A Tired Arrival in Madrid

We arrived into a Madrid morning after an uneventful, but fairly restless flight where neither of us slept very well.  The flight over the countryside was pretty and we did see glimpses of Portugal and miles of olive trees and other agriculture.  The cities seem fairly concentrated in contrast to the U.S.  The airport was easy to navigate and baggage claim and customs proved to be no problem at all.  We had arranged a rental car from Hertz, found it, and it turned out to be a cute little Peugeot with automatic sliding doors that were pretty fancy.  Jeanette loved the car... I was just happy that we'd be able to use it to find our hotel soon.  I was tired out and a bit worse for the wear given how I'd been feeling before the trip combined with no rest on the plane.

We headed into town and had no trouble navigating our way into Madrid, though once we were there, we had a heck of a time navigating the one way streets to get to the district with our hotel.  The only hotel we had reserved on the whole trip was the Hotel Abalu for the first two nights in Madrid.  On our way searching around, we did drive past the huge Sunday market that is talked about in the guidebooks and we decided we'd return to it after finding the hotel.

We did eventually manage to find our way back to the Hotel Abalu area, found a parking spot, and brought our bags in.  Although the hotel doesn't have much of an outside, the inside is very chic and we liked our room with its orange-ambiance lights and windows that opened on the street below.  We were both hungry so we decided to try to find the market again and drove back to where we had see it.  We ate in a so-so tapas bar where the food was mostly fried and a bit tired.  The place was smoky as hell, too.  Too bad the Spanish had given up on their indoor smoking ban.

Walking around the market was interesting, but a bit too pushy and crowded for me.  They had tons of the usual kinds of toy knives, underwear, and ugly kids clothes that are at a lot of markets like that around the world, but they did also have some interesting leather goods and ceramics from outside Madrid.  There was nothing that we were dying to have however, so we decided to head back to the hotel for a bit of rest.  One interesting item was a fake US dollar bill that I found on the ground with a bunch of anti-George Bush messages.  Curious!

We headed back to the hotel and I napped a bit while Jeanette went out for a stroll to explore the city a little.  She found the theatre district and walked around for a bit.  When Jeanette got back to the room, we headed out together.  Walking around the pedestrian walking mall near the El Corte Ingles (a popular Macy's-like department store in Spain), we stopped to listen to a small classical string trio playing some beautiful music.  We window shopped and observed many others out strolling during the late evening.

For a bite to eat, we found an interesting little tapas bar with around 99 tiny little sandwiches that you could get filled with anything from olives to smoked salmon to a variety of cheeses.  I believe we even tried one with caviar.  That place was pretty tasty, especially when we washed down the sandwiches with some local beer and wine.  One food item I didn't like was the green olives that seem to be ubiquitous at Spanish restaurants.  They have a bland, almost buttery flavor that I find quite distasteful.  Too bad because I love most olives.  This particular restaurant was decent for a quick bite, though and I believe it was on Calle Mayor right next to Puerta del Sol. 

After dinner, we walked back though much quieter streets.  The Spanish late-night eating and strolling hour is interestingly confined to a two hour window, from about 10PM to midnight, before which people are napping and after which people either return to bed or head out to nightclubs.  We were not destined to find any of the nightclubs on this particular trip.  We eventually found the hotel and turned in for the night.