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Madrid November 2017

November 2017
A 11-day adventure by Mark Read more
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  • TravelerMadrid November 2017
    Day 1

    Departure Day!

    November 2, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 64 °F

    Last minute prep - weeks of reading stuff about Madrid and planning various adventures while there - brain in sizzle mode at the moment. Checked in and got our boarding passes on our phones - only taking small carry ons - figure I can buy the full matador outfit once I'm there! Counting on my extensive vocabulary of Gracias and Adios to carry us through 12 days - with a bit of Google Translate help on the side!

    Checking out various means of transportation from airport to our AirBnB - taxi is easiest - 35 euros though. Airport express bus and then metro looking much cheaper and more adventuresome. :) Love that word adventuresome - behind it lurks a few choice words from time to time. :)

    Temps are looking in mid 6o's at our destination with lower 40's at night - should be interesting. Looks sunny for first 3 or 4 days and then rain showers after that - we shall see - weather stuff is always changing. (update - my tapas tour guide just sent me an email telling me to bring an umbrella for Saturday. night - looks like 100% chance of rain on Saturday - lovely - also the day we have a 3 hr walking tour of Madrid scheduled.)

    We have tapas tours, museum passes, flamenco night, walking tour, our eatwith.com experience set up and a day to day itinerary set up in Evernote, along with an offline downloaded Google map of Madrid plus a Madrid transit app. So that should be a good start. Now back to finishing packing!    Read more

  • TravelerMadrid November 2017
    Day 1

    Charlotte airport

    November 2, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 72 °F

    Smooth sailing down 52/85 to Lot 1 at the airport. Waze GPS Made it easy. Left home at 2:30 - through the TSA lines by 4:30. Even got a pat down in the TSA line! Think a Kleenex in my pocket was the suspicious character!! This Lufthansa departure area is looking very familiar! Sitting down to eat some $$$$ airport food. Flight boards in 90 minutes - think we’re early?Read more

  • TravelerMadrid November 2017
    Day 2

    Munich airport

    November 3, 2017 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 48 °F

    Landed 20 minutes early. About a 3 hr layover before taking off for Madrid. About 4:50 am N Carolina time. Yawn!
    Didn’t take us long to find the good stuff though! Weißwurst und Weißbier

  • TravelerMadrid November 2017
    Day 2

    Our Air BnB

    November 3, 2017 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 57 °F

    Made the connection from Munich - Madrid - hold to circle Madrid for about 20 minutes due to heavy inbound air traffic, but otherwise both flights were smooth as silk. Weather was cloudy/sunny in Madrid when we arrived - supposed to rain tonight - so far so good at 7pm. Have been up for about 27 hours now - just took about an hour nap. Will be hitting the rack early tonite!

    Decided on taking the metro to our apt. Puzzled over the ticket machine for a few moments but that is normal. Ended up buying a ticket that gives you 10 rides for 12,20 Euros and we’ll see how that goes. Had my. handy dandy little metro app “Transit” which directed me to the right lines and even how to walk to the apt. It took a bit to get it going because I was down in the subway and then had to go back up to get a better signal so I could get it working. Wasn’t bad getting on the metro , but at the 2nd stop the mob descended and then it was packed till we made our switch to the next line. It was interesting to listen to the high speed chatter in Spanish - think we just had a big group of kids who decided to pile into our car.

    Got off at Plaza de Espana and had about a 12 min walk to the apt. Not sure why the app didn’t send us to a closer stop but no big deal and we got to see more! Messaged our host via the AirBnB app (not easy to do down in the subway) that we would arrive at 4:30pm and bingo - right on the dot. Rather amusing when we got to the building - we really didn’t realize our apt number because I hadn’t paid all that much attention to it other than the street number, so we were standing outside a tad clueless with about 50 different room numbers we could punch. We then ran in to the night manager, a nice old guy, who didn’t speak a word of English. He tried to tell us we were in the wrong building and we should go down the street to #5 and go to Apt 3c. He practically shooed us out of the place. I thought this was pretty odd, but I walked down the street to #5, checked it out - decided this didn’t look right, so pulled out my phone and looked up the address of the AirBnB again and saw what it was supposed to be, so returned to the original building and punched the right room buzzer this time and our host answered! When we got upstairs, she laughed and said he is a crazy old man who does this all the time to people trying to check in - sends them all over the place until they have to call the host! Welcome to Spain!

