Wow, Madrid is hot. I hate to be a broken record but ayeyeyeyeye. It’s 36 C today and feels like you’re in one of those hot, dry saunas that smell like cedar. Of course you should replace the cedar with cement and the occasional whiff of urine and it comes close. Not to give the wrong impression though, we’ve actually really enjoyed ourselves here so far and it’s a pretty clean city from what we’ve seen.
We woke up and ate a small fortifying breakfast of coconut yogurt and plums and headed off into the great wild of Madrid. Our first stop – Plaza de Espana and the statue of Don Quixote. Yes, him. It was your typical ‘statue in a park’ situation so we quickly checked that off of our mental to-do list and moved on. We found a cute little sidewalk café that still offered breakfast so we ordered a number 2, 3, 4 and 6. Very easy! Julia had hot chocolate with a potato tortilla, Chloe wanted churros and hot chocolate, Jeff a fancy grilled cheese and ham with coffee, and I had a coffee with toasted bread and some kind of tomato salsa and olive oil. The only disappointment was that they were done with churros because breakfast was about to end… but we were happy that that would be one less sugar thing consumed. The hot chocolate here is more like warm chocolate pudding – it actually formed a skin on it during the short walk between the kitchen and our table!
Then on to some shopping. Chloe is a shopper, she is constantly wanting to look in stores and browse (and is quite the opposite of her sister and father!). So, we indulged her a little with souvenir shop after souvenir shop. Plus a giant department store filled with Barbies (which Julia also loved). Somehow during the department store excursion Jeff and I were afflicted with a terrible disease called ‘boredom’ and ‘sleepiness’. We had to move on for the sanity of the family. So, on we went in the hunt for lunch. We walked for a few blocks trying to find a place that was both shady and breezy and ended up in a beautiful square. After we ordered our lunch Jeff remembered being warned about eating in the Plaza Mayor because it’s a ‘tourist trap’. Guess where we were??? That must be why the tables were so nicely arranged under beautiful umbrellas. The food was actually pretty good and not overpriced (in our opinion) but they killed you on the beverages. Oh well, we got some nice pictures and sat there for an hour – we were fine with it. After all, we are tourists!
We then wandered semi-aimlessly until we felt the rubber would melt off the bottom of our shoes. I had a tiny bit of (hot) water left in a water bottle that I’d ration off into the cap and pour on the kid’s heads. We saw some stuff, took some pictures, and aimed for the metro. Some of the stations are very hot and we didn’t want to go in without cooling down a bit so we entered the closest bar and sat down. The glasses were frosty and the beer was cold and it was instant relief. As for the kids, Chloe ordered an iced tea and Julia had a grazinado – sort of a slushy lime/lemon drink that is really popular here. For the first time ever we received tapas with our drinks (without us asking). How exciting! Unfortunately I wasn’t even remotely hungry but I appreciated them being there… Jeff had a few and said they were great. Tomorrow I will be better prepared.
Oh, I forgot to mention the amazing market we found today. It was a high end market and it was gorgeous, clean, and had the best frozen yogurt I’ve ever eaten. You chose your size and then there were about 20 different toppings to choose from – I had a black cherry one and it was unbelievable. Julia had mango and we were so involved with our own that we totally forgot to taste each others! I think we’ll head back there in the next few days because there were so many nice looking things and we need to go there hungry.
We brought our tired, hot bodies’ home for some relaxation and pool time. I can hear Jeff and the kids out in the pool right now as I wait inside for Jennie’s arrival. She should be here any minute and then we’ll head down and sit by the pool with our nicely chilled bottle of cava.
** Side note ** this is an interesting time to mention the lack of toilet paper in this country. I had read it in a guide book but didn’t really think much of it. We’ve needed to buy it in every single city we’ve been to! In Begur it was so strange – we arrived at the house and there wasn’t a single scrap of anything absorbent! No toilet paper, paper towels, napkins… nothing! Just empty hooks hanging in the bathroom. Luckily I had a few napkins in my purse to deal with the pee emergency – how strange. In a lot of public bathrooms they seem to be out of paper as well, and in all of the other apartments we’ve had a single roll which obviously doesn’t work for 4 people for more than a day or so. So now we pack our own paper!
__Later___
About to head to bed and I am way too tired to add some pictures. Jennie arrived and the 3 of us adults sat around talking and drinking cava until we realized it was late and we should eat some dinner. We went to a seafood place and had the entire top floor to ourselves... they served us a huge platter of fancy seafood and little casseroles of fish and potatoes. Yum! We tiredly stumbled home and will conquer the city again tomorrow... zzzzz.
No comments:
Post a Comment