Back to Santa Fe, NM and a Drive Along the High Road to Taos

A few months ago, Enrique and I reviewed his potential travel plans for the rest of the year.  I was excited to see that he and his C-Path colleagues would be traveling in the middle of July to Santa Fe for a meeting with representatives from Austin-based CDISC. We both have enjoyed our visits to Santa Fe, the first for our wedding anniversary back in 2008, so another trip offered an additional opportunity to see our friends Kathy and Bill Howard and to go exploring.  I've compiled a write up about previous trips here.

I quickly emailed Kathy to see if she and Bill would be in Santa Fe.  She immediately wrote back and said that they would be and had signed up for a tour of Los Alamos the day after we arrived, July 16, the 70th anniversary of the Trinity Test.  She invited me to come along and mailed a brochure.   I found a link that describes Los Alamos and much more. The tour was arranged for members of the Palace Guard.  Of course, given my investigations of organizations with interesting names in connection with my family's genealogy (I am eligible through my mother's line to be a member of  the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company - they call themselves the Ancient and Honorables), I was intrigued by the name of the group and so went to Google to find out more.  Ultimately, not only did I sign up for the tour, Enrique and I also became supporters of the Museum of New Mexico Foundation as well as members of the Palace Guard, the Foundation's support group.

Enrique would be in meetings on Thursday and Friday, so in addition to the tour, Kathy and I planned to spend time together on Friday including dinner for all of us on Friday night. Saturday I hoped, weather permitting, to drive the High Road to Taos (this link is quite informative and I recommend you take a look and make note of the routes to take for because some of the routes can be confusing) with Enrique as well as take a detour to see the now famous bridge over the Rio Grande Gorge and if we still had time, to visit the Taos Pueblo.  We "lost" Wednesday and Sunday of our trip because Southwest dropped the wonderful flight between Tucson and Albuquerque; consequently, we flew through Phoenix.  Last time we flew through Las Vegas, Nevada.    We agreed that if/when we make this trip again, we will either drive over to Santa Fe (8 hours, 511 miles) and return through Winslow as a side trip or drive to Phoenix and catch a Southwest Airlines flight from there.  Too much time is lost sitting in airports, waiting for flight connections.

A few words about maps:  Our favorite map - The 2008 The Origina Santa Fe and Canyon Road Walking Map was provided to us by our hotel in 2008:  The Inn of the Anasazi. However, the Hotel Santa Fe wasn't on it.  I found an updated version and encourage you to take a look.    Another map, also provided by the Inn of the Anasazi is this one:

and this part:

Here's a link to another map of the Plaza area.  Scroll down to view it.

We've been delighted to learn that walking around Santa Fe is quite easy and convenient.  We've yet to explore the Santa Fe Rail Yard Arts District - another map.  

If you like to walk, be sure to take the Downtown Walking Tour offered by the Palace of the Governors.  We enjoyed this guided tour during our first visit to Santa Fe and have returned to several sites.  The tours begin in front of the Blue Gate south of the New Mexico History Museum's main entrance at 113 Lincoln Avenue.  For more information, go here. 

Our home base and the location of the C-Path/CDISC meetings was the Hotel Santa Fe, a joint venture between the Picuris Pueblo and a group of Santa Fe-based business people. The hotel provides a brochure about the history of the Picuris and the hotel.  Here's a link to some information that illustrates how the hotel benefits the Picuris.  The hotel is surrounded by wildflower gardens and is designed based on a multi-level, terraced adobe pueblo.  We enjoyed breakfast the first morning, a lunch on Friday (Jen), and two dinners at the hotel's Amaya Restaurant, one of the best in Santa Fe.  More about our Saturday evening dinner later.

Thursday morning, Enrique went downstairs for his meeting while I met Kathy and Bill at the hotel entrance.  We drove to Los Alamos and the Fuller Lodge for our 10 o'clock start.

