Funny Thing about the GPS

On our last day of driving (from Toledo to Segovia), my GPS suddenly decided to stop working. It just died completely without any warning! Having owned this little thing for almost two years, I know that this could happen anytime and therefore I always have a safety pin attached to the GPS cover all the time so we can use it to poke the reset button hole in case it stops working.

The problem was I didn't know where the reset button was. I always thought the hole on the face of the GPS was the reset button. I was absolutely wrong! I poked and poked and poked, and nothing happened. All my friends were helping me poked it too. And still, nothing happened. Then all of us took turn to look for other possible reset button around the GPS and we couldn't find it. The only possible reset button was the one that we had been poking all along (or so we thought).

You see, even though I partly own this thing, my husband is the one who's using it. And I totally forgot about asking him where the reset button was or maybe I thought I knew where it was. So I tried contacting him but to no avail. He was on business trip in Denver at the time with a totally different timezone and therefore, I couldn't reach him.

In the end, we gave up on poking it and with no map, we had no choice but to just follow the road sign. Having had to look at the road sign, we noticed that Spain has a lot of weird spots to put them up. Sometimes they were right before the turning, sometimes they were in the middle of the roundabout, and sometimes they were too small for us to notice. But other times they were normally placed at the spots where you expect to find them. So you would really have to be looking around in case you miss them. And that was what we did and amazingly, we got to Segovia without any problem.

When I was back to London I searched the net on my GPS reset button and when I found it, I was laughing my head off. Apparently, there is another button hole. It was somewhere hidden at the back of the GPS. Who would have ever thought? That poor thing had been poked at the wrong spot over and over.

So what's the moral of the story? Talking about my ignorance to this thing, is ignorance bliss? In this case, maybe not. It would have been better if I knew about it. We would have reached Segovia on time with no drama whatsoever. However, to my defence, it didn't turn out so badly. I mean, OK, we were late but everything was under control. And my ignorance was the cause of this memorable event to happen - something to laugh about when we talk about this trip ;-P. But still, my advice is: in case of emergency, remember to always bring (or at least read at home) the manual of your electronic devices everytime you travel. You might need it :-).

This was where we poked it over and over - the poor thing.

And this is where we supposed to poke it.

Shopping Day in Toledo

Continuing the Spain Trip story...

From Cuenca we drove to Toledo, which was another 3 hours of driving. Toledo is a Spanish city that is well known for its three cultures where Christians, Jews and Arabs settled there since a long time ago and therefore there are many historical and cultural things to see there. In fact, it is a UNESCO's World Heritage Site because of the mix of cultures and historical monuments.

Ok, so we had those many things to see and do in Toledo but we ended up only went to the Cathedral. We spent quite a while inside the Cathedral immersing ourselves with the history of the church, the rooms and of course, the paintings. Toledo Cathedral has quite an extensive painting works by El Greco, Lucas Jordan, and many others in the sacristy room. Too bad, photo taking is not allowed in this church.

I was very tired myself after driving for 3 hours. There were so many roads under constructions that I had to drive fast and slow, fast and slow on the highway. I'm not a driver person. To me, driving takes up a lot of energy because I have to use my full concentration when I'm driving. So, when in the Cathedral, I was resting and kind of half asleep for a bit.

After the Cathedral, we walked down the twisting cobblestoned lanes of this medieval old town. And without any planning, we suddenly were in a rush doing present shopping. My sister who we would meet the next day was having her birthday in a few days and we had yet got her anything. So we were busy in and out the shops in the old town until dinner time. I bought her a Damascene bangle and my friend bought her the matching necklace. They were handcrafted by the shop owner (search 'Damascene' in Wikipedia and you will find the clear explanation). It's a beautiful craft and Toledo is the place for this. I like it a lot that I bought a Damascene necklace for myself too. Another items that I noticed were sold in many shops in Toledo are swords. Apparently, Toledo is famous for its swords although they are not my kind of souvenir.

At dinner time, we went to a restaurant, Adolfo Coleccion, which was recommended by a travel book that my friend borrowed from a library. We only had a few tapas as we found the food there was quite pricey. The waiter recommended us to try Menchego cheese. He said this was the best cheese in the world. He also recommended us a very, very nice cava (Spanish sparkling wine) which when asked he said the price was only €12 a bottle. I have to say we had a very good time enjoying the nice food and cava there. I also have to agree that the Menchego cheese IS the best cheese in the world (I still buy it every now and then from the local supermarket here in London). And when the bill came, we were surprised that the cava was €40 instead of €12. And the waiter was nowhere to be found. But we just let it go and paid for it. I think it's probably the cava that made us let that go. We were still happy and even laughing about it on the way back to the hotel.

