Showing posts with label sixt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sixt. Show all posts

Spain: Costa de Luz

Wednesday

I'm still recovering from the nervous tic developed as the result of co-piloting during our drive-trip in  Spain. 

We rented a little Peugot from a Spanish rental company named "Sixt" - and recommend them highly - about 50% less expensive than rental car companies we were familiar with (Hertz, Avis etc.). Great car, clean and in good condition.

Fortunately for us, the direction of traffic was just like you would expect in North America and the steering wheel was positioned on the left. No surprises there. Thank you Jesus. The challenge was in getting from Point A to Point B...alive.


Navigating the streets of Seville proved to be a 'tourist challenge', however.

Our concern was winding up on one of those one-laned, cobble-stoned, teensy streets in the city center but trying to find 'Avenida San Franscisco Javier' when it suddenly turns into 'Calle Luis de Morales' near 'Carretera Cortijo de las Castillas' followed by 'Calle Fray Franscisco de Pareja' was just too much for this navigator to deal with.

Adding insult to injury, finding the damn street signs in Seville was yet another challenge - because there wasn't any. I take that back. Eventually, I did find street signs.

Find the street sign...
Quaint. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm all about 'quaint' but for crying out loud - c'mon.

As if that wasn't enough... there seemed to be little display of caution by Spanish drivers. Weaving in and out of traffic, horns honking, headlights flashing. Or was it just us? My advice to Mr. Something..."Just drive like I would!". He ignored me and for that, I am grateful as we are here to tell the story.

But, in the final analysis, we do not regret stepping out of our comfort-zone by driving in Spain. If we hadn't, we might have missed this...
Cadiz


Tarifa 
More on Tarifa later...If you look closely, you can see Africa behind us.
Ronda

Return to Seville... Our last night in Spain

Spain: Trip Planning

Monday

Step 1: We began our trip planning with borrowing travel guides from the library and friends...
Step 2: Flying in and out of Madrid's Barajas Airport, we familiarized ourselves with the surrounding areas and decided exactly where we wanted to go.

The plan...
  • 5 days in Madrid (including a day trip to Toledo)
  • 2 days in Seville
  • rent a car in Seville and drive to Cadiz then Tarifa - stay overnight
  • return to Seville, stopping in Ronda (between Marbella and Seville) on the way.
  • the following morning, take the train back to the Madrid airport for a 1pm departure to Dallas.
Step 3:  Logistics.
  • Determining where we would stay was largely dependent on proximity to the train station and points of interest. 'Mr. Something' was in charge of that aspect of our trip. I gave him the dates and he simply got on hotels.com and took care of business.When he finds a hotel that he thinks would work for us, he checks out www.tripadvisor.com to see what others think of it. So far, his system has worked very well.
  • In an effort to maintain marital harmony, determining how to get from the airport to your hotel is very important and these days is as simple as Googling... "How to get from Madrid airport to Madrid". 

Our flight from Dallas departed Nov. 8th @ 5pm and arrived in Madrid Nov. 9th @ 10am. Deciding how to get to our hotel from the airport without sleep was just an argument waiting to happen so...we dodged that bullet by purchasing a 4-day Madrid tourist pass for buses, subway and city trains in advance through neoturismo.com

With the exception of the rental car, I was in charge of the inter-Spain travel portion of our trip and our passes were picked up without a hitch at Madrid's Barajas Airport, Terminal 4 - Visitor Info. Within minutes, armed with a city map and our 'Spanish Phrasebook for Travelers', we were on the express train to the Atocha Station where we found our hotel within a couple of blocks. 

Other Advance bookings included...