Madrid at Last

We made it to Madrid, Spain.  It was a bumpy flight over the Atlantic from about half way out of Philadelphia until we landed at Madrid.  There were just enough smooth periods during the flight to sleep a little, and to eat a hurried pastry for breakfast. The flight was almost too short to actually get any real sleep.  It was scheduled for 7 hours, 20 minutes, but with the time taken at the beginning of the flight for serving dinner, we were already 2 hours into the flight before we could actually relax.  With only about 5 hours remaining in the flight, and that amount of time decreased, by the wake-up call scheduled for about an hour and a half out of Madrid, there was no time for movie watching if we wanted to catch some sleep.  I think we dozed on and off for a couple of hours before the sun came up.  Then the flight attendants woke us up for breakfast, which was served in a real hurry.  The pilots were expecting us to land about 40 minutes early, and I think that threw off the timing of the flight attendants for serving breakfast.  About as soon as we got our breakfast, they announced that they were coming through to pick up all of the cups, and trash.  The final 30 minutes into the airport were really turbulent.

We actually landed about a half hour early, but spent most of that gained time waiting on our luggage.  We had a little bit of a scare, Stephanie’s bag was almost the last one  out for some reason, so we were thinking it might have gotten lost.  It did finally come out onto the belt, and that was a big relief.  With our bags in hand, we proceeded to immigration, and after getting  our passports stamped, we went into the main arrival area of the terminal to look for the desk for our shuttle company for our transport into Madrid

After inquiring at the airport information booth, we proceeded to the AeroCITY desk and checked in for the shuttle.  We waited about 15 minutes for the driver, and off we went to the hotel.  It was about a 25 minute drive through some crowded pedestrian only streets.  The shuttle could drive on them only for accessing the hotel.

We could not check-in immediately, so we left our luggage in their secure area, and headed out onto the streets of Madrid.  It was cool and windy outside, everyone here was bundled up.

We walked around and took some pictures, and headed back to the hotel to check in.  We are on the back side of the hotel, so we have no view, but it is likely to be much more quiet.

After freshening up, we were ready to head back out.  We went to the Palacio Real, the Palace of the Spanish Monarchy, and viewed it from the outside.

There was a line to get in so we opted to go on to the cathedral next door, partly to dodge a rain shower.  It was the Cathedral Almudena, which was open.

 The Cathedral was really nice inside and was being prepared for a national holiday in Spain on Monday, November 9.  We took several pictures inside.

When we went back outside, where we found that the weather had cleared some, and we walked around the area.  There were some nice buildings and trees

After the Cathedral, we took the Metro to go and see another famous Madrid church, the Basilica San Francisco El Grande, which has the fourth largest Dome in the world.  Unfortunately, the Basilica was closed, so we could only see it from the outside.  As it ended up, we could have walked to this church from the other Cathedral, but the directions we had indicated we needed to ride the Metro.

We ended up walking back toward the hotel so we could visit the Plaza Mayor, another large plaza in Madrid.  On the way there, we discovered a large inside market, which ended up being full of Tapas Bars, and went in for a glass of wine.  Once we finished that we wondered over to the Plaza Mayor and looked around. There was not a lot going on there other than some gypsies dressed up in Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh and Tiger Costumes, trying to get people to pay  for taking pictures with them.  They were some of the worst costumes we had ever seen of those characters, obviously a copyright free imitations!!

We went back to the room and showered so that we could go to the 6:00 Mass at the Catholic Church that we found earlier which was located about 3 blocks from the hotel.  The service was all in Spanish, but the church was almost full.  It was beautiful inside, it had several altars dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

After church, we found another Tapas Bar, and went in for some Jamon (Ham) and some Qeuso (cheese).  It was served with bread, and we had two glasses of red wine.  It was very different, but the ham was good.  It is interesting to see all of the cured hams hanging in all of the Tapas Bars and other shops.  They just take it down and slice it into ultra thin slices, sometimes with a machine, sometimes by hand.  We will have to get a picture of all of the hams.

We wondered the streets with all of the native people of Madrid, they were out in force, shopping,  and eating at the Tapas Bars and other restaurants.  We finally found a grocery store, and went in for our usual under 3 euro red wine purchases.  Finally, tired after the full day, we headed back to the room to relax with some wine.

Tomorrow, we train to Toledo for the day.