Madrid Day 2

In the afternoon of Day 1, Belen had helped us to book our high-speed train tickets for the ride back into Madrid the following day. Rachel and I had a hotel booked and her friends from the program were going to join us for the day to see a few sights and shop around in Madrid. We left Segovia on the 1:30pm train run by RENFE (the company that operates the train; like Metra). We arrived in the same Chamartin station that I had utilized the day before for transfer from the METRO. Then we got on a METRO train to Puerta de Sol to check in to our hotel room. Rachel’s two friends had set a meeting time and place for us to meet them that did not give us much time.

We made our way over to the Hostel, Rachel in the lead. I probably asked her about 5 times if she was sure she knew where she was headed. Fear not, we arrived at the hostel and checked in to our room. The room was probably about the size of 3 of Belen’s bathroom – still not large. But we had a shower with a door that closed and a head that didn’t require that you held it. We were perfectly happy. We also had a free WiFi connection. There was a “patio” as part of the room too, it was bigger than the room.

Then we headed to meet Rachel’s friends in Parque de Retirio (sp?). Rachel and I headed to the meeting place and tried to find the girls, no luck. We walked in a bit further and sat at a nice little café on this man-made lake and ordered dos cervezas. There were probably 30 row boats in the lake and people in them rowing around. It didn’t look like too much fun in the 100+ degree heat. Fortunately, the one girl had given us her international cell phone that would work to call them on another phone. Without this, we would never have met them successfully. So we did meet up with those girls and we headed to the Palacio de Cristal. It wasn’t much more than a large structure made up of tons of windows with a huge slide (yes, a slide like from a park) inside of it. We strolled up and walked in. Some of the girls relived their childhood with a ride down the slide – I did not.

Then we made our way back the way we had come and picked up some helado (ice cream). I had some sort of drumstick that contained a Kit Kat. Yum. We made our way over to a museum – we had to use the bathroom. We entered the museum, and much to our surprise, there were the 3 things we were seeking: air conditioning, bathrooms, and a $0 ticket price. We took care of business and cooled down.

Next, the girls wanted to do some shopping, so we made our way back near the streets of Madrid and out of the park – took a Metro back to Puerta del Sol. We walked up and down the streets and saw thousands of people shopping at stores like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Guess, North Face, and other no-name stores, and the girls went nuts – mostly the other girls, Rachel had no strong urge to blow cash, as it was not her last day.

I was over the shopping in about 9 minutes and Rachel in about 19, so we found a cozy spot and sat with a couple of the other girls, waiting for the stragglers to finish spending their last Euros. Keep in mind that by a cozy spot, I mean a street with a small concrete ledge windowsill to sit on – room for 3 (there were 4 of us). Eventually all the girls reconvened and it was time for dinner.

Dinner #2 in Spain was another underwhelming experience. We went to a tapas place and the girls ordered 4 pitchers of sangria, and jamon (ham) and manchego cheese, served with bread. I ordered ham croquettes. Basically those are mashed potatoes mixed with a creamy cheese and very small bits of ham, dropped into a fryer and served up. Very rich and not exactly what I was craving.

Next, it was time to send the girls off back to Segovia for their final night there. Rachel and I retired back to our hostel. We had a 7:00am flight in the morning and had to inquire about transportation to the airport – we suspected the METRO would not be running at 4:30am when we wanted to leave. We came in to the lobby of the hostel – 5^th floor – to talk to the desk person. It was a guy that we’ll call Euro Doc Brown because he looked like Christopher Lloyd from Back to the Future – but spoke 4 languages. He said that it would be best to take a taxi, but that we wouldn’t be likely to find one at such an hour. He would call one right away and have it here for us in the morning. He also offered wake-up call services, which we didn’t really need, but we accepted. He ensured us that those taxis are usually 15 minutes early, and very prompt.

3:45am Sunday

Our wake-up call provides a rude awakening – it’s just an automated system. A few minutes later Euro Doc called the line and asked if we were awake – nice of him. When I responded with yes, the wake-up call worked, he replied, “oh yes, I see you.” Annnnnnnnnnnd I was creeped out. Fortunately for us, we were leaving soon.

We get all packed up and head to the lobby of our floor (4^th). Doc Brown told us to wait there and not on the street and that he would signal us when the cab arrived. The cab was 5 minutes late, then it was 10 minutes late. I walked up the stairs to talk with Doc and he said he just got off the phone with them and they were almost there – so much for 15 minutes early. At any rate, we did get picked up in the cab – the cabbie had a story about being stopped for a breathalyzer by the police, which he must have passed. He seemed believable enough. We got to the airport and through security in probably 15 minutes.

To be continued on Roma Day 1.