Following our tour of the Lodge and an introduction to the history of the Lodge - formerly The Ranch, an elite boy's school - and the Manhattan Project beginnings, we enjoyed a walking history tour and also learned through early photos what the area looked like in the 1930's and 40's.  Much of the information presented, including a map of the grounds, can be found in the books, 109 East Palace by Jennet Conant and Dorothy Scarrit McKibbin: Gatekeeper to Los Alamos by Nancy Cook Steeper.  Imagine the pond (photo below) as a simple depression in the land as it was during the time of the school.  The boys would ice skate during the winter and canoe during the summer.  Notice the photo of the boys.  They wore those shorts and high socks year round no matter what the temperature.

Shortly after noon we gathered at one of the former Manhattan Project homes for lunch and presentations. The home is located on historic Bathtub Row (find out more at the link below to the Los Alamos Historical Society) and occupants included first, Edwin McMillian, and second Hans Bethe.   Ellen Bradbury Reid talked about her early life at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project era.  Her father, Edward Wilder, worked at Los Alamos.  Heather McClenahan, who is currently the executive director of the Los Alamos Historical Society, provided additional information about Los Alamos and its history as did others who had joined the tour.   Afterwards we were invited to watch a film featuring interviews with several of the people who worked on the Manhattan Project.  Their comments revealed their mixed reactions to viewing the detonation of the test bomb explosion at Trinity on July 16, 1945. You can learn more about this Atomic Heritage Foundation project here.

The home of Robert Oppenheimer

We returned to Santa Fe midafternoon and spent time together at Bill and Kathy's beautiful restored adobe historic casita before Kathy returned me to the hotel to join Enrique and his colleagues for dinner.

We all walked to Casa Chimayo for classic New Mexican cooking including blue corn enchiladas - our second foodie stop, the Amaya being the first.  The hotel Santa Fe provides each guest with a comprehensive guide of all the restaurants in the area (82 - so we've barely scratched the surface) that notes, "...The owners of Casa Chimayo trace their roots back to the 1500's and the families that settled in the mountains of Northern New Mexico - Chimayo, Truchas, Penasco....."

Friday morning Enrique and I walked across the street to breakfast at the Sage Bakehouse that is renowned for its homemade bread and sandwiches.  I enjoyed the scrambled eggs on toast.  The linked site has several photos for you to enjoy.

Afterwards, he went back to the hotel for meetings while I joined Kathy who suggested rather than hike that we drive to the Pecos National Historical Park where we were treated to an outstanding and comprehensive tour led by Jamie Samana, one of the Park Rangers and also a college professor of Geography.  Rather than go into great detail about what we learned, here's an informative link about the Park.  A young boy and his parents were part of our tour group and Jamie provided him with lots to see and do along the way including climbing down into an impressive restored kiva, the first I'd ever explored.

Jamie lined up the pot pieces and described each one

Inside the Kiva

Following the tour and our return to Santa Fe, Kathy went on to an appointment while I enjoyed a late lunch with Enrique followed by a welcome nap.

Friday evening we walked to the Santa Fe Plaza (featured in photos in accounts of our earlier visits) and discovered a wonderful collection of cars - both antique and modern - parked all around the four sides of the central Plaza.  Enrique was delighted.  We took several photos before ambling on to join Kathy and Bill at La Casa Sena at 125 East Palace, just up the street from 109 East Palace where some passersby took our photo.  Our dinner was absolutely delicious.  Another must for foodies. A wonderful evening and outdoor dining.  We appreciated the long stroll back to our hotel later that evening.

When we were last in Santa Fe, we drove the "Low Road to Taos."  This time, following breakfast at the very popular (a line forms before the 8 a.m. opening time) Cafe Pasqual that offers authentic delicious New Mexican food), we took the High Road, a scenic byway along very narrow two lane roads, many of which hairpinned up and down into villages and through pueblos.  The weather was perfect for we looked at beautiful vistas in all directions.  Although we were high, the mountains including the Truchas Peaks and Taos Mountains with Wheeler Peak at 13,161 feet (New Mexico's highest) towered over us or off in the distance.  Taos is a popular winter skiing area.

