The Girls arrive in Madrid

And our journey begins! There are three of us for the '2005 Annual Girl's Trip', myself, Angie and Peggy.

Unfortunately I got the flu the Monday prior to our departure and as I'm traveling to Spain I am still sick! I can't believe how long this thing has hanged on!

We arrive into the Madrid airport (after a looong flight that began last night, from LAX to London, then London to Madrid) at 8:30 pm local time. Thank god for Ambien, because I was able to sleep 5 solid hours on our flight from LAX to London.

We took a cab from the airport to our Madrid hotel, the Hotel Intur Palacio San Martin, on Plaza de San Martin. What a lovely hotel! It used to be the former U.S. embassy, and still retains much of its charm today. There's a beautiful wood carved antique elevator still in place, though no longer in use (there's a small modern elevator for use instead). Our hotel is in a great location and is central to all the major sights, all within walking distance.

Our First Tapas Experience:

After checking-in we go out to find a good tapas bar for our first experience with tapas and beer. There are 2 places around the corner and we decide to try out the first one we come across, Taberna Los 4 Robles, and it ended up being our favorite tapas experience of the whole trip! We enjoyed gambas con ali-oli (shrimp and garlic sauce) on toast, jamon Iberico (premium ham) and queso (cheese) con pan (with bread), and setas con ali-oli (mushrooms and garlic sauce). Yummy! We also all ordered San Miguel beer, Spain’s answer to Miller.

As you can see from the pic of us in the tapas bar, I'm still looking a bit jet lagged, but none the less, Cheers!

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