Spain Vacation -- October, 2000

Thursday, October 5, 2000

Go to the previous day, Wednesday, October 4

We decided to do a city tour of Madrid in the morning. We chose the tour that started at 10:30 AM so we didn't have to meet until 9:00--we're adjusting to eating our dinners very late, but it makes getting up in the morning a lot harder! We registered for the tour with the concierge and (since we had a little time) we had the breakfast buffet at the hotel. The breakfast was okay but it was probably the most expensive meal we had during our vacation, and we've had much better meals for a lot less money while we've been in Spain. That will teach us to eat at the hotel

Unfortunately, our tour wasn't very good. They gave the tour in both Spanish and English, but it seemed like the English translation wasn't given full effort! Our first stop was the Palacio Real, where we had the opportunity to walk around the exterior (much as we had done the day before). The tour guide gave a lengthy description of the palace and the opera house in Spanish, and then she quickly explained in English that this was the royal place and we had 15 minutes to walk around before we had to meet back at the bus. From the "comfort" of the bus, we saw several public gardens, the cathedral, the shopping area (Puerta Del Sol), Del Prado, a section of the old wall that surrounded the city at one time, and other sites. When the bus made a stop (at Planet Hollywood of all places!), Lisa, Ari, and I decided to discontinue the tour so we could tour Del Prado. Steve decided to take the bus back to the hotel so he could go for a run

Ari, Lisa, and I spent several hours touring Del Prado. Unfortunately, everything was written in Spanish and we didn't find our way to the gift shop (where we bought some museum books) until the end of our tour. We managed, however, to "accidentally" overhear a tour guide who was explaining (in English!) some of the Velázquez and Goya paintings. Luckily, we "joined" the tour just as it got to the Velázquez painting The Family of Philip IV (or Las Meninas)--which is one of Del Prado's most famous paintings. While touring on our own, Ari and Lisa decided that Rubens must have been a little depressed or really messed up. We probably spent more than three hours in the museum and we really enjoyed it, but we never got a sense of how much we had seen--we didn't take a very organized approach to the tour and we kind of wandered about looking for interesting things (which we found). It was our first museum tour of the trip, however, so we learned a bit about how we might make our other tours more enjoyable

Much to my dismay, we had lunch at Planet Hollywood. Lisa wanted to go there to buy a t-shirt for Little John, and we ended up staying for some good-old American food. I admit that I enjoyed it, but it seemed like a shame to come all the way to Spain just to eat in an American restaurant chain. During lunch we also took a look at the map to plot our walk back to the hotel (Ari and Lisa's secondary objective) while doing some shopping (Ari and Lisa's primary objective)

After lunch we walked to Puerta del Sol to do our shopping. Lisa ended up finding a nice pair of leather boots and Ari bought a great leather coat. Both were made from really soft leather and (I'll have to admit) they were significantly cheaper to buy in Spain (even at these shops catering to tourists) than they would be in Dallas

Because Del Prado is on the east side of Madrid, we had a relatively long walk back to the hotel (on the west side of Madrid). It would have seemed much longer if we were in a hurry to get back to the hotel (in which case we would have taken a taxi), but we were looking for shops and doing some sightseeing along the way as well (we saw the House of America, a kitchen store where they were giving cooking lessons, a Spanish Civil War Memorial among other things). A woman carrying a child asked Ari and Lisa for some money--they couldn't understand a word she said, but they felt sorry for her and the child, so they each gave her 500 pesetas (it was her lucky day). During the long walk we all agreed that we would stop at the Haagen Dazs store a few blocks for the palace for an ice cream--it was the best I had ever had (or maybe I was just getting hungry again)

We went back to the hotel for a quick nap and a shower. When we got back to the hotel, Ari gave Lisa her book (which she had finally finished) and Lisa gave her one of the books she had brought (Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth). Lisa doesn't read a lot of books, but I can already tell that she's motivated to tear through this one

We weren't sure where we wanted to eat, so Ari and Steve asked the concierge for a recommendation. He recommended a restaurant, Qitrix (or something like that) that was only a few blocks from the hotel. When we got there, it looked fairly full and we thought we might have trouble getting in without a reservation. The maitre'd looked things over and found us a nice table up stairs--we all really like him (he was very friendly and he recommended--and gave us--an order of chirizo as an appetizer) as opposed to our regular waiter who seemed to be pissed off at us the entire time. The maitre'd stopped by every once in a while during our meal, so he made up for the dour waiter. We had a nice Spanish red wine with our meal and I had a champagne for dessert with vodka and lemon

We wanted to go out to a bar after dinner, but we couldn't find anything close to the restaurant that we liked. We went into one bar, but we didn't really like it very much and they didn't have any sangria so we left before we ordered anything. After wandering the streets for a bit, we decided to call it an early evening (it was still after midnight by the time we got back to the hotel)

