Hello from Madrid Spain (Part 3)
Thursday afternoon – May 19, 2016 (Third post of this travelogue)
For those of you who are new to our blog, you will find that I have a habit of starting a blog in one city and finishing it in another. That is the case here. Actually, I am writing most of this blog on a high speed train between Madrid and Barcelona.
I wanted to catch up on some items relating to Madrid. The first item is the “flea market” that we encountered when we arrived. It was a great experience. They closed down many of the streets around our apartment and there were a huge number of “booths” with folks selling all kinds of different products. One of the specialty items seemed to be collector cards. We saw perhaps 10-15 vendors selling these cards. Some of the cards seemed to be Poky man cards, while others were sports “hero” cards and even Star Wars cards. The card folks seemed to be doing a brisk business.
Our apartment was in the center of Madrid with rather old buildings. It was really fun to be exposed to that atmosphere. We never did figure out the restaurant situation. The few that were close to us seemed to close in the late afternoon and did not re-open later as expected. We did find a great bakery a few blocks away that served great sandwiches and I went there for breakfast each day (see photo)
In my early travels to Europe, I fondly remember the breakfasts which were mostly cold cuts, cheese and fantastic bread. The bakery I had breakfast at had sandwiches that reminded me of those long ago breakfasts.
We did manage to have a great lunch at a restaurant just across the street – Allioli. They specialized in Valencian cuisine. We had Fideua which was small noodles with various types of seafood. It was served in a large pan as a meal for two. While it was sort of OK, the atmosphere and experience was great.
Tuesday we cooled our jets at the apartment to give our knees a rest. Wednesday we walked to Plaza Mayor (about 1.2 miles round trip). The Plaza is very large, much like the Grand Plaz in Brussels. The buildings are not as picturesque, but it was well worth the effort. See pictures below.
The weather in Madrid could not have been better. We had a quick sprinkle the first day and the remainder of the time had high temperatures in the mid 70s and the evenings were in the 50s.
The country side between Madrid and Barcelona is mostly agricultural. The farms appear to be very small. We saw vineyards and what we think were olive orchards but the majority of the area appeared to be pasture or hay. I am not sure about it being pasture as we never saw any livestock.
When we travel in Europe we always buy Eurail passes. That allows us to have virtually unlimited train travel. The train system in Europe is incredible. They are one of the main forms of transportation in Europe and almost every town has a rail station. The trains are very punctual and always clean. Eurail passes are for first class service (if available). Some of the trains require reservations. Some reservations do not have a fee, but many do. The train we are on had mandatory reservations. We are on first class and the normal fee for each of us would be $230. However, with the Eurail passes, our cost was $57 for the two of us.
First class on most of the trains is very much like first class on a plane. There is plenty of room in the seats and they often serve a great meal. Our meal on this train was breakfast and it was great (see photo).
Now for the big announcement: Pat just earned the next Stampin’ Up! trip. This one is a destination trip to Thailand!!! I had been checking the flight routes to Thailand and most have transfers in Japan. In the past, SU has not allowed folks to stop in route, but we sure hope that we can somehow arrange to visit both Japan and Thailand in one trip.
I will upload this blog when we get to the apartment. Spoiler alert: the apartment is fabulous (subject of next blog).
That is all for this blog.