Monday, Madrid

Little sleep on the flight over and we walked forever to wait in the customs line. When my turn came, the passport officer said not a word, but stamped my passport and I was on my way. Found an ATM that worked so got a few euros, and got assistance from tourist info to reach my hotel. Got to learn how to dial in this country. I'll try 011 in front of the number next time.

At hotel, checked in and ready to take a metro to Puerto del Sol for food and sight seeing.

Took the metro, but had lots of trouble finding it. I used my limited Spanish and was successful. Plazas Sol and Major were big and crowded . Folks here smoke more than Americans do and was it obvious. Tapas are wonderful and I made a meal of what I got. Rick steves audio guide gave me some difficulty as I had to restart often as the volume died.

Anyway, after a fashion I realized that I gotta take a nap so all for now.

Two hours and I feel great. Hope I can get some shut eye later. I've also learned that the Spanish have trouble giving directions that make sense. For example the directions I got this am for the metro seemed pretty simple...straight, then make a left. He even gave me a map. Wrong way as I had to ask multiple times and had all sorts of twists and turns before arriving at the metro, and finding a supermarket with directions proved to be an around the block twice effort. Go straight he says, but the street curved to the right. I found it and had a wonderful tuna salad sandwich for dinner.

All for today...Lue lisää