Friday

For the past 4 years I've been taking Randy on a vacation during her spring break. This year we decided to go to Madrid. We actually planned on going to a number of places including Japan and China, but I waited too long to make reservations and one day the prices just went up by 50% and so we ended up going to Madrid since it was with our budget.

Usually Sally takes us to the airport, but Sally wasn't feeling well and she arranged to have a cab take us to the FlyAway in Van Nuys. Sally called City Cab 4 hours in advance to book the cab for 3:30 am. They told her to call 15 minutes before to confirm. At 3:15 I called City Cab. The guy who answered asked me what city I lived in, my name, my address and all of the other information that Sally had already given him. He seemed confused so I asked him if he had a record of our call and he told me that he would try to determine that once he collected all of the necessary information from me. I couldn't think of what else other information he could possibly want from me and then he asked me what city I lived in (the first question he asked me). Then he put me on hold for 2 minutes and then told me that the cab would be at my house in 10 minutes. The cab didn't arrive at 3:30. At 3:45 I called again and asked the guy when the cab would arrive. He said that there was a problem. I asked him when the cab would arrive. He told me a bunch of stuff and I again asked the would cab arrive. He started telling me again that there was a problem and I told him that I didn't care what the problem was, I had a plane to catch so I needed to know when the cab would arrive. He started telling me about a problem with his cabs and I told him that I simply needed to know when the cab would arrive because I had a plane to catch. He started to again say that there was a problem so I told him to "Fuck Off". Sally had heard the conversation and offered to drive us to the FlyAway even though she wasn't feeling well. We arrived at the Flyaway just in time to catch the bus (the next one was an hour later).

The Flight to New York was uneventful. When we got to New York the monitor for departures showed gate 22 as our gate which meant that we had to go to a different terminal. We were flying to Spain on Iberian as part of American Airlines. When we got to the terminal I asked one of the women working there where we needed to be because I couldn't find our flight. She told me that we needed to go to another terminal. I told her that the monitor indicated that gate 22 was the terminal I wanted and she got very snippy with me. I was trying to figure out what was going on and then she said Iberian is no longer part of American Airlines (Thanks Expedia for telling us this!). We then went to the British Airways terminal and got more confusing information for the BA people but eventually found our gate. The terminal was very crowded and Randy and I couldn't find a place to sit down. On the flight to Spain Randy and I ended up sitting in the middle, so we had to crawl over people if we needed to get up. Neither of us slept very well.

When we got to Madrid the custom lines were very long and Randy and I chose the worse one. The line to the left of us was moving about twice the speed as the line we were in. We were the last people to get through customs. Our guide books (which were recent) said there was a bus from the airport to Madrid but we found out that the bus was no longer in service. We decided to take the metro to Madrid. The metro station was inside the airport, but it was a very long walk from our terminal to the station. We had to take two transfers which wouldn't have been that bad except that each time we switched trains we had to go up and then back down several flights of stairs with our luggage (there were no escalators or elevators). But we found the hotel easily.

Saturday

Randy and I were still a bit jet lagged so we decided to take it easy. Our first stop was the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza which has a lot of Impressionist art. Both of us really loved the Thyssen. We then walked to the Reina Sofia which was quite close since most of the museums are clustered together in one section of the city. We then headed back to the hotel, stopping at the Jardin Botanico. Our hotel was right off one of the Grand Avenues which meant that our walk from the hotel to the museum district passed by a large number of Art Deco buildings.

Sunday

Our first stop was the Royal Palace. Not as impressive as Versailles, but still a lot of fun. Louis XIV grandson sat on the throne of Spain when the palace was built. We then walked from the palace to the Plaza Mayor and then to the Puerta del Sol, both large squares. We then took the metro to Retiro Park which was on the other side of the city. That night we visited the Plaza de España on our way to a restaurant.

Monday

Before leaving I had done enough research to realize that almost everything is closed on Monday in Madrid. All of the Museums were closed as well as a number of other things to do. Since I wanted to see something outside of Madrid I decided that Monday would be a good day to leave Madrid. Unfortunately most of Toledo was also closed on Monday, but everything in Segovia was opened so we decided to take the train to Segovia for the day. Segovia has a very interesting Cathedral, an old castle and a 2000 year old Roman aqueduct.

Tuesday

The Prado is one of the most famous museums in the world and both Randy and I were very interested in seeing it so it was the first stop of the day. Afterwards we took the metro to the Museo Arqueologico. From there we walked to the Plaza de Colón which had several interesting monuments. After that we decided to go across town to take a ride on the funicular, but once we got off the metro Randy saw a bunch of stores that she though were interesting so we went shopping for several hours. While walking along visiting the shops I spotted the Arco de la Victoria so we walked over to see it a stroll around the nearby park. Later that night Randy and I ate at the oldest restaurant in the world (or so they claimed).

Wednesday

I wanted to head to Toledo on Wednesday, but Randy was a bit tired and said she would prefer to stay in the city. We decided to take a bus tour around the city. It was one of the bus tours where you can hop off and then back on again. When the bus got to the Thyssen, Randy and I decided to get off and see parts of the museum we missed and take a second look at some of the things we really liked. That night we ate at one of the "Cave" restaurants.

Thursday

Randy often says that we get to the airport too early. We arrived at the airport the recommended three hours before departure. When we arrived there was no one at the ticket counter, but already several people had started queuing up. By the time the ticket counter opened there was already a long line of people with Randy and I near the front. As soon as the ticket counter opened two people from the airlines were walking down the line asking people if they wanted to take another flight because the flight was overbooked. Even though the flight was overbooked for coach they hadn't sold all of their business class seats and they were offering an upgrade to business class for a couple hundred dollars. Randy and I had a miserable flight on the way to Madrid, so I decided to treat us to the upgrade. Randy had never flown business class and so she was surprised to learn about the business class lounge. We were both happy to wait in the lounge on comfortable sofas and chairs and eat and drink the complimentary food and beverages. We both slept very well on the return trip to the US.