    Got a quick run down of all the good places to see in Madrid from our host and a quick run down of the place (https://abnb.me/EVmg/bg0DZfZmMH) and she was gone - nice, but brief - could be because she has 20 apts in Madrid she cares for! Spoke good English - that was a good thing for us! :). Crashing now for a few hours.    Read more

  • TravelerMadrid November 2017
    Day 2

    Late Night Walk - first night in Madrid

    November 3, 2017 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 54 °F

    After a short nap, decided to go for a walk around town. Stopped at Temple de Bod , which was lit up at night. Some nice views from the park looking at tthe Royal Palace. Started thinking about food and I had to laugh as I know Janet was thinking about Döner Kebobs. We pretty much have made it a tradition of eating one in every major city we’ve visited. Well 2 blocks up the street - voila! There she is and we have accomplished our mission! A stop at a nice grocery store and then we’re back at the apt at midnight and are crashing for the day.Read more

  • TravelerMadrid November 2017
    Day 3

    Back at AirBnB - Heading out for Tapas

    November 4, 2017 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 55 °F

    Spent the day roaming Madrid. Had breakfast and then embarked on a Sandeman’s Walking tour, which was outstanding. Led by a young lady from Manchester, England with a degree in Spanish Studies, she sure knew her history and was a great speaker. One of the best , if not the best, we’ve been on. Told a great story of why our starting point, the famous Plaza Mayor had such a bad smell for years and years and years until finally discovered why. I’ll tell you that story later! After 3 hours of that, the sun was shining (was supposed to pour all day), so we strolled over to the famous San Miguel Market which on a Saturday afternoon was absolutely jammed with folks doing the Tapas thing. Had a few ourselves, a glass of wine and then headed over to the Thyssen Museum to pick up a pass we had purchased online to skip the line and gain admission to the 3 biggie museums of Madrid. Didn’t think we had enough time to see the Thyssen, so went strolling and eventually ended up at Seville Metro stop whee we caught the Metro back to our home place. Now resting the dogs, having some coffee, and getting ready to hit the Tapas bars for 3 hrs with a guy who has been running his own private tours for some 18 years. He even sent us videos to watch about pigs eating acorns (that’s what makes the iberico ham taste so good !) and spanish wines and shared with us his Spotify playlist of Spanish music! Heck we haven’t even met him yet! Now that’s what I call service!

    Just returned (midnight) from Tapas Tour - wow! Went to about 5 places -each one got better than the last - all kinds of spirits, food,, camaraderie - had a great time - made some new friends - tour leader was great - he got plastered as well - can’t imagine him doing this every night! And no rain!    Read more

  • TravelerMadrid November 2017
    Day 3

    Tapas Time!

    November 4, 2017 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 54 °F

    Thought I’d add an extra footprint here so that I could include a few more pics (they only allow you 10 pics at a time per footprint , so....). We started off the night at Place de la Ville where the original town hall of Madrid was located - met the rest of our group - 4 other couples. Most of us were from the States, but there were 2 girls together, one of whom was from England and the other one from Zurich Switzerland . A pretty congenial group all in all. Host was quite laid back and knew us already by name because he had been corresponding with us. After a short history lesson on the Habsburg Empire (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Habsburg) (you hear a lot about the Habsburgs in Madrid!), we wandered off to the first tapas bar where we tried out vermouth straight from the tap. Vermouth is basically white white with a variety of herbs and spices added to it, particularly wormwood. Served chilled with a slice of orange, it wasn’t bad - I think this is the first time I’ve tried vermouth. We shared a plate of olives/red peppers with it and then he passed around little cod fritters served piping hot with marmalade piled on top. Cod was good! He poured us some more vermouth and we were off to a good start!

    Our next stop was to enjoy a plate of Jamon (ham), chorizzo, loma, and one other that escapes me If you want to read up on Spanish hams, here’s the place - https://www.jamon.com/about-jamon-iberico.html This was served with a 95 point Robert Parker bottle of Muscat (http://www.jorgeordonezselections.com/single-wi…), which was delicious and on the sweet side. Next stop brought us to our final stop of the evening, where we tried out roasted pork with glazed onions and potato sticks served with some very dry, pucker up wines from Rioja area, . The meat was delicious and all of this was followed up with an intense sweet sherry that was like syrup - they served us some ice cream and we poured it over that! Delicious . By now were were all buzzed and it was. time to go - I think the host was more blasted than we were, but nobody was feeling any pain, that’s for sure!    Read more