Along the way (NM 503, NM 520) we visited the Pueblo of Nambe (Tewa), Chimayo with its beautiful Sanctuario de Chimayo known for El Posito, a hole in the floor of the side chapel filled with healing earth.  One can purchase in the nearby gift shop or bring a container to take away some of the earth. Serendipitously, our arrival at 10:45 coincided with Mass  at 11 am, so we decided to stay.  We then climbed along NM 76 and dropped into Cordova before heading on to Truchas and beyond that to the village of Las Trampas.  The 18th century church in Las Trampas was in sad disrepair and was not open so we could not go inside to see the original paintings written about in various accounts.

A representative pilgrim

At NM 76/75 we took the one-half mile detour to Picuris Pueblo and its unadorned adobe church, dating from the 1770's.  From there we drove back south on NM 75 to NM 518 for incredible views of Carson Forest and the Taos Mountains.  We proceeded through the villages of Talpa and Ranchos de Taos and bypassed, through side streets, Taos this time (the traffic inches along into Taos all day) and headed west via US84 past the Taos Airport (closed weekends) to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge.

The engineering of the steel bridge is amazing.  We lingered there for awhile but realized if we were to take in the Taos Pueblo, a national historic landmark, before it closed, we needed to get there quickly.  We joined the last guided tour of the day and learned quite a bit from our guide, a young man who lives in the vicinity of the Pueblo.  Here's a link with comprehensive information.

At this point, we both were very tired and keen to return to Santa Fe, dinner, and sleep. Upon arrival back at the hotel, we went straight to dinner at Amaya again but this time we not only enjoyed another delicious meal in their dining room that is glassed in during the winter and open to the elements at other times during the year, but also the music provided by Ronald Roybal, a Native American flute and guitar musician.  His website will introduce you to him playing his flute and guitar. The music is available for purchase.   An enchanted evening in the Land of Enchantment....

Next morning we hurried back to Cafe Pasqual's.  This time I enjoyed the huevos rancheros, served in a bowl like a stew while Enrique feasted on their amazing chorizo burrito.  Then off we headed back to Albuquerque and our (long - delays and rebookings) trip back to Tucson. We were happy to be home and Guido was very happy to see us.

As a postscript, in previous trips we enjoyed dinner at 315 Restaurant and Wine Bar, La Boca, and Mucho Gusto and one other that has since closed, unfortunately.  Obviously, with 82 restaurants nearby, we'll need to branch out next time.

Separate thought re Los Alamos:
[In closing, as you might imagine, the tour of Los Alamos provided moments of sober reflection.  I do recall being one of several guests at a dinner many, many years ago hosted by MIT Professor Philip Morrison and his wife.  Professor Morrison voiced mixed feelings about his role in the Manhattan Project.  Particularly shocking to me, as well, was learning thanks to the piece in the on line Saturday, July 19, 2015 edition of the Santa Fe New Mexican [Title:  70 Years after Trinity, nuclear weapons enterprise prospers in New Mexico by Len Ackland and Burt Hubbard], that the Sandia National Laboratories has been working on the sophisticated B61-12, a nuclear bomb that will potentially have a maximum explosive force equivalent to 50,000 tons of TNT - more than three times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.   I was also startled to read within the article, "High on the list of aircraft that could carry the bomb is Lockheed's new F-35 fighter jet", a stealth fighter jet."  The F-35 jet has been plagued by technical problems and cost overruns.  Have we learned anything from our country's recent past?  I certainly hope wiser minds will prevail.]

Our Whirlwind Visit to Madrid, Spain

The final piece in this Spain trilogy is about our visit in Madrid on our way to Pamplona where we began our Camino de Santiago walk/ride and back to Madrid following our brief but fruitful visit to the city of Aviles on the northern coast of Spain.

We chose to fly to Madrid as our entry point to Spain because Enrique had visited the city but once while on business and I had never been.  Of course, I'd never been to Spain at all so Madrid sounded like a good idea.  At some point I'd like to return to Spain to visit Toledo, Barcelona and Seville but perhaps that's for a time when I will be more content to drive and stroll rather than trek.

