Where to begin. Our flight took off from Portland at 7:30am local time on April 28th but we did not land in Madrid until 7:30am April 29th. In that 24 hour period, we were only traveling for 14 hours and lost 9. It being my first time flying overseas and experiencing that much of a time change, it felt really strange.
A bit of traveler's advice: if you know you are changing time zones, make sure you get lots of sleep the night before you leave, otherwise you will feel like the day really can have more than 24 hours in it :-)
One more quick thing about the flight and then I'll land the plane - flying overseas is super fun! The seats were super comfy, each person has their own tv screen on the seat in front of them loaded with games, movies, tv shows, music, and all complimentary! Chris and I even got a game of battleship in before we tried to get some sleep (I won) :-)
Day 2: Friday, April 29, 2011
So we finally made it to Madrid (yay!). I was a bit worried about how easy it would be to find the group meet point in a place with signs in a language I don't understand but were pleasantly surprised to be personally greeted by our tour guide right as we finished going through customs. Our guide, Luis walked us over to the meet point to wait for some of the other tour members.
At 9am local time we got on the tour bus to head to the hotel. Normally check in is at 3 but they were able to get the rooms available to us almost immediately. Chris and I were pretty hungry for breakfast and so we walked a few blocks until we found an ATM machine to exchange some currency (visa & mastercard work, and there is an "English" option so it was very easy to do), and then found a local pastry shop. Our first experience ordering without knowing much spanish went well! We were able to point to different things and say "uno por favor" definitely had some surprises but everything was delicious!
After breakfast, for 1 euro we hopped on the bus that Luis said would take us to downtown Puerto del Sol, where there is lots of shopping, & local foods. If you don't know this yet, but Chris and I are definitely foodies, and love to try strange, weird, new things. In fact, Chris and I chose to go on this tour specifically because our favorite food is Moroccan. Before we left Chris' dad told him about a local delicacy called "Jamon Iberico Bellota" which is ham that has been cured for 36 months from black pigs which feed on acorns in a specific region of Spain. We finally found some in one of the small markets. Priced at about 300 us dollars per pound, we decided on getting a few slices. It kind of reminded me of prosciutto but way WAY better. Definitely worth the search and cost.
In our search for other unique local foods, we stumbled upon a little chocolate cafe. That's right ladies - chocolate! The menu had fondue, chocolate ice-cream, chocolate milkshakes, hot chocolate, cold chocolate, and the list went on. I decided on a hot cup of cocoa (since it was kind of cold and overcast) that came with 4 churros as well. It was like nothing I have ever experienced. If you are thinking of what hot cocoa is like in the US, it was completely different. really thick and dark, super creamy & rich and delicious! Almost like drinking a high quality chocolate bar melted down to a fondue like drink. yum!
After my heavenly chocolate treat we made our way back to the bus station to go take a short siesta at the hotel at 3pm. A couple hours later & it was time to meet our tour guide Luis downstairs for a welcome drink and to meet others in our tour group. We had our first taste of sangria in spain and it was so good! We got to visit with a lot of the others and are so excited to get to know them better - we have a great group.
After our welcome drink we headed back into the city for dinner, where we found a pakistani restaurant, which is a lot like indian food, and had a wonderful meal there. We walked around a bit more and went back to hotel to end the day.
Day 3: Saturday, April 30, 2011
The complimentary breakfast at the hotel was amazing. They had a buffet filled with local pastries, meats, cheeses, & fruits. They also had a juice bar with about 4-5 fresh squeezed juices. My favorite surprisingly was the broccoli, kiwi, & cucumber juice. Very refreshing and light.
After breakfast we started the day with a bus city tour on our way to the Prado Museum. We had an additional local guide who explained the city's history from it's politics & climate, to architecture & other interesting facts. Then at the museum our guide walked us through showing us some of the highlights, including works by Goya and other famous spanish artists.
We finished the museum at about 12 and had the rest of the afternoon to explore. Chris had read about Retiro Park as a top local place to go so went there first.
Retiro Park is incredibly beautiful. Think New York's central park, but with european landscaping and monuments. It used to be the private hunting grounds for royalty before it was turned into a park. In the center is a huge lake that Chris and I rented a row boat and paddled around, eating a snack and enjoying the scenery.
Before heading back to the hotel, we wanted to find a tapas market that we saw from our city bus tour. After getting a little disoriented and walking large loops we finally found the Mercado de San Michael. It reminded me a lot of a smaller version of Pike's Market. We walked through the small busy rows of vendors, trying things here and there, and then being completely exhausted at 5pm went back to the hotel for a late siesta.
It is now 11pm and we just woke up and are debating on heading across the street to grab a small dinner. This sounds late but locally is very normal. They eat lunch at 2pm, have an afternoon siesta, and dinner hour is about 10pm.
Tomorrow we leave Madrid for Toledo & Cordoba where the adventure continues! :-)
*If you want to follow Chris, he is posting to Grand European's Tour Blog here.*
