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Published: June 20th 2014
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Another really early morning as we had train tickets to Madrid that departed beautiful San Sebastián at 7:30am. Last night we showered, packed and laid out our clothes for today to quicken our departure to the train station. The hotel called a cab for us and it arrived quickly. Interestingly, he shoved all 4 of our luggage into the front passenger seat then proceeded to give the big ones a kick to close the car door. Traveling is an adventure and you see it all.
The train station was pretty close and only cost 9 euros. We found our check in, tickets were in order and we headed to platform 2 and waited the arrival of the 1st leg of our train to Zaragoza. While standing we began chatting with a very nice lady on holiday, Jenny, again from Australia. She was on holiday for 4 weeks and said that Australians are traveling now because their dollar is a good value vs. the Euro. Most all the Aussies we have met are in Europe for 4 to 6 weeks, I am so jealous.
We bought 1st class tickets for our journey to Madrid. We left the hotel before room
service so I missed my coffee and Jim his breakfast. Good thing I threw some granola bars and water bottles in my carry on. This leg was 4 hours and went really fast as the landscape is just beautiful. Lots of tunnels which makes for disruptive network while catching up on emails and this blog. We arrived safely in Zaragoza and Jenny waited for us on the platform to say goodbye and safe travels. She was really nice. We inquired and went down a large ramp where we checked in for the next leg on to Madrid which will be less than 2 hours. Back up a long ramp to the platform 3 where we waited for the arrival of our train to Madrid.
We boarded and thoroughly enjoyed this part of our journey. The Madrid train station is beautiful and very large more like an airport. We quickly navigated to the taxi queue and were on our way to Hotel Urban. We were referred to this hotel by Sunny as she and John stayed here when they visited Madrid. A very modern and lovely hotel we were greeted by Javier and he provided us with a city map.
We got to our room with our bags and then set out for lunch about 2pm. We found a nice outdoor cafe and enjoyed a ham sandwich and Cesar salad.
We headed just a few blocks to the famous Museo Nacional Del Prado. As in Paris, I was provided a ticket at no charge because of my handicap and Jim was 1/2 price at 7 euros for over 65. We also got the recorded headsets. This is a very large and beautiful museum and we were here about 3 hours. I really enjoyed the works by Spanish painter Goya and also Velazquez. However works by Bosch were very strange and sadistic. We are very tired and hot but on our way back to our hotel we came upon a Starbucks and could not resist a cafe mocha coconut frappacino. It was just wonderful and oh so refreshing. We sat and enjoyed the rest and watched the fountains outside before we headed out.
After a long day we decided to have dinner at the hotel and call it a day. Tonight we can go to sleep without an alarm. yeah!
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