Day 3, slowing down a bit

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I had the alarm set for 7am this morning, but we didn't get up until closer to 11am...

Actually, I kept hitting the snooze button, but Rhiannon never made a movement or sound (except for some snoring). I figured eventually she'd wake up and start asking about breakfast, but that never happened. I finally gave up on the snooze, and got up to shower. When I came out, Rhiannon was still fast asleep, but I knew we had to get going or we'd waste a day in the hotel (something I never want to do).

I tried several times to wake her, but the only reaction I got was that she put her pillow over her head. I said, "Rhiannon, you have to get up now, we've wasted 1/2 the day....". Her response? "No thanks, I'm fine.". I got her up anyways and once she'd showered, we headed to the subway.

Before going back downtown, we had to head over the main train station to activate our EuRail passes. This required us switching subway cars about 1/2 way through and taking a different line, headed for the exit at Atoche RENFE (RENFE is the national train company). Along this new route, we saw our saxophone entertainer from the day before, and later, a new entertainer playing an accordion. Accordions may be good instruments if used tastefully, but they never are (live in Texas and you'll grow to loathe the damned thing). Oh, and as if to add some further excitement, some guy tried to pick my pockets. He had no luck, since i carry my wallet in a front pocket when traveling, but given time, I'm sure he would have checked there too.

We got our train tickets for Granada tomorrow (a 4 hour train ride, one way) and found out that Portugal is a 9 hour train ride from Madrid. That pretty much cancels any plans for Portugal on this trip. Maybe next time?

We eventually made it back downtown by 1:30pm, to our favorite place to start from, the Plaza de Isabel, and since we missed breakfast, we were starving. We found a Middle Eastern fast food place called "Istanbul", where we both feasted on döner kebaps (like a gyro). After that, we did a little shopping for souvenirs, and then the dark clouds starting coming in. Rain has been forecasted every day we've been here, and it was getting ready to start pouring. We headed back to our hotel, but not before Rhiannon did some swinging on a swingset we found in a park along the way.

Tomorrow we head to Granada for 2 days/nights, where the plan is to see the crypt of Ferdinand & Isabel (Rhiannon is doing a project this year in GT about Isabel), and then a few other sights. The 2nd day we are going to try and make it to Algeciras, where we'd take a ferry across to Morocco for a few hours. Right now I don't know how feasible that is (based on the trains and times) but we are going to try. If not, we'll spend another day exploring Granada, and then return to Madrid for the remainder of our vacation. I don't know what the Internet connections are like in Granada, so I may not be able to write again until Wednesday.

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