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Published: July 30th 2010
Ever had an experience where you know you are exactly where you should be? Where everything flows as it should, nothing is forced and you just feel surrounded with a sense of being quite centered? That’s exactly how the trip has been so far.
The flight ended up being shorter than expected. Instead of almost an 8 hour flight, we landed in Madrid after just 6 hours and 40 minutes. Considering I got on the plane, ate dinner, watched Sherlock Holmes, fell asleep and woke up 20 minutes prior to landing, I have no complaints.
The first thing I noticed about Madrid was how clean the city was. It’s a city, no doubt but just cleaner than expected. The air doesn’t reek of diesel, the streets aren’t littered with trash and the strong, cool breeze that flowed through the streets was a pleasant surprise. Already I’m impressed with the architecture, and the history you can feel in the walls of our hotel is stunning. Our hotel, El Emperador, is pure class. A beautiful building, complete with a service-oriented staff and a rooftop pool I have yet to visit. Our 5th floor room has a large window that totally opens
to the street. I guess they don’t care here if you jump! For some reason, I found this fact incredibly freeing.
Considering we had a few hours to kill before the afternoon siesta - how wonderful it is to know we can simply sleep during the hottest periods of the day - we decided to check out Madrid on foot and find the nearest café for some coffee. Weather was perfect as we settled into some outdoor seating at the chocolateria up the street, directly across from an old-school record shop complete with rows of vinyl outside and a Ramones shirt centered under the LPs, which of course drew my attention. It worked.. this was where we needed to be.
The chocolateria was nothing short of decadent. Coffee was superb and we ordered churros and dipping chocolate to complement the day. We sat quietly, taking it all in.. the breeze, the coffee, the food, the people. Perfect...
With more time before siesta, we headed to the Metro in the hopes of checking out some Dali works at the Reina Sofia Museum. Metros here are clean and very easy to use. As always, it’s helpful that we speak
Spanish but I think a non-speaker would be fine as well considering its color coded. The museum was wonderful and to be able to see some of Dali’s works right in front of me was breathtaking. I couldn’t stop staring. The last Dali exhibition I saw was in Italy and it was only his sculptures. I’ve never seen his paintings up close and it was an experience.
By the time we were done in the museum, Mike had been up for over 24 hours and was starting to feel the effects. It was time for siesta to start and we were happy the museum had been close to the hotel and the Metro was quick.
We awoke 8 hours later (also known as a Mega-Siesta..haha) to a knock at the door. We pleasantly declined what we figured was room service only to be told there was a delivery for us from the hotel. A complimentary bottle of champagne and chocolates was ushered in to our delight and surprise…until my paranoia set in and I was convinced of the following:
1. The folks in the apartments across the street had seen us sleeping considering I left the window
wide open through our siesta.
2. Those same folks had been filming us.
3. They had then sent us poisoned champagne so they could film our live deaths and sell it on the black market that must exist here.
These folks kill bulls for sport! Of COURSE there is a black market for such a thing!
Needless to say, the champagne WAS compliments of the hotel and we have not yet felt any ill effects of poisoning. All is well and we are getting ready for our night out!
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Kerry
non-member comment
heh heh...
I am sitting here giggling over the fact that champagne and chocolates threw you into paranoia! I would have been like, "what? no strawberries?" ;)