Highlights-Madrid (actually Toledo)
The posts in Madrid won’t give a day count. It was over 9 (two weekends and a week in between). That translates to “many.” Today, I went to Toledo with my friend. The main sites were: Museo del Greco and Hospital de Santa Cruz (special exhibit of maps related to the first circumnavigation of the earth).
Metro Etiquette
Don’t yell into your phone either.
Notable Items
Toledo is a short trip from Madrid. It is an ancient city unrestrained by any discernible urban planning: no street or alley is straight for more than 50m. It is located on hills high above an arc of the Rio Tajo. Normally, locating cities on hills isn’t a great idea because it complicates plumbing. I think the ability to defend the geography was the primary motivation.
There are no straight paths in Toledo, and many you-can’t-get-there-from-here paths. Use of a mobile phone map app is essential to avoid dead ends or climbing a steep hill for no reason, similar to Venice (except for the hills).
The maps at Hospital de Santa Cruz (just looked like a convent to me, no bed pans in sight) “related to” the circumnavigation of the earth because Magellan started with an idea (go west, not east to reach China), not a map. His sales pitch to the king was, “I know how to do it.” More accurately, it was, “I’m going to figure it out somehow.” No wonder there were several mutinies and one of the ships (the San Antonio) returned to Spain before reaching the Pacific. You don’t have a map! Why didn’t you tell us? We’re outta here!
General observation: when someone is running late for picking you up at the time they gave you, don’t believe their second time estimate. One, they were mistaken about the first time, so why would you believe them again? Two, I have a deep suspicion that the revised time is based on hope, not realism. They are already embarrassed about missing the first time, so their second might be based on best-case thinking. It’s what they would like to achieve.
When I believe I will miss my first estimate by more than 10 minutes (less than that doesn’t matter), my second estimate is more pessimistic than what I think I can achieve. Since I’ve already strained my credibility, I want to give an arrival time that I know I can make.