Madrid

Madrid March 21-24:

We could not take the train as it was fully booked so the bus it was! Bad decision...should have waited for the next day.
A taxi took us to the station for the 8 AM bus to Madrid. A really long ride at 6 ½ hours. It was very hot and stuffy on the bus and we had a screaming baby in front of us with a squeal that hurt my head for most of the trip. Nancy resorted to the “New Waterford” look at the mother which seemed to help but was "too little too late". Arrived in Madrid at the Hotel @ 3:30... a very long day.

Nice Hotel, quite near the Plaza Mayor, small as usual and looking onto a noisy street. We later found out we were in the prostitute district. We set out to explore with a determination to find the Plaza Mayor this time. How could we have missed it four weeks ago...it is huge! Blame it on jet lag. We stopped at an outdoor cafe for a drink and to watch the people for awhile.


This has to be one of the more interesting spots in Madrid. Jugglers, clowns, living statues, beggars and muscians all vying for your attention and your Euros! In amongst all this what may be the most concentrated number of pick pockets in the country if not in Europe. Nancy kept her purse firmly under her arm while we were walking there.

We went back to the upscale Market we had discovered when we passed through earlier in the hopes of finding a spot to hare some tapas. Apparently it is one of the more popular afterwork stops. It was very crowded an we soon gave up on this idea.

The prices in the Plaza Mayor were crippling and Nancy was in the mood for a Mohito! We headed back to our hotel which had a very interesting restaurant/bar on the ground floor. An excellent place for a pre-dinner apertif like a Mojito maybe?

The following is direct excerpt from Bob's diary...I think it pretty much sums up what happened next without too many boring details:
Now off for a little walk and some tapas. Bad news. Nancy looked down and her purse was open and passports gone! We looked everywhere but it was apparent they were pick-pocketed. We are pretty down. Nancy called the Embassy numbers etc and we were off to do our police report needed to get replacements the next day. Two hours in the police station was not fun, but, we got what we needed and met other people with worse problems than us as we only lost our passports. Not a lot of English going on at the station! Back to our Hotel for a good bottle of Argentina's fine wine and a nice dinner. Nancy gave her surprised glare to the waiter that brought our food as it was not quite what she expected. After the awkward moment we got the rest of our dinner without incident and it was delicious. We called it a night.

The next day:
We arrived at the embassy with our photos taken at the machine as directed by the contact Nancy spoke to on the phone. The nice lady at the Embassy advised us that those pictures are not acceptable for the passports. Nancy and I were somewhat irate re the bad info. However, we met a nice guy with similar problems. Basically we had to fill out tons of forms and get references etc. All went well as Nancy had everything done the night before. By noon we were quite confident that we would get the temporary passports in time for our Wed flight. We headed back to get lunch. It was not very good! However, we recovered with two nice bus tours courtesy of tickets supplied by the Madrid Police Department. They were very good and we got to see a lot of the city. It is 5.5 million people. We did some grocery shopping and headed back to relax before dinner. Had a great dinner close to home. Mussels and smoked salmon tapas with a bottle of champagne and wine. We spent the evening watching the hookers and Nancy got to have a couple of smokes. All will be well if we get our passports tomorrow.

These photos are of buildings around Madrid taken on the bus tour. The tickets are 17 euros each and maybe not worth purchasing but we enjoyed this little gift from the Madrid Police department. I think it is supposed to make you like Madrid again after a bad experience...not a bad idea really.

March 23rd:
Good news! Our passports are ready to be picked up! We got them in our hands this morning and I am now guarding them with my life. Every one of the 5.5 million people in Spain is a suspect and a potential thief! We have decided to not get down over this and to enjoy the last full day we have in Madrid/Spain. We proceeded on our planned tour of the Prada Museum. What a place! A week would not be enough to see the main exhibits. However, we will do it in less than a day based on Nancy’s planning from our trip to date and the travel guides. The artwork is truly amazing. To be in the midst of this kind of work by this many of the “Masters” is a bit overwhelming. To actually be standing in front of these pieces of work that you see in travel guides and on TV over the years is chilling. I had to practically drag Nancy out of the Prada so we could prepare to pack and spend our last evening dinner in Madrid.

We managed to pick up some little Spanish treasures at the local grocery/liquor store. We acquired a little something to toast the last night in Spain, as well as a few bottles of the local flavour to bring back to Halifax to be packed with the container load of other things that found their way to our suitcases. We returned to the Argentinian restaurant for our last evening out as we wanted to make it an early night. The food and wine was great as usual. After we got packed and almost ready for bed, I managed to sneak across the alley from our hotel to try the Spanish version of our “Donair”. Not bad. Nancy, to my surprise, caught me in the act as can be seen by one of the pictures above.

March 24th:
Awake early and ready to go as our flight is at seven AM. The front desk called and advised our cab was downstairs early so I rushed to the elevator with our two largest suitcases. Rather than go directly down I returned to the room to get the third heavy suitcase so Nancy would not have to carry it down the stairwell. Just as I got back to the elevator and pushed the button, the power in the building went off. Ten seconds earlier and I would have been trapped inside. So, down the stairs I go with a small container load of suitcases to meet the cabbie. Bad news! The large glass exit door was locked and the power release button did not work. Now I am perturbed. I advised the cabbie in my best Spanish sign language that if the upstairs desk clerk could not be found in one minute, that I would be leaving Madrid in a Smash! Meanwhile Nancy is nowhere to be found. I was in the process of giving the large glass door a few test whacks to prepare for my final assault when Nancy appeared with the clerk and his master keys. The cabbie looked a bit scared as we exited the hotel. He was, however, very polite and efficient in getting us to the airport on time and seemed quite relieved to drop us off. The flight went well and we arrived in Munich on schedule.

We had a few hours layover in Munich so Nancy went on one of her usual walkabouts to shop and verify our tickets, boarding passes etc. To my surprise she returned as excited as I have ever seen her. I thought wow she must have got an upgrade to first class or something! Much to my chagrin the miracle was that she had found a book, the third in the series “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” at a great price when the book was not even available in Canada yet. I pretended to be as excited as she was and shuffled her off to our gate to board the plane for Toronto. The rest of the flights etc. went as scheduled and we arrived home with no major incidents.