Madrid is located in somewhat the center of Spain with Castilla Y Leon to the north and Castilla-La Mancha to the south.  The flight from there to Pamplona in Navarra was less than an hour.  The flight back from Aviles in Asturias was even shorter.  I think our flight from Dallas was around ten hours.

We arrived in Madrid mid-morning on October 5 (Sunday) to give ourselves a day to adjust our internal clocks a bit before heading on to Pamplona on Monday afternoon for the start of our adventure on the Camino on Monday evening with the 2-hour walking tour of that city.  

I'd reviewed Rick Steves' book (Spain 2014) and suggested to Enrique that we take the Expres Aeropuerto bus to Atocha Station.  Rick Steves had also suggested the moderately priced Hotel Lope de Vega (among others) that was a few short blocks north of the station off of Paseo del Prado.  It appeared to be a relatively easy walk.

After navigating the modern Madrid airport (Enrique shared at dinner during our Camino walk, when we were talking about getting credencia stamps, that we earned a stamp that day just walking what seemed like forever and ever to get to the entry and from there to the bus - a remark met with understanding laughter by several of our traveling companions who'd also arrived in Madrid) we found the bus stop and boarded the coach to Atocha Station for 5 euros each and an approximately 40 minute ride.  Very convenient, we thought.  Atocha Station is quite large and before walking I needed to find a restroom and for the first time in a very long time, I also needed to pay to use it.  Fortunately we had brought euros with us from the States and even more fortunately there was an attendant who could give me change.

Here's a great interactive map of Madrid.

And here's the street map we were given at the Tourist Information Center at Atocha Station (it's off center; I'll fix it later as I'm tired):

We buzzed right by the long line of taxis at the station and made our way literally up the street (incline) passing the Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofia, the Real Jardin Botanico, and the Museo del Prado.  The Paseo del Prado was closed that morning to vehicular traffic for a cycling event so as we walked we were passed by men, women and children out for a ride on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.  By the time we reached our hotel pulling along our roller duffels, we agreed that a taxis might have been better from the station (or even from the airport but at 30 euros) but we also agreed that getting to the hotel might have been a round-about adventure rather than a straight shot up the street.

Our room was very nice and clean, just perfect for a one night visit.  The hotel offers a morning breakfast which was plentiful and very good.  We had already reserved a room at this hotel again for two nights on our return before heading back to the States and took advantage of the breakfast both those days, too.   There are a couple of places nearby that offered breakfast, as well.

After settling in, we ventured out for a long stroll around the Prado and on nearby streets to get a feel for the layout of the city.   We made a couple of loops taking us by the Iglesia de los Jeronimos and finally settled on a little place with an outside patio that offered a fairly large "snack" of paella (dinnertime coming much later) but were disappointed.  But at least we had gotten the lay of the land and would feel more comfortable when we returned in a couple of weeks.  We must've been pretty jet-lagged because I cannot find many photos.  I still need to document many of the photos to identify what they are but as usual this post and the others are a work in progress with (probably) more photos to come or replace.

The next afternoon we took a taxi to the airport and flew out of a different terminal at the Madrid Airport to Pamplona.

We returned to Madrid on Thursday, October 16, just before 3 pm.

Rick Steves suggests a self-guided walk that's about a mile loop that takes in the Puerta del Sol (center of the city), the Plaza Mayor, the Palacio Real de Madrid and the Catedral de Nuestra Senora de La Almudena on the same square - Plaza de la Armeria - before heading back past the Opera, the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando and back towards the Prado via the Calle de Alcala, around the east side of a huge park - Parque del Buen Retiro - before turning west again towards our hotel.  This was a wonderful walk and we took several photos (see below).  We did not go inside any of the buildings.   Having been warned by Steves and several people, we also were wary of pickpockets and behaved accordingly.   Following our stroll we decided to take supper at another place recommended by Steves - VIPS.  It was a great choice, reasonably priced with very good food - salads, sandwiches and entrees.  And, most importantly, early.  Next door, by the way, is a Starbucks for those of you who might pine for one (opened in 2001).  Both are a very short walking distance from the Lope de Vega Hotel.

