Santiago to Madrid and being a tourist in Madrid – with an upgrade on the flight home

Rather than post for each day, this will be a post about the different things we saw in Madrid.

On the way to Ourense we spent about 45 min in Madrid rushing to the train station, and saw nothing of the city.  Now after a 5 1/2 hr train ride we had 4 days to enjoy and experience the city.

We had rented a flat not too far from the Anton Martin underground station.   We met our host, checked in, and went out to purchase staples for the next few days (Fruit, bread, ham etc).  The flat was well stock with necessities such as coffee, laundry soap, paper towels, kitchen utensils, coffee maker, towels, sheets and so on, and our hostess had provided several pieces of fresh fruit and bottles of water.   The flat was comfortable with a small upgraded kitchen, nicely upgraded bath and comfortable bedrooms and nice living room.  It wasn’t large, but it was quiet and not cramped (except the kitchen when we both were in it).

If I was doing this again the FIRST thing I would so would be to take the bus tour in the double decker buses to get the overall view of the city.  They are hop-on hop-off buses so you are not constricted to just that bus.  And they have audio recording of what you are seeing.  There are two lines and with one ticket and half a day you can see the highlights of Madrid with Audiio describing what you are seeing.  We did do the bus, but not at first.  Maybe our bodies were unhappy from walking 10-15 miles per day to doing almost nothing for the day of the train to Madrid.  Anyway that I would change.

On our first day we set off walking to Plaza Mayor and Plaza del Sol, then on to the Palace and Cathedral.

I had purchased a Sim from Vodafone for data and voice in Ourense when we first arrived in Spain.  It worked great almost everywhere.  But by the time we reached Cee 75% of the data was used so I purchased a ‘top up’.  Apparently Vodafone ‘top up’ purchased at a store instead of on the phone itself (messaging and access to Vodafone was in Spanish which I do not read) is not very well programmed.  Once the total data was used from the first purchase the second purchase was not recognized and I no longer had data access.  We eventually got that sorted at the Vodafone store in Plaza De Sol, but the lines were L O N G.

The highlight of the visit to Madrid was a Flamenco show at CasaPatas, which was fabulous!  This was our best evening in Madrid due also to both the show, and the couple we met there.

The lighting in the small theatre was dark which made using the camera on my phone difficult.  The Cafe asked for ‘No Flash and No Video during the show but photos were ok’.   The two good photos from the show above posted above.

However, because the camera buttons were so hard to see, and I don’t really know how to use this phone very well,  I ended up with several small video clips when I thought the camera was taking still photos.  They three clips are edited together for a total of about 7 seconds.  I hope you like it.  I still feel the excitement of the show when I watch.  If someone from CasaPatas asks me to do so I will remove the video.

 

At the show we sat next to a couple from the USA.  They visit Madrid every few years and spoke Spanish.  After the show we all went to this cafe which truly had wonderful tapas.  Try the tiny shrimp in olive oil!  The house specialty was pigs ears, but I liked the shrimp better.

 

We ate at many different restaurants and always enjoyed both the food and hospitality.  Madrid is cafe society!

We went to El Rastro, the big Sunday open air market.

We thought Madrid would be a good place to get real Cuba Cigars.

One afternoon at the Prado Museum isn’t enough to really immerse yourself in the beauty of the paintings hanging there!  Some of the paintings viewed had been on my ‘list’ since my early college ‘Art History’ class.

The Temple of Debod was a particularly stunning place to visit at sunset.

RETURN HOME and upgraded to Business Class

We checked out of the flat and made it to the airport in plenty of time to catch our flight to Heathrow where we could connect to return home.

After arriving in Heathrow, with a 90 minute connection to our flight home, problems arose.  British Airways has installed a new computer system two days earlier and apparently our reservations were deleted.  NOT TO WORRY!  Well to worry about making the flight I guess.  When we went through passport security (not luggage security), at Heathrow, they could not match up our name, tickets, reservations numbers, passport numbers and dates of birth correctly.  So our reservations had been deleted or at least partially deleted – we never were told exactly what the problem was.  But they would not let us go through Passport Security and on the Luggage Security.   I had printed copies of the tickets purchase, and printouts of the flight check-in confirmations done the day before.  Also I had our boarding passes when passing through London on the way to Spain weeks earlier as well as the confirmation and boarding passes from the Iberia flight we had arrived on a few minutes earlier.  There wasn’t a question about having a ticket, or having made a reservation and confirmed it.  But we had to be escalated up two management levels to find someone who could get this resolved.  And since this was a new system, passport security spent so much time trying to figure out how to get it right, that our seats were long gone.

The result – we were given Business Class seats!

That made the 11 hour flight home much more comfortable and was a really sweet way to end the trip.

I would do this all again – from Ourense (or A Gudina) to Muxia.  The Spanish people were so open and hospitable, the country was so pretty, the food and wine were so tasteful and satisfying!

I loved it!