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Published: November 22nd 2007
Mas Cervezas!
We found a pub that brews there own "100% natural" beer. We also got free shots of something licorice-y maybe Sambuca or Pernot.Hola from Madrid!
For those of you who haven't heard the back story you should know we arrived in Spain with some trepidation. When Liz's parents arrived about a week ago all hell broke loose. First the ariline lost Ann's luggage, then on the way to the hotel she was robbed on the train and lost everything, passport, money, identification, phone, camera etc. Then they went to see the apartment they had rented for everyone to stay in and it was in a dodgy neighborhood and roach infested. By the time we arrived in Europe the motto of the trip was "anything that can go wrong is going to go wrong." However, we think we've brought better luck because so far we've enjoyed Spain without incident!
We arrived yesterday morning after leaving Paris around 4:30 am. Our first day was pretty low key, we walked around Puerta del Sol where our hotel is. The most exciting thing was probably our lunch at the Museo de Jamon. For those of you who aren't familiar with Spanish Cuisine, it's primarily Ham based. The choices at the "museum" were ham sandwich, plate of ham, ham and cheese, ham soup... or a plate
Hotel Europa
The view from one of our two balconies! of cheese. Having been seriously over-cheesed in Paris we opted for the ham. They don't really believe in condiments here so the ham and cheese was literally a slice of ham and a slice of cheese on some dry bread, fortunately we got beer with the meal so that helped. Halfway through our meal we noticed a commotion on the other side of the bar, clearly one of the patrons was not pleased with his ham sandwich and an argument ensued. The bartender grabbed two bottles of liquor and started chasing after the man screaming at him, nothing seemed to phase the man until our waitress calmly grabbed a bat from under the counter and held it over her head menacingly. Just like that the argument ended and everyone enjoyed another beer. After lunch we took a long siesta and had drinks at the irish bar down the street while waiting for Liz's dad to arrive from Ireland. After we met up with him we took a walk and had an early dinner (by Spanish standards) at about 11:00 at night.
Today we went to the Museo de Reina Sophia to see all the surrealist art by people like
Jamon
More ham, so many different kinds of ham! Delicious!!! Dali, Bunuel and Miro. We were most impressed by a group of 1st grade students who were intently studying Picasso's Guernica, which we all agreed would have scared the crap out of us as children. Our other favorite exhibit was the student protest that occured on the steps in front of the museum while we were in there. We have no idea what it was about and it was over in about a half an hour much to the disappointment of the throngs of policemen in full riot gear. After
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Kristin !!
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MMMM....Jamon!
Ahhh....el Museo de jamon... where the ham hocks hang high proclaiming the Spaniards love for the pig.... And arguments and protests!! Wow...quite the day. I miss Spain and I miss you and can't wait to see the Campbell Clan at Christmas :-) Have fun and be safe !