Let the games begin!

Day 1 seemed to last forever due to travel time.  After a much needed nap, we were on our way!  First stop, a side street cafe that offered delicious salads and wine.  For many readers of this amateur blog who drink Chardonnay, you’ll be disappointed to know that there isn’t a drop in this city that I’ve found.  However, the Albariño is fabulous and costs about 3.75 euros which equates to about $4.20 a glass.  

From lunch we started our exploration of Madrid as we had free time before our tapas tour that first night.  Not going to lie, it took us the afternoon to get the hang of navigating google maps walking directions. If I saw recalculating one more time, I was going to freak out!

The first thing we do when we arrive in a new city is to jump on a hop on hop off bus to get a lay of the land.  Here are some random pics driving about Madrid. 

 

This reminded me of the l’arc de triumph in Paris!  

Remember the adorable man back at the hotel who gave us the upgrade? Well, I’d say he got himself into a bit of trouble.  I went up to the room to change for our tapas tour and I hear the door open. I nearly freaked when the man entering was not my husband.  Apparently, this grand suite we were throughly enjoying had been booked by someone else.   I started packing all of our stuff; mortified that someone entered our room without knocking and having had a do not disturb sign on the door!   Bill was approached while he was downstairs regarding how we “gained access” to a room we didn’t book.  Being the kind soul that my husband is and not wanting the kid who upgraded us to get fired, he offered for us to move to our original room.  I have to say I was totally impressed by the hotel.  The manager did not want to inconvenience us so she allowed us to remain in the suite; apparently finding a solution to the problem.  

Phew!  Don’t forget…this is still day 1!

We headed out for a tapas tour that was not only informative but quite delicious given the fact that we are not adventurous eaters.  

This was a beautiful tiled wall of a famous flamenco dancing place. (Stay tuned for more on this place)

This place had the best food and I didn’t snap a pic!  We had an egg and potato tart, a tuna casserole of sorts and the best blistered peppers ever!

COD on crustinis.  One was pesto, honey mustard, garlic sauce, one had tuna and the sticks had olives and anchovies.  I stayed away from the stick.  

Wish I would have taken a picture of the food at this last place.  It was a calamari sandwich on the most amazing fresh roll with garlic aioli.  Super cute place. 

Thank goodness all you do is walk in this city.  We walk to a neighborhood bar near our hotel for a nightcap and quite literally dropped into bed.  We were exhausted!