Europe 2012 - Day 1: Madrid

After an approximately 7 hour and 45 minute flight, we landed  at the Barajas airport in Madrid. Out of all the countries we have landed in, Spain was probably the easiest country to get into. Normally, you have to fill out a customs and immigrations form, there is a long, long wait to get through immigration, then you get your luggage back, go through customs, and then finally leave the airport. In Madrid, the line at immigrations went very quickly, as the immigration officers seemed to be asking no questions, which is unusual. We also did not have to fill out a form this time. We were able to get our luggage and breeze right through customs and walk straight out to the taxi stand. I remember that we were exhausted, as we had only slept a couple of hours on the plane, but we were wide awake because we were so excited to be in Spain.

Anyway, we got a taxi rather quickly and dropped off our luggage at the Hostal Adriano, near Puerto del Sol in the middle of the city. It was around 9:30 and we had plenty of time to kill before our tour at noon. We went to the nearest metro station, bought a book of 10 tickets to share, and took the metro to the Atocha station to buy train tickets to Toledo for Saturday. It took a little bit of time, because we were still feeling our way around and getting used to using our Spanish again.

When we got back, we stopped and got a jamon (ham) and manchego (a Spanish cheese) sandwich. We thought Anya would eat the cheese; she normally doesn't eat a lot of meat here, but lo and behold, she actually wanted nothing to do with the cheese but ate a ton of ham. We ate in Plaza Mayor and waited for the free tour to begin.

It lasted about an hour and a half and took us through the older parts of the city. It was a really good thing to do on our first day, as it helped us to get a feel for the layout of the city.

After the tour, we headed back to the hotel to check in and get some rest. I had planned extra time to relax the first day, because I knew we would crash at some point in the afternoon. Anya had been sleeping in her stroller for most of the day, so she sat in the pack and play (provided by the hostal) and watched movies on the Ipad while Eric and I took a nap. Then, we got up and took showers so we could head out again. We took the metro to the Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida, which is a small chapel housing a large mural painted by Goya (a famous Spanish artist). Goya is also buried in this chapel. It was small, so we didn't stay long, but it was beautiful and free.

Next, we stopped a the grocery store to get something for breakfast and snacks (we had a refrigerator in the room so we could actually buy cold stuff), and then we ate dinner at a place called Casa Toni's, which was recommended by Rick Steves in his book. We ate various tapas (Spanish appetizers), including sauteed mushrooms, bread, olives, potatas bravas (fried potatoes with a hot sauce), and calamari. Of course, we had wine with our meal:)

After dinner, we walked around Puerto del Sol and Plaza Mayor and just explored a little bit, before stopping at Chocolateria San Gines where we had cappucino and churros. They were so good. Anya loved them and made a huge mess dipping them in the chocolate.

Though our first day was exhausting, it was great to be back in Spain (the last time had been in Barcelona in 2007). Because we both took Spanish in high school, we actually knew enough to decipher menus and signs and we could order food and buy tickets fairly easily. Anya had a hard time getting to sleep the first night, so we ended up putting her in her stroller and pushing her back and forth until she finally fell asleep. We only had to do this the first couple of nights (thank God!) before she became a pro at falling asleep on her own in a hotel room...

Europe 2012 - Getting There

Getting to Madrid took, quite literally, an entire day. We left the house very early in the morning so that we could get to the Louisville airport. We prepaid to park our car at a nearby hotel and take the free shuttle to the airport. After some research, we found out that it is cheaper to do this than to pay the parking fees at the airport. After checking our bags and going through security (somehow I got through without having to do any extra screening!), we had lunch at a Chili's inside the airport.

We were a little nervous about Ani's first flight, but she did great! In fact, she was asleep before we ever left the ground, and she ended up sleeping for most of the flight. Apparently, her ear tubes are still in, because she never seemed to notice the pressure changing and she never gave any indication that her ears were popping or anything.

When we got to Philly, we had several hours to spend in the airport before our flight to Madrid left. Once again, Anya fell asleep early on during this flight while watching the chipmunks movie on her own little TV. She loved it! We ended up waking her when the flight attendants brought dinner, though later I wished we hadn't. She didn't eat much and then didn't want to go back to sleep. After a lot of different kids shows and taking turns holding her, she finally fell asleep. Thankfully, we got a couple of hours of sleep, though we were still completely exhausted when we landed in Madrid a little after 8 in the morning, Madrid time.

More to come later about our time in Madrid...

European Vacation

It has been what seems like forever since I have posted in here. I certainly did not intend on allowing this much time to pass between posts, but it is what it is!

We just returned from a 16 day trek through Europe this past weekend. We are still fighting what is left of the jet lag and trying to get our house organized again. Between all the things we packed and all the things we bought to bring home, it is difficult to find time to put everything away. I hope to give a more detailed account of our advenures by the weekend, so stay tuned!