madrid

woke up in lisbon, packed the car and took off driving. the drive took about 6 hours, with a few stops, so 7 hours total. Highlight of the drive was the truck of goats that we passed, then pulled over to wait for, since laurie thought they were so cute. we did not pull over long enough and they were still behind us, so i slowed down to a crawl to let the truck catch up, cars were flying by, cursing us and a bus almost hit us. we pulled over again to let the truck catch up and this time we let it pass us. we then stepped on the accelorator to catch up and right as we caught up it turned off the fwy and we did not want to get lost so we did not follow.

we got lost driving in madrid, but i grabbed the map and got us going in the right direction. We were following yahoo directions in spanish and we did pretty well, but one wrong turn sent us toward plaza sol and the small streets. we arrived at the hotel not sure what we were getting ourselves into. we had got it on price line for 65 dollars and it had said 5 star hotel. it was a little off the beaten path, but had a subway station right nearby. we checked in and went to our room. our room was hot and the air was not working well. did i mention it was 105 degrees in madrid. Our bags took forever to come up and laurie just went down and grabbed her bag off the rack. I guess when a woman grabs a bag in the lobby and starts lugging it up , they get off their arses and do something. we were not very satisfied, but we were paying 65 dollars. I called down about the air, and they sent someone up. he worked on it, a little and told us to give it time. we went out exploring to buy some water and find some dinner.

when we returned the room was still cooking. we sat there in the room so tired, and exhausted and just upset. we called down, and they said that they would move us to a smoking room. We hate the smell of the smoking rooms, so we just asked the hotel if they could give us a fan and we would tough it out. The manager and very nice man, felt so bad, and could hear in our voices our exhaustion. He came to our room with a bottle of champagne and escorted us to their best room in the house. we thanked him. we looked at the room, which was beautiful. Went to the bedroom cracked the champagne and went to bed. we slept great, it was pitch black and cold in the room.

we awoke, packed our stuff up . the hotel asked us to do this, in case they could not fix the air and had to move us. we left the hotel around 10am. first stop breakfast at the open air market near plaza mayor. Laurie started her trend of gazpacho at every meal. I had coffee and a boccadillo con jamon. we walked in plaza mayor, and then over to the prado. we explored the prado museum for a few hours. we grabbed some lunch at a few different tapas bars. tapas are so expensive now. laurie had gazpacho again. started off walking to the modern art museum which we found was closed on tuesdays, so instead we walked around the big park in the middle of town. its the central park of madrid. Laurie was accosted by a guy with his shirt off, she just ran and caught up to me. she was walking along a creek and i opted for the dirt path. we got a good laugh out of it.

we then walked over to another big art museum near the prado. we must have looked funny moving through the museum so fast. we were art museum out after the prado and not sure why we went to this one. we then grabbed a few beers over looking gran via, and headed back to the hotel.

at night we found ourselves in the gay area of madrid, near cheuca. It was a blast. We found a great tapas bar. Laurie loved how the bar tender would just splash beer all over the place as he filled a glass and then threw it our way. Laurie had her third bowl of gazpacho. We walked over to another place and had paella. we grabbed a few more beers in a random plaza and then made our way home.

the air was working well and we slept well. The hotel had put a bottle of red wine and snacks in our room , for the inconvenience of having to pack our stuff up and not having air working. they were so nice, and the manager was so sweet to laurie when we called down to thank him.

the next day we took off to the modern art museum. Laurie had gazpacho for breakfast again. we had a bag of clothes we wanted to donate with us, and the museum wanted to charge us a dollar to store them while we walked around, so we just stuck them by a trash can outside. The museum was great. Still my favorite. We spent a few hours there and a lot of walking, since laurie made me take the stairs. Clothes were still outside the museum when we left. we walked over to la senorita, or nina, for tapas. I had some strange items, laurie had gazpacho and clams. I think i had stomach and snails. we left the clothes at a subway stop, we saw some homeless people nearby. we then walked over to the palace . We walked through the palace and the nuestro cathedral. Both were fabulous and had some great views. we then walked up to gran sol, and had a few afternoon beers, and did some shopping. we made our way back home, to shower and head out.

dinner was tapas crawl. we started near where we had lunch. as we exited the subway we spotted lauries sweatshirt and now buzzed from prefunking in the room, we got a good laugh at the site of the sweatshirt. we started off at a great little place, and we would have stayed longer except for the strange man grabbing mine and laurie's arm. how do we always find these people. we then found a few more tapas bars. Ended with beers in a random plaza and off to bed. we must have walked ten miles today. our feet hurt, but we got one more day.

The last day we shopped and just did some strolling, our plan was take it easy, get rid of all extra stuff and eat more tapas. we had dinner in plaza mayor and it was a stunning sunset. we found a street performer who made noises at people as they walked by. Laurie and i loved it, since he had a stuffed real sheep head on top of a wild colored coat. as people would walk by he would whistle and make the mouth of the sheep move. we must have watched for 30 minutes just laughing. The sheep spotted us just watching and waved us over. So i gave it a kiss and the crowd clapped.

Laurie and I walked around plaza sol and gran via and back to mayor where we had a last kiss and said our goodbyes to madrid. All the young couples were making out, so we did too. It felt very european.

we woke up at 4 am , and were in the cab at 5 am . surfboards put on board. we beat the crowd, and 18 hours later we arrived in lax. My surfboard is beat to heck. Probably 300 dollars in damage. Gigi picked us up and it felt good to be home. I have to say there was a moment in frankfurt as were connecting to our LA plane that we thought about just taking back off to the road.

I guess we now have to wait a few years and start part two of the blog. Honeymoonsurfwithlittleones.blogspot.com