Our first day was flat-out exhausting. Jared drove us to catch the 4:45am ferry, and this was where Micah, Torah & I had to say good-bye to him for 2 years (since he would be leaving for his mission to Turkey a month later). Yeah, that was pretty tough.
Our flight left SeaTac at 7:50am. We had a brief layover in Chicago, then on to Madrid...
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| 14 hours of traveling with this goof ball was actually not too bad. |
We landed at the Madrid airport at 6:30am. Ugh! BAD idea. Now I understand why these were the cheapest tickets I could find. No one wants to travel across the U.S. and then Atlantic, and then have a whole day to kill. We dragged our sorry selves through the airport, got our bags, and then tried to figure out how to get from the airport into town. We finally ended up catching the metro and then a bus and then walking. We were such clueless newbies in Madrid. But we made it!
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| We spend much of that first day in Madrid walking this stretch of pedestrian street, under the "cool" shade of the canopies overhead. It was HOT! |
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| We were finally able to get checked into our hostal: Hostal Luz Madrid. The location was pretty good - right in the heart of all the action, but off on a quieter side street. Plus both the A/C and the wifi worked great! |
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| Our room was pretty tiny - 3 single beds. Yes, we were 4 people (Micah, Russ, Torah & me). But it is virtually impossible - and very expensive - to find a place that sleeps 4. So Torah & I shared one of those tiny beds. |
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| Except when she fell asleep next to Russ. Jet lag about killed us all! |
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| We tried to get in a little sight-seeing that first day. The Royal Palace was beautiful. |
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| Plaza Mayor might have been neat, but by then we were too hot & tired & hungry to really appreciate it. |
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| We stopped to eat at a little outdoor restaurant. We wanted to immediately try some local cuisine. Torah got the tortilla (basically potatoes & egg baked together). |
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| I tried a bocadillo de calamares - squid-rind sandwich - very popular in Madrid. Not bad, kind of chewy. |
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| Micah had paella - delicious & filling. |
That first day seemed to drag on forever! Seriously, take my advice & if you are ever flying overseas, be sure to land in the evening!
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| The next morning, we checked out of Hostal Luz and ate our first (of many) Spanish breakfasts - toast drizzled with olive oil and spread with crushed tomatoes. Delicious! |
Hey Brooke! I just found your blog. I had been waiting for you to post on wordpress. We just booked our flights home and we are stopping over in Mardid! We had planned to stop over in London and visit some of Europe, but London is just too dang expensive. It costs and arm and a leg just to get to and from the airport. So Rand found a flight that goes through Madrid. We will use Madrid as our base to see some of Europe and we will get to see Spain, which we have never been to before!
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