Category Archives: Travel

Day 3

We drove the Turquoise Trail from Albuquerque to Santa Fe via Madrid (pronounced with the accent on the first syllable to avoid confusion with that other place in Spain). A pleasant drive although with some boring stretches.

First stop was the Sandia Mountain Crest, which overlooks the whole Albuquerque area from 10,678 feet. A bit of a challenge for photography, but the view certainly blew the cobwebs off. On the way down, tried playing my collection of “Albuquerque Songs”, but was stymied by the fact that the latest Mustangs can’t play files in WMA format, so we had to settle for Prefab Sprout 3 times in succession!

The next stop was in the village of Golden, where the tiny Church of San Franciso is being rebuilt as a labour of love by the local plasterer. He’s making a lovely job of it, and was only too pleased to show us around and let us take some pictures.

Madrid is very friendly and pretty, but basically just a collective of arty shops and a mining museum. Unusually films (like the excellent Wild Hogs) make it look more modern and industrious than it actually is.

We both latched onto a stunning piece of art – a “spirit maiden” sculpture in coloured copper – and then realised we could afford it. Now the only challenge is getting it back to the UK…

Bought some shirts at the Van Huesen outlook store in Santa Fe, then took the freeway back to Albuquerque. Dinner at rather nice steak house. No ID required.

Shopping 9/10
Photography 6/10
Food 7/10