I Heart Madrid

I am in love - with Madrid.

I went out this morning (after oversleeping) to look for breakfast.  In the same building as the hotel, but around the corner, is a Starbucks, and next to that is a VIPS.  VIPS has a restaurant part, but they also have a little convenience store, gifts, and a big section with sandwiches, salads, fruit, yogurt - in short, anything you might want to buy and take to the park to eat.  There was a little band playing right outside, so I bought a tray of fruit and ate it while sitting at the outside tables at Starbucks, listening to the music.  I got the stink-eye from an employee who came out to sweep, but I just ignored it.  I could have just explained that I don't like Starbucks, I only like their tables by the palm trees in the sun with live music, but she didn't say anything to me.  I guess that's good because I don't know how to say all of that in Spanish.

Today was my day for geocaching in Madrid.  I usually start a day on vacation with some plan for what I want to accomplish, and I sort of had one, but almost immediately I scrapped it in favor of just wandering around (plus some geocaching).  I found four caches, but I also found a demonstration taking place in front of city hall.  The people were chanting and blowing whistles, and they blocked the street for a bit, then moved on, still chanting (but they moved over so the cars could go by).  I continued on with my wandering, then headed back toward the hotel, thinking I would pop into VIPS for one of those yummy-looking sandwiches for lunch.  Guess who I saw in front of the doors of the hotel - the little parade of protestors!  By the time I had bought lunch, though, they had dispersed.

                                                         Plaza de Cibeles, city hall.

Tonight was the tapas reception at Vaughan.  It turns out that the person who first told me about the Vaughantown program (from the Rick Steves website) will be at this week, too!  About half of the Anglos have never done this before, and the others are repeaters, some multiple times.  At the end of the reception, they gave us a chance to ask questions about the location, and I asked if there was a place to get Diet Coke, and one of other guys applauded.  Turns out he was early-retired from Coke after 30 years.  One of Monday's activities is bingo, which I am famous for NEVER being able to win - and I said as much to the group.  The Coke guy said, "That's OK, I'll buy you a Diet Coke if you don't".

There will only be 7 Spaniards this week, and 14 or 15 of us.  So the program is going to arrange it so that we can go, in groups of four, into Segovia to see the aqueduct and such for a couple of hours. There are some geocaches near the aqueduct, too, so maybe I can find a home for the Tardis key travel bug I am carrying, you never know!  Everyone seems very nice - about half are American, and the rest are from the UK.  My cab driver coming back to the hotel said that he is "the only English speaking cab driver in all of Madrid", so if I want to know anything, just ask.  :)  I didn't ask, but he told me anyway, about all of the buildings along the way.  It was very nice of him, but I had just taken a bus tour past the same buildings yesterday, and walked to many of them today, too.  He lived in the US for 15 years, in NY and FL. 

I already know I haven't had enough of Madrid.  I'm going to have to come back.  For one thing, the McDonald's at home doesn't have as cool a dollar menu as Spain's uno x uno menu.  Gazpacho?  Camembert bites?