Friday

Off to the airport with plenty of time to spare. That Logan shuttle out of Framingham is getting sooooo popular  -  people had to stand all the way in. Of course, it was a very busy travel day, given that it was the beginning of school vacation.We met up with some Natick people in there on their way to Vegas, and some others who were on our flight on the way to London. Naturally, the weather was snowy and our plane had to be de-iced, etc., so we were about 30 minutes late leaving. It was a very bumpy ride over the Atlantic in spots…..

Saturday

Whatever possessed me to connect through Heathrow is beyond me given that it is still the most screwed up airport I know of  - hasn’t changed since the last time I went through there (1988, when the air traffic control system crashed and I was stranded). So after the usual two bus rides in the airport to actually get to our plane, we took off about an hour late for reasons unknown. We landed about 1:00 ish in the afternoon. A couple of things became apparent when we entered the terminal: 1. People were actually smoking inside of a building, and 2, they were speaking in some foreign tongue! We changed our money form Americano to Pesetas and went out to meet Di. Carol and Jack went to our hotel in a cab. Our driver, Mario Andretti, had us there in a jiffy. Since the cabs are small, Di and Meri took the metro. Speaking of our hotel, we decided we’d stay in a place that would give us  the real flavor and culture of Spain, namely, the Holiday Inn! Seriously, folks, it was a nice place (4 stars, only the best for us Rourkes!) and they actually spoke English at the front desk. We were a tad tired, so we had a little siesta. At night, we went to TGI Fridays for dinner amidst 425,000 screaming soccer fans on the way to the stadium to see the Madrid Real kill some other team (oh, that’s the first place Marid Real!). Di and Cheryl (Di’s roomate and author of Fun Facts) joined us.

Sunday

Breakfast at the hotel. We went up to the hotel roof to check out the view. We later went to the Prado (the Art museum) to check out the Goyas and Grecos. I should mention here that this was carol and Jack’s first metro ride. Great metro! Trains run about every 5 minutes. The stations are clean. They are also deep deep deep underground, like 4 long escalator rides down. One weird thing was that some cars had buttons you would have to push to open the doors. Meri was still jet-lagged and wasn’t into it. Di wasn’t exactly into it. Jack and Carol were into it. We met two people from Worcester Ma. at the Prado – it’s easy to meet people when you wear your college sweatshirt. We bailed out early (no big deal since the Prado is free on Sundays) and went to lunch. In order to continue getting in touch with the Spanish culture, we went to the Planet Hollywood. At night we went to dinner at Di’s apartment. So we were a little nervous about meeting the senora who allegedly did not speak English, and also about the food we might be served. Well, the senora spoke excellent English as did one of her daughters. Anyway, the food was a little strange looking to us Americanos, but tasted pretty good. Meri kind of pushed things around on her plate and made it look like she actually ate some of it. I liked the senora’s  42 year old Phillips radio (still working).
 

Monday

Up early for breakfast. Meri went to school with Di for the day. Jack and Carol went to do mandatory shopping at El Corte Ingles which is so big you could put 4 Macys in it! Carol and Jack took a bus tour of Madrid. On our tour, we saw the Royal Palace and lots more, including where they have the bullfights (sorry, not open for bull killing until March). They said that 28,000 go to the bullfight every Sunday – that’s 28,000 that get seats, plus 15,000 more that stand. The tour ended with a drink at the Planet Hollywood near the Prado. We walked up to Retiro park behind the Prado and killed a few more hours. Dinner later with Di and Cheryl at another fine Spanish establishment, Pizza Hut.

Tuesday

Jack, Carol and Meri ventured out to see the Royal Palace. We got lost for about an hour walking around, but it was not a problem as we got to see more of the city. (One member of the entourage was getting a little nervous about being lost, but we won’t mention any names). I actually spotted a tour group (yay, English speakers!) and asked them for directions. Actually, by getting lost, we wound up in Plaza Mayor which is a must see for Americanos in Madrid. We got to the Palace, paid our pesetas and took a tour with an English speaking guide – there are 2843 rooms in the Palace, and we saw 20. At night, we did dinner with Di and Cheryl at a restaurant in the back of VIPS (a store that sells books, beer, well, you name it!)

