Madrid

Our last scheduled (we may do an unscheduled one) trip for the year (at least here in Europe) was this past weekend to Madrid, Spain.

We left on Friday evening and our flight was delayed over an hour. I managed to finish an entire book by the time we got to the hotel. Granted it wasn't a huge book, but still. Erin - bringing it home to you in a few weeks. We got to the airport, then walked and walked to the luggage belts. Then, walked, walked and walked more to the metro station. We then took the mouse - cheese at the end maze of a metro and ended up at our hotel over an hour later. Didn't help that the metros were extremely hot and I was starting to feel sick from my dinner of not so good pizza at the airport. Got checked in and went to our room...nice but SMOKY! I was not happy. They didn't have any non-smoking rooms or non-smoking rooms that had not been smoked in (as when we called down to the front desk, they told Gene we were in a non-smoking room - BS!!!). Someone from housekeeping came to "freshen" the room...which meant spraying horrible air freshener in the room that really did nothing. I even still smelled like smoke after my shower the next morning. :( We asked for another room when we were heading out in the morning and luckily we got switched and it was a real non-smoking room.

We found a great place for breakfast just a few minutes from our hotel. They had amazing mini strawberry and kiwi tarts!!! We ate those on our way to the botanical gardens. The gardens looked nice, but since it was not really "in season" most everything was covered in leaves or not taken care of well. There were a few trees/bushes that were turning red/orange that were pretty, but not much else. Had a recommendation to go here, but they had been in the summer so probably much better in the spring/summer. Oh well. Then, we walked around in the center and shopping areas. They were putting up a huge Christmas tree with a crane in the middle of one of the squares, which looked pretty cool. We made our way to the Castle and Cathedral. The Cathedral was very pretty and probably the most colorful church we have seen over here in Europe. It was only recently finished being built...Pope John Paul II came to bless the Cathedral when it was finally completed. They have a statue of him in the open square in front of the Cathedral. Also, St. Isidore is buried in this Cathedral (obviously that part is much older!). We made our way then to the Temple of Debod, which according to Gene (or Ducky) is an Egyptian temple actually relocated to Madrid. Had some great views there. The sun had really come out by then so I ended up taking a nap on a bench (I had a really long week and was exhausted)! :) From there, we walked back into the city center and just wandered around to see what we could find. There were lots of really elaborate fountains and some nice arch ways. Dinner was at the Hard Rock...of course! This one was rather dull compared to some of the others we've been to recently.

The next morning, we headed back to the great breakfast place and this time got more tarts than the last time. Yummy! The strawberries were perfectly sweet and Alex would have taken all that they had. We walked to a nearby park Gene had found on the map to eat them. When we got there, we felt rather out of place. This was where everyone came to run, walk and take their dogs. Instead, we were pigging out on our wonderful tarts and enjoying every minute of it! Stupid, large American looking for cheese and eating tarts...that's what they probably thought. ;) After we sat for a while, we walked around the park for about an hour. We stumbled across a huge reflecting pool and square area on the opposite end of the park. This was obviously "THE" place to be and we were disappointed we did not find it on Saturday. There were the Spanish bands playing music that was really, extremely catchy. The kind of music that just makes you happy, smile and just walk to the beat. This was where the artists, street vendors and food vendors come and the families. But, we only got to spend a little time there. Next time. We made our way back to the airport...this time it took right at an hour. Again, our flight was delayed...but only because stupid people bring all their luggage with them onto the plane and there is no space in the overhead bins, so it takes freaking forever. We missed our departure slot, so we had to wait for another opening...which ended up being after waking up from my nap on the plane. :(

Again, it was a fun, relaxing weekend. Would definitely recommend going here, but in the late spring, summer or early fall. It was cold for me (not for Gene). But, those times the flowers and trees would be in bloom and much prettier!