wallet, sweater - all accounted for!