  • TravelerMadrid November 2017
    Day 4

    Flea Markets, Cave eating, and Wandering

    November 5, 2017 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 57 °F

    Actually slept in a bit this morning - amazing. Still exhausted, but off to the subway (wanted nothing to eat this morning after last night’s carnage!). Headed for the flea market - now that was an adventure. Typical stuff you would see in a flea market, but this thing was huge and sprawled over many streets and there were thousands of people there - total mob - lucky we didn’t get our pockets picked. Spent a few hours wandering there and then walked about 10 minutes to reach Sobrino de Botin, one of the oldest restaurants in the World, if not the oldest. Running since 1732. Famous for it’s roast suckling pig. Since we hadn’t eaten yet, and it was now on 1pm, we were ready. We got to sit downstairs in the cave (bodega) part of this restaurant - , right near the top of the steps that led to the wine cellar which you could see below - hundreds of bottles of wine covered in dust and mold, ready to be served! Actually held my nose and went down there - pics to follow - whew! Some expensive stuff sitting in that cellar! We were served two crusty loaves of bread which were delicious and soon came the suckling pig and potatoes. Crispy and incredibly juicy and moist on the inside - whew - fantástico! Janet had a 1/2 jug of sangria and I had a 1/2 bottle of red wine and we were good to go, except for the ice cream at the end with chocolate sauce. About $100 later and we were good to go! We wandered through the restaurant before we left ‘ multiple floors up winding creeping stairs - a great place to visit. Stopped by the huge ovens where they cook those poor little guys - see pics.(pics will follow shortly - upload speeds are slow in our AirBnB, so is going to take awhile for sure.) Overnight if we’re lucky.Read more

  • TravelerMadrid November 2017
    Day 4

    Royal Palace and Catedral de la Almudena

    November 5, 2017 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 57 °F

    After our big meal at Botin’s , we decided we’d better walk it off - headed over to see the Royal Palace - discovered it was close due to a State Affair - we’ll probably do the tour next Saturday. We did wander through the gardens and then over to the Catedral de la Almudena and paid a visit to an unusual decorated church. (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_of_Almudena). We then strolled up to see the Royal Basilica of San Francisco del Grande which despite what we read, was also closed. Did wander the gardens next to it and then headed back towards Plaza España to catch a Metro home. One thing I wished for in Europe was more public restrooms - thought I was gonna pass out before spotting a bookstore/cafe, which by sheer luck had one. You hate to go into a restaurant with your pleading “baño” ? (hi, I’m a helpless American and this is the only word I know and I know you will fall over yourself to help me while I spend no money in your establishment).

    Before heading home though, we stopped in a little place and had some fried calamari sandwiches cause Janet loves calamari. They were not the greatest but I suspect the place had something to do with that as well. Did get out of there cheap though. Cheap is good sometimes, especially if the food sucks.
    Hit the subway - asked a lady who was overseeing the metro card machines if she could show me how to check my card to see how my rides I had left. Of course, she spoke very little English to none at all, so about this time I’m pulling out the Google Translate app - but two young Spanish people came to our rescue and explained to her what we wanted - problem solved - everybody happy. :) The small joys of life!

    Back to the apt - Janet is zapped - crashes out, while I’m catching up on a whole lot of blogging. Pics to follow once they finish uploading.    Read more

  • TravelerMadrid November 2017
    Day 5

    Prado, Retiro Park and Crystal Palace

    November 6, 2017 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 50 °F

    Got a bit of a late start this morning but knew the Prado didn’t open till 10. Found a neat little breakfast spot called Matilda (https://www.facebook.com/matildacafecantina/ ) Had about 8 tables - one man guy doing all the work - very friendly - spoke very good English.. Had some yogurt/muesli and some sort of cake and Janet had an Egg/ham croissant and shared my cake and a few Cafe Americanos later and we were good to go.

    Next stop the Prado, which goes without saying, was pretty spectacular. We spent about 3 hours there before heading over to a place that our Tapas Tour guide had mentioned served a great Menu del Día (Menu of the day). Another little tiny place on a side street which served about 10 people at a time. Got a spot without a reservation which was nice and had some good food - lentil/mushroom soup, yummy salad, coconut encrusted grouper, peppercorn pork tenderloin, apple tart, red and white wine and some coffee to finish it off. Met a guy from Scotland there along with 2 young folks from LA. Mostly natives there - so was a bit surprised to see so many English speaking folks. Word gets around on the Internet about good places I reckon.

    We then headed over to Retiro Park to see the Crystal Palace which was very cool. Pictures will follow when I get a moment. After the park, caught the #2 metro back to our apt where I’m typing this before heading out to a Flamenco performance at Las Tablas (http://www.lastablasmadrid.com/en/flamenco-show…) in Plaza España It was one of Rick Steve’s recommendations so can’t be all bad. So many things to see and do - whew. Good thing I’m still a young pup!

    Back later with pics!

    10:30pm - just came back from Flamenco. Was fantastic! Incredible performers - well worth the money - would do that again, for sure. Small venue - less touristy than most. It was one of 3 that Rick Steves recommended and we took a chance. A bit tricky to find, but made it with about 5 minutes to spare. Afterwards strolled up and down the Grand Via - sort of the Times Square of Madrid or that’s the impression it left me with. Decided to walk all the way home which was only maybe 20 minutes. My phone tells me 21, 395 steps today - that’s a few!    Read more

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