On our recent trip to Madrid, we explored the town of Toledo for a day. It was my first time on a train!
It was a neat day, though I don’t know if Toledo has any flat areas other than the train station. There was a lot of walking up and down hills and we ended up going 10.8 miles on foot for the entire day, which does count more walking when we got back to Madrid.
I think I’ve seen enough places of worship for awhile. haha
My Automattic team had a meetup in Madrid, so I stayed longer and Brandi flew out for us to have a vacation. The weather was chilly, but we had a great time and really enjoyed the city. Pretty much everything is walkable and we racked up over 32 miles on foot in four days, with the longest day being spent in Toledo, which I’ll post about separately. The first five pictures were taken before B arrived.
I was up for an early breakfast and for the third time in three days I was surprised by how many people were eating breakfast at 7am in Costa Rica at the all-inclusive resort. After 3 trips to the buffet, I headed straight for the beach to soak up some rays before the scorching midday sun.
Wednesday started like the previous two days. Would it end the same?
After laying on the beach for about 90 minutes, I rinsed my feet, and went searching for some shade. I claimed a spot close to the pool bar and took a quick dip to cool off. Pulled out my Kindle and sat back to finish my 4th (or maybe it was the 5th) James Patterson book of the week. Like clockwork, the bar opened at 10am and I went to get my first of several piña coladas before lunch.
At noon I ate a quick lunch, showered, and headed over to the spa for an 80 minute massage, which was a combination of 5 different techniques. It was the best massage I’ve ever had. Maybe it was because I was relaxing on vacation thousands of miles from home. Shit, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit it was due to the great job she did on my glutes.
Made a quick stop in my room to change back into swim trucks, grabbed a snack and some beer at the buffet, and was back on the beach for the afternoon sun. It was another 90 minutes before I went back up for a spot by the pool to drink cocktails and do more reading. It was probably around 5 when I headed for my room to shower and get ready for dinner.
I picked the Italian restaurant since I was saving the steak house for my last night and I’d already eaten at the other restaurants. I had a tasty pesto chicken fettuccine entrée and drank several glasses of red wine. After sampling all of the desserts, I grabbed one of the special cocktails being made outside the restaurant and walked for a bit to empty my glass. I grabbed the other special cocktail option of the night and retired to my room.
At around 8:30, I was buried in my Kindle, enjoying my drink, when I heard a soft knock on the door. I wondered who on Earth it could be. Maybe the masseuse enjoyed my ass as much as I enjoyed her working on it.
On Long Lake, north of Alpena, MI.
Heading up to a cabin near Wolverine tomorrow to spend a week with my family. It’ll be our first family vacation in 10 years.
I don’t think we have wi-fi and I’m actually glad. It will be nice to unplug from the tubes for a while. I have no idea if I’ll even have Edge data access to get to the Internet on my iPhone. I know I won’t have 3G, so checking e-mail will be very limited if possible at all. I’m taking my laptop in case I’m called to do something for work but I don’t plan to use it unless I get the urge to write some blog posts.
My iPad is coming along so I can catch up on a couple of James Patterson novels and Mom can maybe read his other latest books I have on there. I’m taking a couple of Scott Berkun’s books that have been sitting on my shelf for ages. A few board games and decks of cards will be packed; I imagine we’ll play plenty of euchre and cribbage. Hopefully I can talk someone into playing some chess because I’ve really been enjoying Chess with Friends for iOS.
What else? Steaks, bonfires, BBQ ribs, beer, s’mores, golf, fishing, wine, and most import… relaxation!
Have a safe and enjoyable 4th of July!
Nick Momrik 