Day 31: Madrid

We checked out of our Barcelona hotel this morning at what seemed like the crack of dawn.  We hurried on over to the train station since our train left at 7:30 a.m.  We got to ride on a high-speed train that gets to Madrid in only 4.5 hours.  Not bad compared to the traditional 7 to 9 hours!  We arrived in Madrid and were greeted by cool winds that made us think that Madrid would be nice and mild and we wouldn´t have to sweat like crazy.  Boy, were we wrong.  Definitely one of the hottest cities, if not the hottest, we´ve been to.  Even at 8 or 9 p.m., the sun still burns and there is no relief.  Oh well... summer travel will do that to you.

We checked into our very pleasant hotel that is an easy five minute stroll (and we mean STROLL) to Plaza Mayor, one of the cities main plazas.  It´s large and beautiful with restaurants lining its edges and one of the main tourist offices are also located in the Plaza.  We walked on to the tourist office and grabbed ourselves a good map (the map was ok.. but we´ve learned that it is impossible to have a REALLY good map of Madrid... there are just tooooo many small roads and crooked streets to make sense of anything).  We also bought our tickets to the Madrid Vision Bus (their hop on/hop off bus).  It has two routes - the modern route and the historical route.  We decided to do a two day ticket and ride the historical route today.  That way, we´re not stuck on a bus literally all day and tomorrow, we´ll ride the modern route.  We found our way towards the Palacio Real (or the Royal Palace) and hopped on Stop Number 1 on the historical route.  Madrid is really spread out and all the sights are pretty far away from each other.  It was nice to be able to see the city riding on a bus rather than stop at a sight, hop underground and miss all the sights above on the streets trying to get to our next stop.  It was an incredibly hot blistering day.  When we got off the bus, Melissa realized that all of a sudden her ankle really really hurt.  She had twisted her ankle earlier but it had not hurt that badly earlier.  Sitting down for so long must have enabled the pain to settle in.  She could barely walk and TJ thought it was best, since we had four days in Madrid, to head back to the hotel and rest Melissa´s ankle a bit.

Back at the hotel, we got to watch some great Spanish television, including dubbed versions of Fresh Prince and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  TJ thought that during this downtime, we should maybe do some laundry.  The reception told us that there was a laundromat right around the corner, so TJ told Melissa to rest while he found the laundromat and he would pop the clothes in the washer and come back to the hotel to wait for the clothes to finish.  TJ headed on downstairs with our bag of dirty laundry and headed for the laundromat.  When he got there, the laundromat was closed.  Not closed for the day, but closed... down.  TJ stood in front of the laundromat for a while trying to figure out if he had the wrong place or something to that effect.  A woman walked up to TJ and rattled off some Spanish.  Sure, TJ speaks Spanish.. but boy these Spaniards talk quick.  TJ couldn´t really understand what she said.  TJ asked her in Spanish if she knew if the laundromat was closed and where the closest laundromat would be.  She rattled off more Spanish and realized TJ couldn´t really understand her.  TJ kept asking her if she knew a place where we could wash our clothes.  Then, while she was rattling off more Spanish, TJ started to really look at what she looked like and what she was wearing.  TJ also started trying to put two and two together - - translating the few words she said that TJ could understand, looking at what she was wearing, and the way she laughed when he simply told her he was looking for a laundromat.  It was at that moment that TJ realized that she was a prostitute who was trying to make a deal with TJ!  She finally laughed and pointed TJ off to a dry cleaners, which of course we were not looking for.  After a thorough search of the area, TJ gave up and headed back to the hotel.  So much for doing laundry!

Earlier in the day, while walking back to the Palacio Real, we stopped at the one restaurant that we had planned to eat at even before we got to Europe.  It´s a famous restaurant that has been showcased on the Food Network, Travel Channel, every guidebook you can imagine, recommended to us by friends etc., etc., etc.  Restaurante Sobrino de Botin is in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the oldest restaurant in the world.  It´s been serving up great food since 1725 and even Francisco Goya worked here as a dishwasher.  They are famous for their roasted suckling pig so of course we had to order it.  We also ordered the roasted lamb.  We decided to share both dishes so we could both indulge.  We were kind of skeptical at first about the pig.  We were worried that it might be just too salty.  Wow, we were wrong.  Both entrees were AMAZING.  The roasted suckling pig was the most tender pork we had ever eaten.  The skin was roasted to perfection... light and crispy.  The lamb was to die for.  Incredibly tender.  We made sure we finished our dishes!  We were so full and so tired (we could only make reservations for dinner at 10:00 p.m.... like the Spaniards eat!) and by the time we were done with dinner it was around 11:30 p.m.  The nice waiter handed us the dessert menus though and we couldn´t resist but take a look.  TJ found Fresas "San Isidoro".  As full as we were, we decided to share.  Fresh strawberries, quartered, and topped with a very light, not thick and creamy, light-tasting vanilla sauce.  It was so amazing.  We found ourselves trying to fight each other for more strawberries!  We wobbled our full selves back to the hotel to have a nice heavy sleep and get ready for tomorrow in Madrid....