We had an early morning wake-up call and 7 am shuttle to the airport. Our flight wasn’t until 10:55 am, but Abdulwahab was concerned that we wouldn’t arrive in time. We got there at and had almost 3 hours to wait! The flight was bumpy, and we had a bratty child behind us who kicked my seat and even when I asked her mother to stop her, did not. She screamed and sassed the entire flight. It was great to get off that plane!
Getting through customs and immigration in Madrid seemed to take forever. We finally made it out to the taxi queue, and ended up with the WORST driver! First of all, he wasn’t sure where our apartment was, then he played his radio full blast on a Spanish talk show, waited until the last minute to change lanes, ran over some traffic cones getting into the express lane, argued with a policeman telling him he couldn’t use the express lane, then had to back up because their was an accident in the express lane and he couldn’t drive over the curb to get back into the regular lane of traffic. FINALLY, 40 minutes later, he dropped us a block from our apartment just off the Puerto del Sol and we walked the rest of the way!
Our apartment is three – yes three, flights up a winding stairway, one block from the Puerto del Sol. It’s a great location, even if it is pretty small. After settling in, we went to get some food since we hadn’t eaten since 6:30 am and it was not close to 5 pm and we were all getting cranky!
After looking at several places, we ended up at Rosi La Loca, just outside of apartment. We shared four different tapas (appetizer sized dishes) and were much happier. Two of our favorites were the Iberian ham croquettes and the pork tenderloin with sweet potato fries.
After refueling, we were ready to walk and explore. The statue of the bear and the strawberry tree is a sculpture from the second half of the 20th century. It is located on the east side of the Puerta del Sol. It represents the coat of arms of the city of Madrid.
There were some protestors in the square trying to raise awareness about global warming. They wanted President Trump to “think a little if you can” about the situation!
There were mariachi bands and lots of other street entertainers.
We made our way to Plaza Mayor. Plaza Mayor was built during Phillip III’s reign (1598–1621) and is a central plaza in the city. The Plaza Mayor is rectangular in shape, measuring 423 feet × 308 feet, and is surrounded by three-story residential buildings having 237 balconies facing the Plaza. It has a total of nine entrance ways.
Located along the outside wall of Plaza Mayor, we stopped at Rincon de la Cava Meson, a tapas restaurant that is owned by the family of Tyler’s, former exchange host family. I visited there with Tyler and host family in 2002 and it is just as nice as it was then.
We worked our way westward past a beautiful government building before arriving at the palace.
We plan to tour the palace tomorrow, and hope to see the Almudena Cathedral, as well. Because the palace was already closed for the day, we were able to take a picture with no people interfering with the view!
Almudena Cathedral
We decided it was getting late – but not dark – so we headed back to the apartment. We picked up pastries for breakfast, and along the way, Wendy met a guy. She isn’t sure if the long-distance relationship will work out, but they seemed to get close rather quickly!
We are all exhausted tonight and hope we are ready to go for a full day tomorrow.
2 comments:
Mariachi is from Mexico and those mariachi bands that you might see in Spain are probably from Mexico. I talked with some of them in Seville and they told me that it is a cultural exchange thing.
Probably true. There were so many different street "artists" trying to earn money, it was overwhelming. All of the ones dressed as Disney characters wanting money to pose for pictures, plus the people that paint themselves and pose for $. Anything to make a buck.
Post a Comment