Although I didn't see much of Toledo, I really enjoyed the day we spent together there. There's just so much to see in this city and one day is definitely not enough. So Toledo is on my list of cities to come back to in the future.

I didn't take any photos when I was in Toledo as my camera was giving me a false message about flat battery and my battery charger was with my sister whom I was to meet the next day. The only photos I took in Toledo were the photos of the view of the city across the Tagus River. It was the next day and we were on the way to Avila. I couldn't stand not taking photos of the nice scenery. Then I saw that the message of flat battery was gone and my camera was perfectly fine. I didn't know why it was showing me the false message before. So most of the photos below were a mixture of photos taken by my friends: AW, JK and HM. Thanks guys!

The front gate of the Toledo Cathedral

A plate souvenir of Damascene handicraft being made

The lovely cava and food from Adolfo Coleccion, including the waiter who was missing in action at the end of our meal

This is the after effect coming out of Adolfo Coleccion - look how happy we were! 

The magnificent view from across Tagus river

Christmas Markets 2008

Since living in London, visiting christmas markets at christmas time has become a tradition for me. Last christmas (2007), I visited the christmas market in Nuremberg, Germany and this christmas, I went to Germany again for its another wonderful christmas markets - this time to Cologne, where I visited three of the six christmas markets the city offered.

But before I even started my trip to Cologne, I had been to a few other christmas markets without realising that it has become such a habit of mine to visit christmas markets during christmas time. I went to the Bath Christmas Market in the UK, Skansen Christmas Market in Stockholm, Sweden and Leuven Christmas Market in Belgium.

It's amazing what a christmas market can do for me. It gives me an excuse to get out there and embrace the cold weather (although I can't do more than an hour outside when the temperature is below 0 degree celsius). The cold winter weather, the warm mulled wine and the hot food, all combined creating a fantastic atmosphere to every christmas market. And not to forget the shopping spree if you are into traditional christmas cookies, decorations and traditional toys.

I enjoyed every moment of it and will definitely visit another christmas market come Christmas.

In this picture: the Christmas Market at Skansen.

Christmas Market at Skansen was located around the central square of this outdoor museum featuring the Swedish old town of the mid-19th century. The surroundings of the town really brought me back in time. The people were wearing traditional costumes of the era. The christmas market was very festive despite the wet weather. The music created a perfect atmosphere for people to participate in traditional dancing and it was fun too. The stalls were selling variety of hot food and drinks and other stuffs. I loved the glogg a lot. It's a Swedish type of mulled wine that has raisins and almonds in it. This is the sweetest mulled wine I've ever tried. The already perfect day was ended with carol singing for everyone to enjoy.

In this picture: Leuven Christmas Market in Belgium

Located at the town centre of Leuven, the christmas market was surprisingly quite big (I thought christmas markets outside Germany are usually smaller). The market was packed with people eating, drinking, shopping or simply just enjoying the whole thing. The kids were really happy with the many rides the market offered.

In this picture: Mark der Engel, Cologne

The Angel's Market is located at Neumarkt Square within the popular shopping areas of Cologne. This is Cologne's oldest Christmas market and some stalls were still there since early 70s. I liked the stalls. I think they were very beautifully designed. I also liked the star lights hanging on the trees. They shone magnificently when the night came.

In this picture: Christmas market at Cologne Cathedral

With the christmas tree at the middle of the market and the lights designed brilliantly hanging and coming out towards the stall, the Christmas market at Cologne Cathedral was beautifully lit. The atmosphere was unbelievable and the food was excellent too. It's a tradition to collect the Gluhwein mug and I collected one from this market. I think this is the most festive christmas market of all.

In this picture: Christmas market on the Alter Markt, Cologne

Located at the heart of the Altstadt (Old Town), the stalls were designed with timber giving the impression of traditional market. And on top of every stall was a crafted timber showing the theme of the stall. The traditional ginger cookies were the decoration of the trees around. There were many crafty items on sale here. I bought quite a few of christmas cake and cookies from this market as gifts for my friends.

Photos were taken by me and FH.