Wednesday

Early breakfast, and we were picked up at the hotel early for an all day tour. We set off for Avilla and Segovia. We certainly picked a good time of year to go as we found most of our destinations not too crowded. By the way, we had 9 days of great weather – mostly sunny days with temps in the high 50’s to low 60’s.
Avilla is a walled city with St. Theresa’s Cathedral as the main attraction. In Segovia, the aqueduct and more Cathedrals, the Alcazar castle. We had lunch there, and, are you sitting down, it was real Spanish food. I couldn’t identify it really, some was good, some not. We met up with a lady from New Guinea. She was a medical doctor and travels alone because her husband, also a doctor, keeps their clinic running while she takes vacation.

Thursday

We slept in! We schlepped over to Di’s school for a visit and some photo-ops. We met her friend Jim from Nebraska. We later shopped at Puerto Del Sol. On the metro, there was a girl snapping her gum so loud, we couldn’t hear anything else. Di almost belted her! Later we went to dinner at Pizza Hut with Di and Cheryl. We did a late night coffee with the Senora (Ana Maria), then she took us on a late night ride through the city which was fun.

Friday

Slept in again. We (not me really) decided to go back over to the Prado area to do some shopping. We did it and were at the metro stop buying tickets when IT happened. Carol’s wallet got pinched! She realized it quickly and went back to report it to the ticket person, who like 99% of the population in Madrid, did not speak English. Anyway, she deduced what had happened and directed us to go to the police station someplace in metro-ville. Carol had 2 credit cards and some cash in the wallet. Anyway, we went down to the platform and on the other side a girl starts motioning to us. She came over and returned Carol’s wallet. Ooooook. A quick look inside and everything appeared to be there. The girl was babbling something in Spanish. Never did figure it out. Later, though, Carol discovered about 20 bucks missing. Oh well, could’ve been worse. The lesson here is this: SHOPPING IS EVIL! This never would have happened if we hadn’t been SHOPPING! (Also, keep that wallet zipped up). In the afternoon, after a wholesome lunch at McDonalds, we all (Di and Cheryl included) went to Toledo, another must-see! There we saw a cathedral (surprise…), monastery, synagogue, and Geco’s famous painting. It was a fast tour, but very interesting. Later that night we had dinner at Actors, an Italian restaurant.

Saturday

What trip to Madrid would be complete without a trip to the zoo? (Hint: none). It was a beautiful day, so off we all went. We found out that the metro was being fixed in the area of the zoo, so we got off 2 stops before the zoo and got on a bus. The bus traveled for a while, then carol spotted a sign that said “zoo -->”. I tapped the bus driver and said, “zoo?”. He replied, “Si”. Now you and I know that “Si” means “yes”. But, it’s a little known fact that “si” in Madrid also means “YES – THIS IS WHERE I LET OUT THE STUPID NON-SPANISH SPEAKING AMERICAN TOURISTS WHO DON’T REALLY KNOW THAT WE ARE STILL 2.5 MILES FROM THE ZOO!”. Right, well, it was a nice day for a walk, except for a certain female member of the contingent whose bladder gauge was pointing to F. So, we eventually made it and had a great time. They had some weird animals that I’d never seen before. I liked the beer vending machine too. We saw a bird show and seal show. They also had a very nice aquarium. At night, we did dinner at TGI’s again. The service stunk and they brought us the wrong order twice….

Sunday

Up at 3:30 am and off to the airport in 2 cabs (those cabs are small). Discovered at the airport that I left my carry on bag in the hotel. Had to call the Hotel and they found it. So then I called Di and she later went to pick it up. I’m really losing it! Bad weather in Boston had us doing a loop-dee-loop over the Atlantic for a while.

Things I remember: The “doorman” at VIPS…. The “ladies of the evening” out by the zoo (city must be zoned that way)…. 7 foot long Smaaat cahs!…. CHEREEL!…. The big crowd outside the hotel on both Saturday nights…. Trying to get Meri up (a teenager will kick and scream for an extra 10 milliseconds of sleep)….the smells of the city……the spiffy El Corte Inglesh employees….the bus station for our tours that was smaller than a Seven Eleven….seeing 24 hour time format everywhere….the constant rush hour in the city…the cell phones (99% of the population has one)…walking through the parks getting to the zoo…."gra the as" (the lisp)……Di and Cheryl's knowledge of the language....