Go to the next day, Friday, October 6

	We decided to do a city tour of Madrid in the morning. We chose the tour that started at 10:30 AM so we didn't have to meet until 9:00--we're adjusting to eating our dinners very late, but it makes getting up in the morning a lot harder! We registered for the tour with the concierge and (since we had a little time) we had the breakfast buffet at the hotel. The breakfast was okay but it was probably the most expensive meal we had during our vacation, and we've had much better meals for a lot less money while we've been in Spain. That will teach us to eat at the hotel
	Unfortunately, our tour wasn't very good. They gave the tour in both Spanish and English, but it seemed like the English translation wasn't given full effort! Our first stop was the Palacio Real, where we had the opportunity to walk around the exterior (much as we had done the day before). The tour guide gave a lengthy description of the palace and the opera house in Spanish, and then she quickly explained in English that this was the royal place and we had 15 minutes to walk around before we had to meet back at the bus. From the "comfort" of the bus, we saw several public gardens, the cathedral, the shopping area (Puerta Del Sol), Del Prado, a section of the old wall that surrounded the city at one time, and other sites. When the bus made a stop (at Planet Hollywood of all places!), Lisa, Ari, and I decided to discontinue the tour so we could tour Del Prado. Steve decided to take the bus back to the hotel so he could go for a run
	Ari, Lisa, and I spent several hours touring Del Prado. Unfortunately, everything was written in Spanish and we didn't find our way to the gift shop (where we bought some museum books) until the end of our tour. We managed, however, to "accidentally" overhear a tour guide who was explaining (in English!) some of the Velázquez and Goya paintings. Luckily, we "joined" the tour just as it got to the Velázquez painting The Family of Philip IV (or Las Meninas)--which is one of Del Prado's most famous paintings. While touring on our own, Ari and Lisa decided that Rubens must have been a little depressed or really messed up. We probably spent more than three hours in the museum and we really enjoyed it, but we never got a sense of how much we had seen--we didn't take a very organized approach to the tour and we kind of wandered about looking for interesting things (which we found). It was our first museum tour of the trip, however, so we learned a bit about how we might make our other tours more enjoyable
	Much to my dismay, we had lunch at Planet Hollywood. Lisa wanted to go there to buy a t-shirt for Little John, and we ended up staying for some good-old American food. I admit that I enjoyed it, but it seemed like a shame to come all the way to Spain just to eat in an American restaurant chain. During lunch we also took a look at the map to plot our walk back to the hotel (Ari and Lisa's secondary objective) while doing some shopping (Ari and Lisa's primary objective)
	After lunch we walked to Puerta del Sol to do our shopping. Lisa ended up finding a nice pair of leather boots and Ari bought a great leather coat. Both were made from really soft leather and (I'll have to admit) they were significantly cheaper to buy in Spain (even at these shops catering to tourists) than they would be in Dallas
	Because Del Prado is on the east side of Madrid, we had a relatively long walk back to the hotel (on the west side of Madrid). It would have seemed much longer if we were in a hurry to get back to the hotel (in which case we would have taken a taxi), but we were looking for shops and doing some sightseeing along the way as well (we saw the House of America, a kitchen store where they were giving cooking lessons, a Spanish Civil War Memorial among other things). A woman carrying a child asked Ari and Lisa for some money--they couldn't understand a word she said, but they felt sorry for her and the child, so they each gave her 500 pesetas (it was her lucky day). During the long walk we all agreed that we would stop at the Haagen Dazs store a few blocks for the palace for an ice cream--it was the best I had ever had (or maybe I was just getting hungry again)
	We went back to the hotel for a quick nap and a shower. When we got back to the hotel, Ari gave Lisa her book (which she had finally finished) and Lisa gave her one of the books she had brought (Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth). Lisa doesn't read a lot of books, but I can already tell that she's motivated to tear through this one
	We weren't sure where we wanted to eat, so Ari and Steve asked the concierge for a recommendation. He recommended a restaurant, Qitrix (or something like that) that was only a few blocks from the hotel. When we got there, it looked fairly full and we thought we might have trouble getting in without a reservation. The maitre'd looked things over and found us a nice table up stairs--we all really like him (he was very friendly and he recommended--and gave us--an order of chirizo as an appetizer) as opposed to our regular waiter who seemed to be pissed off at us the entire time. The maitre'd stopped by every once in a while during our meal, so he made up for the dour waiter. We had a nice Spanish red wine with our meal and I had a champagne for dessert with vodka and lemon
	We wanted to go out to a bar after dinner, but we couldn't find anything close to the restaurant that we liked. We went into one bar, but we didn't really like it very much and they didn't have any sangria so we left before we ordered anything. After wandering the streets for a bit, we decided to call it an early evening (it was still after midnight by the time we got back to the hotel)