Thanksgiving Vacation 2011: Madrid, Spain Day 1

I has happy that I slept pretty well this night. Usually it is the second night on an overseas trip where I wake up 20 times or at 1 AM and can't get back to sleep. We have yet another flight to catch and need to figure out what to do about the upcoming strike. We skip breakfast at the hotel and grab a taxi to the airport. This ride was very quick and cost only 10 Euros. My taxi driver from the airport must have taken the longest route possible. Now I know why the group of men in line before me didn't get into her cab but took the next one instead. Once at the airport we quickly checked-in. Our flight was on Iberia airlines, and after checking in we found the sales desk to ask about the strike. Now for some reason, no one in Portugal seemed to know anything about this strike. They all said "What are you talking about?". After looking at the computer, the agent finally admitted that our flight and all flights on the 24th were canceled. She said there was a flight on the 23rd that left Madrid at 3:30, but we didn't want to do that, because we'd have less than a day in Madrid and then would need to spend a day in Portugal during the strike when the transportation was all shut down. More thinking, mostly by my brother who was very concerned about our situation. We had time for breakfast at the airport, and I selected pancakes at McDonald's. Bad choice as they were very small and I was hungry a few hours later.

Our plane departed on time, and luckily it was a short flight because our seats had no leg room. My brother and I's legs were jammed against the seat back. When we landed in Madrid and got our bags, we checked again for an alternative way back. After a long wait we did book a return flight the next day, but really didn't want to use it. We also looked into renting a car one way, but that was going to cost at least 700 Euros! No way. Another cab ride to the hotel, which was about a 30 minute drive from the airport. We didn't get ripped-off, which was nice. Once in the hotel and check-in to our rooms, we asked the man at the front desk about ways to get to Lisbon, such as train or bus. He looked on the Internet and found a train, but it left too late or early. Then he found a bus that left on the 24th at noon and arrived in Lisbon at 7 PM. We ended up getting seats on this bus so now we had a way back and could enjoy our time in Madrid.

We started walking towards our first destination, one of the three main museums. Just like in Lisbon, most of the people walking had places to go and work to do, but as we approached the first museum the number of tourists increased. I believe we went to the Paseo Del Arte Museum first, where we bought tickets for all three museums. This museum was very large with lots of rooms, and no cameras allowed. The paintings were the usual ones, mostly religious, depicting Jesus as a baby or on the cross. We'd felt like we had seem them all before in other museums in other European cities. It would have taken all day to see all the artwork, so we didn't spend too much time in each room. When we started to run low on energy, we found our way to the cafeteria and had a light lunch. The food was surprisingly good and I was glad to get some water. All that walking made me dehydrated, and I'm used to drinking lots of water as many of you know. After lunch we made our way back to the coat check to get our coats, and then left for the next museum.

Turns out this one was closed on Tuesdays. So what next. Across the street we saw a big building that my brother said looked like a train station. And since we needed train tickets for our trip to Toledo the next day we walked over there. To our amazement, the station had a giant indoor tropical garden, compete with palm trees, ponds and lots of turtles. They kept it very humid with misters spraying water. After snapping some photos, we found where to buy our tickets, and ended up buying them right then. We also figured out where to catch the train, and also where the Metro station was in the train station, as we needed to take the Metro there from our hotel in the morning.

It was starting to get dark, and had rained while we were in the museum. After walking around some more we took the Metro back to our hotel for a pre-dinner break. For dinner I had already decided that we were going to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe since it was within walking distance of our hotel. This Hard Rock looked just like all the others and had the same food on the menu. I ordered a beer, of course, and a 10 ounce cheeseburger with onion rings. Yum! Our waitress was very nice, and the music and videos provided even more entertainment. Afterwards, we walked back to our hotel and then explored the pedestrian shopping zones near by. It was only 9:30, but the prostitutes were out in force. They were not trying to hide. There must have been 10 or more women in skimpy outfits standing in the middle of the walkway looking for business. It was funny that just around the corner there was a police station. I guess this activity is tolerated but not necessarily legal. I did not bring one of them back to the hotel just in case you wondered. It would have been like a scene from Pretty Woman.

We ended up in Sol Plaza, where there was a large metal Christmas Tree that was not lit up yet. In fact all the street were lined with Christmas lights that were not turned on. In past trips to Europe they seem to turn the lights on the day we leave. We took a different path back to the hotel, avoiding the ladies of the evening, and headed back to our rooms. Our train left at 8:10 in the morning, and we would have just enough time to get our free breakfast, which didn't start until 7:30. So after getting on the Internet, which was free in this hotel, the Best Western Hotel Atlantico, I went to bed sometime before midnight. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day.