From Madrid to Frankfurt

From Madrid to Frankfurt

Our Final Day in Madrid

Our last day in Madrid did not start out so great! I woke up with a minor case of vertigo. The world would spin every time I moved at all, which was more than a little disconcerting. Thanks to Kel’s quick internet skills she was able to put me on the mend by getting me on some Benadryl. Within an hour I was back to normal.

We sent the day walking around town since the weather was good and the sun was out. After walking through the streets for about an hour we found our way back to Retiro Park and found a nice sunny spot to sit in the sun. We were treated to one of the funnier street performers I’ve ever seen. This guy was dancing to Michael Jackson songs and had a whole crowd around him. He really had the leg movements down pretty well but couldn’t figure out what to do with his arms to save himself. The crowd kept laughing which I think was what finally made him leave. It was too bad because Kel and I were really enjoying it.

Later on, after an afternoon of internet research, we went out for our final dinner in Madrid and Spain. We ended up at this really nice tapas restaurant that had a 5 course tapas dinner which was pretty reasonable. The food was great and we had a wonderful time because the place was pretty empty and the wait staff was friendly and funny.

To Frankfurt We Go

Kel and I both agree that travel days are what really separates this trip from a normal vacation. In a normal vacation we would know where we were going and exactly how to get there. These trips would be by taxi and plane and probably would be kind of expensive but for a short trip, it would be worth the money because of the time we would save.

Well, on this sort of trip, money is important and therefore running hither and yon to try and get some place the cheapest way is worth it. We started today with the metro. The metro goes from Puerta del Sol to the airport, but it takes a few train changes to get there. (I remind the casual reader at this point that we do all of this with our packs on…which add a burden to mass transit, no sitting and a constant need to watch where you turn so you don’t kill someone behind you with your pack.) Three metro trains and 25 minutes later we were at the airport.

Once at the airport we asked the info desk where we should go, e.g. what terminal we should go to. Turns out we needed to be in terminal 4. Terminal 4 is a 15 minute bus ride from the rest of the airport. We found the bus; we got to terminal 4 and we managed to check our backpacks. (We found out the excact weight of our packs at this point because we had more weight than the plane limit and therefore had to pay a penalty. In total we have 54.2 kg of luggage, that’s 86.7 pounds. Kel’s weighs 22.6 kg and mine weighs 31.6 kg that’s 36.2 and 50.6 pounds respectively).

Now jump ahead to Frankfurt. We arrived in Frankfurt at 5:30pm and the sun was already down. We got our bags and got through customs and now had to make it to the hotel. As we left customs we had our luggage, no map, no knowledge of German, and only a small amount of knowledge how to get towards downtown. After about a half hour of poking around we found the bus to the metro station in Terminal 1, however we arrived in Terminal 2. From the airport metro station we asked the metro information desk how to get to the main metro station in downtown. We then bought our tickets and boarded yet another train. The trains in Frankfurt are very nice and spacious so we actually got to perch on seats with our packs on.

The tourist information offices in Europe are great. They are in almost every town and have pretty friendly multi-lingual staff members. In the main station in Frankfurt we went to the TI and got a map and asked for some assistance. They guided us correctly and after a 15 minute walk later we were at our hotel.

In total we took 4 trains, 2 buses and an airplane to get to Frankfurt. In the course of these actions we saved ourselves about 50 euros (about 70 dollars). Was it worth it? We think yes and it was a little bit of adventure while we were at it.

Hope you are all well! Tomorrow we pick up the car we’ve rented and are heading to Cologne for the first of many places to really visit in Germany. Talk to you again soon hopefully.

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