That night we reviewed what we'd seen in the Steves book and planned our Friday.  I had hoped to take an early walk in the Botanical Garden but it does not open until 10 a.m.  Instead, we planned a breakfast, a short stroll, and then the Prado (as much as possible and especially the masterpieces), followed by the Reina Sofia (particularly Picasso's Guernica) and finally, as a special perk for Enrique that I had noticed on the map the evening before, the Naval Museum (Museo Naval).

So, off we went to the Prado.  Here's a secure link to the Prado accompanied by all sorts of information and links to the works of art.   Enrique plotted our course from start to finish with a break in the cafeteria for a delicious light lunch (the soup was wonderful) and a brief look at the gift shop.  We spent five hours walking the Prado, spent time with all the highlighted masterpieces, avoided the tour guides and their followers, and viewed an amazing collection.  I think as I've gotten older I've come to appreciate even more the ability of the artist to fill a canvass and to strategize its layout.  We truly walked ourselves "out" but also enjoyed our experience very much.

From there we enjoyed the fresh air walk down to the Reina Sofia which was Madrid's first public hospital and has been transformed into an outstanding museum of modern art.  My goal was to see Picasso's Guernica and the accompanying documentation (sketches, etc.) of the development of this amazing [quoting Steves] "...single most impressive piece of art in Spain....The monumental canvas - one of Europe's must-see sights - is not only a piece of art but a piece of history, capturing the horror of modern war in a modern style."  We simply stood there for what seemed a very long time taking in all that was presented and what it seemed to represent.  Enrique said he was very glad that I had put this on our itinerary.  Here's a link to a PBS discussion about Guernica as well as the sequence of events that prompted him to complete the work and the events that followed its presentation to the world.  The horror of war.  Here's another link that includes a detailed discussion.  We discovered that the two rooms devoted to this mural include photos of the evolution of his work as well as studies he envisioned to include.  We spent a bit of time taking in Salvador Dali's surrealism, something that I've not quite figured out how to appreciate.  It was a most astonishing visit.

We finally headed back up past the Prado via the Paseo de Recoletos to the Museo Naval.  This museum [quoting Steves] "...tells the story of Spain's navy, from the Armada to today..." mostly literally in the shape of splendid large models.  We did not know what to expect given the paucity of information and were pleasantly surprised and entertained by what we found including maps, paintings, early to modern navigation instruments, and even guns, old mast sails, and figures from the prows of ships.  Here are some photos to give you an idea:

Enrique at the entrance to the Naval Museum

And one of my favorite rooms, from prows of ships:

By the time we walked out, we were quite hungry so made our way across the park to VIPS again for an early supper and then to our room to refresh and make ourselves ready for an evening on the town with Enrique's cousin Jose Ramon and his wife, Maria Luisa.  They arrived I believe about 8:30 pm and off we went joining hundreds of people including families with small children taking the same stroll towards and in the Plaza Mayor and some of the route we had taken the day before.  We stopped at two very unusual highly recommended restaurants that housed small-ish dining rooms upstairs with a bar on the ground floor.  We ended up being seated at an open air patio of a restaurant in the Plaza Mayor around 10 p.m. or so for wine and tapas including delicious ham, ubiquitous in Spain, accompanied by fresh bread and other eats.  I really do miss the bread we had in Spain and the olive oil.......

The next morning we quickly put things together, checked out, and caught a taxi to the airport.  Fortunately we had a better sense of the layout of the airport terminal so checked in easily and then made our (long) way to the train transport to the international terminal and to our flight.  I think we went through three if not four security (thorough) check points before reaching our gate.

Our flight back to Dallas was uneventful.  Customs was surprisingly simple for those of us who are citizens and an automated Q&A terminal!  Our bags were pulled to go through customs and then rechecked on to our flight to Tucson where we arrived just after 8 p.m.  I had napped off and on on the flight to Dallas and slept soundly to Tucson so elected to drive us home from the airport.

What a trip! and how wonderful it was to get back in our own bed.