Madrid

We left London on Friday to head to Madrid where Kathy had already landed.  Despite a late start because of an air traffic controller strike in France, we arrived in Madrid in daylight, and luckily, Di changed her mind and met us at the airport.  We were relieved, as we had no idea how we were going to get from the airport to the hotel.  With a fluent speaker, however, it was very easy!

We had pre-arranged to meet Sarah Haertl there, and since she was staying in our hotel, she was easy to find.  We briefly said hello to her and then went to get Kathy and go to dinner.  We ate at an outdoor restaurant, and on our way home stopped for churros.  Yum!  San Gines churros are well-known and lived up to their billing.

Saturday morning it wasn't exactly rise and shine, but by 9:30 we were on our way to the Prado.  Although we have been to the Prado before, Diana gave us a nice tour of some of the highlights.  Of course, I love the Raphaels, but Di helped us appreciate Bosco.  I knew of El Greco and Velazquez, but Di helped dust a lot of the cobwebs off the knowledge I used to have.

Apparently it is custom in Spain to have a pre-lunch drink of Vermouth to incite the hunger, so we stopped for one, though I had mint lemonade.  Don and Sarah were underwhelmed by the vermouth, and even Di thought it was not as good as to be expected.  Lunch, however, was.  We went to Triciclo, a Michelin-rated restaurant.  We had tapas-sized portions so we didn't over-eat, though I have to admit, the bread was easy to over-indulge in.

Afterwards, a walk around, a craft market, some shopping, and then a nap occupied our time until 8:00 p.m. when we went for dinner.  They couldn't get us into the restaurant until 9:15 so we went to an outdoor terrace for another drink and then back to the restaurant.  Again, tapas-sized plates of scrambled eggs with potatoes and bacon, hummus, caprese salad, pizza, and boiled potatoes with sauces pretty well filled us up.  We were home by 11:30 p.m., just in time to go to bed.  It was sad to say good-bye to Sarah, but it was awesome spending the day with her!