Madrid

ARRIVAL Madrid
We touched down at 8:04 AM into Madrid exactly on time. The weather, however, was less then perfect. It was deeply overcast, a little wet and very COLD. We expected to see and were prepared for 85 degrees but we were greeted with 60 degrees. Cathy is frozen with any temperature below 75.

We breezed through customs but had to wait more then an hour for luggage. Europe is very slow for services. Finally the luggage came and we headed to meet the Trafalgar tour guide for a bus ride to our hotel.

Our tour guide David, a very handsome young man of about 30 years old, escorted us to the bus then onto the hotel Rafael in the heart of Madrid. On the way we learned that tonight is the final game for which Beckham will be playing for Real Madrid. The stadium is within a 10 minute walk from the hotel, so we expect to see a carnival atmosphere if the win, and a sad crowd if they lose.

We checked into the hotel and once again found out Chris will not have a roommate! Let me explain. Trafalgar tours allow singles under the age of 25 to book a room with a roommate provided by Trafalgar. This reduces the cost of the trip by nearly $1000. If a member of the same sex also books a similar fare, Trafalgar with pair them up.

Well we calculated based on previous trips that there is less then a 3% chance Chris would get a roommate. Sure enough, for the last tours of Europe Chris enjoyed a single room at shared room prices!

Our hotel is beautiful. The rooms are large, well appointed and bright. The bathroom has the bold look of Kohler about it. The shower is unique for in all of Europe there are no shower doors or curtains to keep the water in the tub. Instead there is a 1/3 glass door that keeps in about 1/3 of the water, the rest of which hits the tile floor.

After check in and shower, we leave the hotel for a walk about town. Yes it is overcast and cold but not raining so when in Madrid…. Our first goal is FOOD as we are starving.

First lesson, do not arrive in Europe on a Sunday. Almost everything is closed including most restaurants. All the stores are closed and traffic is almost non existent except for near the stadium where there is already a queue at noon for an 8 PM game.

So we begin a search for someplace to eat. We tried a pub, a pizzeria and a cafeteria. The pub was closed; the pizzeria was open but was very small and filled to capacity with people puffing on European cigarettes creating a smoke filled room. Second lesson, they still smoke in Europe….everywhere. We finally settle into a VIPS café.

Now this place is a little unusual. You enter into a storefront selling books, toys, groceries, wine, liquor, and a host of other items. You pass through all this to the back of the store and there is a nice little café seating about 125.

Third lesson came fast. The menu is in Spanish. (Duh, of course it is) The waiters do not speak English and we had to rely on Cathy’s Spanish from 25 years ago, I though we would either starve or be eating something really strange. We were starving so we decided to give it a try.

Cathy and Chris decided on a Bikini which turned out to be a cheese and ham sandwich on toast served with orange-pineapple juice. Very good. I went with an Iberico which turned out to be Iberian ham with olive oil served with a tomato spread on a delicious bread. Excellent. Apparently they feed the pigs almonds which give a delightful flavor to the meat. I also tried a local beverage which amounted to fruit juice and wine, we used to call it sangria! For 12.5 Euro, no tip required, we were well fed and ready to go.

We walked around Madrid for then next 2 hours. Madrid is a modern city with many tall buildings, apartments, pocket parks and wide streets. It looked like any large city in the US except for the shouting and car horns constantly keeping a beat on the street.

We saw shopping centers, closed; stores and bars, also closed and several tall glass skyscrapers and apartment buildings. Along the way we visited a park dedicated to Pablo Picasso and a statue of Juan Peron former President of Argentina and friend to Madrid.

It was getting cold and we were all a bit tired after our walk so we headed back to the hotel for a little nap. Our next adventure begins at 6:15 when we meet in the lobby with the entire tour group for our first welcome dinner. We can hardly wait.

6:15 PM
We finally meet our tour for the first time. (As Chris, and in the past Rick, calls it “the near dead” tour). Everyone on tour is over 60 at a minimum! We do have 3 younger people plus Chris so the mean age is down to 56.

We walk to our Tapas Restaurant for dinner. Tapas are Spanish appetizers. We dined on shared plates of sausages, calamari, mushrooms, salad with anchovies, fried potato, and tomato in a hot pocket, cheeses, meats and breads. All of which are washed down with a red wine (2 bottles) and Sangria (one pitcher). At our table only Chris and I drank wine, Cathy had one glass, so we were well healed by the end of dinner. The meal was excellent and a fine time was had by all.

As a special treat we learned that tonight just ¼ mile away at the Madrid soccer stadium Real Madrid was to play Majorca for the all Spain cup. Unlike in the US soccer is very serious in Madrid. The stadium was at capacity 90,000. The streets, the bars and the sidewalks were full. We tried, unsuccessfully to watch the game at a bar but there were too many for us to get in. So we headed home only to find the game on TV!

So resting in our warm beds we watched a nail biter as Madrid pulled out a win (3 to 1) and the celebrations began. Horns, sirens, yelling cars and revelry ALL NIGHT. Much of the activity was right outside our window so all night we “participated” in the festivities.

Tomorrow morning we are up at 6:30, this is vacation? Breakfast and off to the first day of travel where we will see Toledo and Cordoba.