Mike, you're making me miss Espana. I lived there for a year in my college
days, doing graduate studies, and loved every minute of it. Of course that
was way before GPS and BrailleNotes and all the cool stuff we have now.
Maybe someday I'll go back and explore with GPS. The trick to getting used
to eating dinner at 10:00 PM is to not go to bed until 3:00 or 4:00 AM.
<grin> I did that often in my younger days, but I fear those days are gone
now. But maybe the excitement of Spanish life and culture would get my
blood going again and make me able to do it again. <lol>
Peggy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael May" <mikemay@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "GPS-talkusers-freelists.org" <GPS-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, May 06, 2006 10:18 AM
Subject: [gps-talkusers] Hola de Madrid
Happy is the blind man with a beer in hand, a bowl of olives, sun shining, musicians playing, crowds eating and laughing and a GPS to get him to this Plaza Santa Ana independently.
I am happy to say that the latest maps are working well in Barcelona and Madrid. There aren't nearly the number of Points of Interest as we have in the states.
Yesterday, in Barcelona, I was taking a city bus tour and realized that I wouldn't make it back to my hotel in time for a meeting if I stayed on the bus until the stop closest to my hotel. So, I hopped off the bus when we were about a mile from the hotel and easily followed a route to the hotel without asking for any help. And, I made it in plenty of time for my meeting.
I almost had a disastrous mishap when I arrived to the hotel from the Madrid airport. The taxi driver took off with my bags still in the trunk. I had gotten a receipt so the hotel reception quickly called the company and he came back. I think he was trying to steal the bags but it wasn't too bright to give me a proper receipt. When he came back, he tried to extract more money but the receptionist let him have it. She said she would call the police if he didn't get lost. Turns out both of her parents are blind so she had some appreciation for the situation. The moral of the story, don't pay the driver until you have your bags.
Lots more to explore this Saturday evening. Still getting used to this business of eating dinner after 10 PM. Let's see what trouble I can get into. It is fun to see points I marked as many as 10 years ago. I just have to remember to annotate the restaurant entries so I know if they were really good or mediocre. I think I'll find this Basque place that I remember being really good.
Mike