Spain - Day Two - Saturday

What a difference a night of sleep makes...  We headed to the cafeteria across the street from our hostal for cafe con leche and pastries.  It's official, this is our home base.  Good service, good food, across the street.  What more do you need?

We spent Saturday morning making up for the time lost on Friday in our sleepwalking state.  We changed US Dollars to euros and then began our scenic journey back to get tickets to see the Real Madrid game.  Along the way we bought a sweater for Kaitlin.   The mornings are pretty cool.  Many of the spaniards are bundled up, but then they probably rode a motorbike.  We walked along one of the big parks.  There were many sculptures along the street.  We wound our way through the museum district and several shopping districts.  I was looking for the Belstaff store, but it's not open yet.  We eventually made our way to the stadium and bought two tickets to the game.  The service fees I tried so hard to avoid were collected by the ticket scalper.  Oh well, I'm supporting the local economy, right?

We headed toward home before rush hour and discovered that in our sleepy state, we had taken a VERY indirect route on Friday.  We got off at Sol, one of the biggest plazas in Madrid.  It was packed with tourists and vendors selling all kinds of junk.  We did our best to get out of the madness got turned around and finally had to stop for a snack and a drink.  We figured out where we were and then found our way to a little tapas bar for a bite to eat and a beer.  Shanna and Kaitlin were getting tired so we headed home. 

Saturday is a big day for football so I headed back to our neighborhood cafeteria for the Barcelona vs. Athletico Madrid game.  When I got there it was just a few old men watching.  One man explained to me that Barca had already scored 3 goals in the first few minutes.  As I watched, Barca scored again.  Heartbreak for these guys as I expect that At. Madrid is the working-class team. As the game wore on, the little bar became packed.  I went to the bathroom and lost my stool.  I started talking to a couple of guys from France that live in the neighborhood.  One of the guys was surprised that I was a tourist.  He said that tourists never came to that bar.  He asked where in England I was from and I told him that I was from Texas, USA.  I assured him that I was no fan of president Bush and he laughed and said that it is rare to find an American in Europe that is.  Barca ended up winning the game 6-1.  It was a rough night for the home crowd.

Note:  The beer they serve here is very light.  Most places serve draft beer and it seems that both men and women drink beer.  I saw the bartender mix a few beers with water for a lighter colored drink.  When they pour a beer, they get a good head on it and then tap the glass on the counter to get even more head.  I have never seen that before.

Addendum to Day One - Our room at the Hostal Santa Isabel

I forgot to describe our room at the Hostal Santa Isabel.  Calle Santa Isabel is a little side street in a working-class neighborhood of Madrid.  The hostal is located on the 4th floor of an old building.  Most of the rooms in our part of the building are apartments.  There is a traditional elevator/lift with the cage and wooden/glass doors to the cabin and a white marble staircase that winds around the elevator shaft.  We're on the 4th floor so that means that we have five flights of stairs to climb.  They don't count the first floor in Spain.

Our room is tiny!  Not that we planned to spend a lot of time in the room, but with three of us fighting for floor space, it is tight.  Not to get too graphic, but while seated on the toilet, I can easily touch both walls with one elbow and one hand.  Within that width, there is a toilet, sink, and shower.  I've seen bigger bathrooms on airplanes... 

The room has a double bed, two night stands, plastic chair, corner closet, small wall-mounted t.v. (never figured out how to turn it on) and french doors to a small balcony.

The hallway has motion-sensors on the lights so they click on and off as you walk down the short hall.  We decided we need this in the breezeway at home.

First Post from Spain - Day One - Friday

I'll attempt to bring you up to speed on out trip so far...  After a long overnight flight from Miami, we landed in Madrid early Friday morning.  We took a cab ride to our hotel and dropped our bags off and headed out to check out the neighborhood and grab a cafe con leche.  Day one was pretty frustrating.  We rode the metro to Santiago Bernabau (home of Real Madrid football club) and tried to get tickets to the Sunday game.  We tried to change dollars to euros, but couldn't find a bank that would do it.  We ended up taking a tour of the stadium which was fun and then headed back to the hotel.  Both Shanna and I were falling asleep on the metro and in our sleepy state we missed a connection and had to backtrack in order to get back to our hotel.  Rather than going straight to bed at 6:30PM we showered and headed out for tapas and a beer.  I think we rallied for half an hour before crashing again.  The Spaniards were just starting to come out as we had our low point and we headed back to the hotel room for some much needed sleep.  Our room overlooked the street and we spent a restless night listening to the locals enjoying a Friday night/Saturday morning out enjoying themselves.  About the time they quieted down, the garbage trucks started making their way through the street.

easter egged!

Kaitlin and Raleigh had fun breaking cascarones. They're both looking forward to the big easter egg hunt this weekend in Cuero. Kaitlin is now 8 months old. She is crawling everywhere, climbing stairs, pulling up on everything, eating avacado, peas, sweet potatoes, bananas, quinoa and anything else she gets her hands on.

avocado

i think she likes it!  

and it was a little messy....

lil bear

Kaitlin loves her shower time and they really seem to calm her before bedtime.  if she only knew what was on her head....

aussie, aussie, aussie...

the USA's next tennis champ will be playing the australian open in 2023!! kaitlin already has her racquet and as you can see in the background,  the open is on tv, which she has been watching non-stop!