Chuck's News: October 2019

We were up early and down to the bus station (again) to catch a mid morning bus to the airport. Our flight from Santiago to Madrid was about 1:30, so there was no need to rush. We got up and showered, packed up and walked the 15-20 minutes to the bus station. We had asked the days before and knew we only needed to show up at the bus, pay the driver €2 each and ride the 20-25 minutes to the airport.

Quite a crowd was waiting for the bus when it finally arrived, and it was quite full upon arrival. There are no yellow lines on the floor near the driver. We all crammed onto the bus, standing right up to and blocking the front door. The driver got it closed and we were off. Sally had to stand, which is quite uncomfortable for her, but she found she could brace and lean against a pole enough to ease the ride a little. Once at the airport I threw my knife in the garbage before we entered the terminal then proceeded to security. Sally had forgotten to empty her water bottle. The woman running the xray machine was kind and gave us the option of throwing it away or chugging it. I chugged it.

The flight was uneventful and we soon back at Terminal 4 at Madrid. We found our way to the subways under the train station. It would take three separate rides to get to Plaza de Porto de Sol, the main square in the town. I had downloaded the metro app for Madrid and with it we had charted our course. As with every major city, the subways are a dream. It quickly and efficiently had us to the square by a little after 4. As is true every time one is in a new city, when one emerges from the subway it takes a minute to figure out which way is which and what direction to walk to get to your destination. With the amazing map apps on phones now it is much easier and we soon crossed the square and were on track to our “Cheap Sleeps” we had reserved a week ago from Santiago.

Sally had been feeling overheated and hungry as we left the subway and tried to reach the surface streets, so we stopped in Plaza de Carmen, right outside our place and had pizza before continuing.

Now came the big question. What had we rented? It was the cheapest room Rick Steves recommended, under €50 a night (we didn’t even know what the cost was). Sally had been counting on a great place to relax after all our walking and albergue nights, but since AirB&B had cancelled our place and everything else was well over €300 a night, this was our only option without going way over budget or staying miles outside the city. We picked up our bags and walked across the square and into the building. We did not know what floor it was on, so we walked up the stairs looking at signs and rooms. On the top floor (6 up) we found our door. We rang the bell. No one answered. We rang it again. No answer. Some one stepped off the elevator and knowingly rang the bell for us. This time a kind looking lady in her late 70’s opened the door with a welcoming smile. No English. With my broken Spanish we got introduced and she showed us the room. As she was unlocking the door with her skeleton key I was wondering what was on the other side. There were only 5 reviews on the web, two terrible, two great and one middleing. It earned an average of 3.5 out of 5.

The door swung open to reveal a bedroom sized room with a double bed, a bath room with nice shower and a window. At first glance it looked clean. I looked to Sally. Could she handle this for tonight? For the next four nights. I think the kind woman had an influence and Sally said it would be fine. We discussed money. €40 a night. All four nights would be cheaper than any alternative. We took the key, closed the door and looked around.

This woman’s family had been renting this room and two others since 1936. She had lived here her whole life. The bed looked like it was from 1936. It felt hard and lumpy. Were those springs we felt? The walls were filthy. Painted a nice grey, but cleaned last in 1970? A coat of paint and a new bed and this would be a great place. So what did it have going for it? The price, the bathroom and the location, location, location. It was on Plaze de Carmen and two small blocks from the center square, Plaze de Porto de Sol.

As is our custom upon entering a new city, we plugged into Rick Steves podcast of a walk in the city to orient ourselves and out the door we went. We followed Rick’s audio tour for the next couple of hours and discovered the layout and high points of the town. What really amazed us was the number of people out on a Thursday night. Thousands and thousands. Madrid moved all the traffic in the central core of the city underground so the whole city is a pedestrian mall. It is wonderful, and the people of Madrid must think so, because they were out in force. We found this to be not a one night phenomenon. It was packed every night we were in the city.

We got back to our room about 9:30pm and went to bed. Sally had not been feeling at the top of her game during the whole walk, really since the subway. At 2:30 she was violently sick, vomiting into the toilet. Once we got everything cleaned up, it was back to bed. Our early start on the city for the morning was out the window. If she could sleep, I was certainly not going to wake her.

On Friday we got out the door about 10:30am. Sally was weak, but thought she could make it to the Prado Museum of Art if we went slow and took long rests.

We enjoyed the Prado immensely. I love the classic painters, Durër, Fra Angèlico, Botticelli, Raphael, Rubens, Goya. I’m okay with the impressionist and really not a fan of the modern stuff (sorry Picasso).

We stopped at a tapas bar for lunch. Sally was doing surprisingly well and suggested we do the Thyssen while in the neighborhood. We did, starting on the top floor and working our way through history as we descended the floors.

Back on the streets, we returned to the Puerto de Sol and enjoyed the live music on stage, the people and the street vendors before calling it a day. I made a quick trip to the grocery store for a bite for dinner and then we returned to our room. We entered it to find she had cleaned while we were gone, but the bathroom smelled like puke. It was the rag I had cleaned up with. I had rinsed it, but not good enough and it was stinking up the room. Into the shower with it and all was made right. Sally took a nap and I ran around town for an hour and a half, just seeing the town and visiting the Apple Store.

Saturday we were off to the Royal Palace. It did not open until 10, so we slept in and lazily made our way walking there, finding pastries along the way. The line was quite long for tickets and it took us about an hour to get in. This palace was built by Louis the IVX’s grandson. He grew up at Versailles, and it shows. This palace is a near copy. We really enjoyed the interior, using Rick Steves written tour as our guide. Again, we found what the Spanish did with all the gold they looted from the Aztecs. It was on full display throughout the palace.

We did some shopping in the afternoon and again enjoyed the live music in the square. We called it early and were in bed by 9:30

Tonight it was my turn. My stomach started to hurt about 11. It was enough to keep me awake. By 3 I had slept a little, but now it was full on pain management. I was not going to let myself throw up. So much for that. About 4:15 it happened.

Sunday? Sally went to the Sophia museum by herself while I slept and rested. We had bought tickets to see the movie Downton Abbey for 2:45 in the afternoon. It was my goal to make it to that. I was not recovering as quickly as Sally did, and it was a real trial to make it the 0.4 miles across Puerto de Sol to the theatre. But with about 4 rest breaks I made it to the theatre. It was a good activity, because it required no activity for about 3 hours. We enjoyed the movie, and I felt better coming out than I did going in. I returned to the room to rest.

My concern was having the strength for the flight to London the next morning. We had to be on the subway when it opened at 6am to catch our 10:30 flight.

We were up at 5:15 the next morning and out the building by 5:55. There were still tons of people in the street, but the nature of the crowd had changed. Now it was all young people, 16-30, mostly drunk or high or just incredibly tired. The police presence was still very noticible. As we entered Puerto de Sol we could see a group of kids having a run in with the police. It looked ugly, our first bad impression of Spain.

The subway was brightly lit and the trains were running. Two changes of trains and we were back at Terminal 4 for the third time, for our flight to London. We breakfasted on a muffin and vegetable stuffed pastry, then boarded our Iberian airlines flight for London.

And so our Spain adventure came to an end. Three weeks of walking and meeting people. A week of exploring Santiago, Finisterra, Muxia and Madrid. We found it inviting, interesting and a must return to place. Great memories.