Day 1: Arriving in Madrid

We arrived this morning in Madrid. Or should I say, in the middle of the night. It was morning for Madrid. But it was 1 am for us. Ouch. I'd managed to get about 5 hours of sleep on the plane which wasn't too bad. And I have to give major snaps to Aer Lingus (which just sounds so dirty!!) for having pretty awesome head rests, terrific blankets and great entertainment which I did not avail myself of.

We sailed through immigration (one of those things where when you come in on a European carrier, most of the passengers are European) and there was no customs at all for us to go through. We did end up taking two cabs, but since it's August and the entire country is vacationing in some other country (possibly the US as far as we could tell on the plane) there was no traffic to speak of and we made it to the apartment by 8:40am.

After gaping at the strange, labyrinthine hallways, deciding on bedrooms (which we then reversed later on), breathing a sigh of relief that the showers had curtains, not semi glass walls which many European bathrooms have, and discovering there was no soap in said bathrooms, we departed for some breakfast. We ate this, standing up, like good Madrileños, at Santiago's favorite place the Museo del Jamón which serves bocadillos, a kind of a sandwich for next to nothing. We dined upon various jamón (kind of like prosciutto but saltier and thicker) sandwiches, some with manchego cheese, fresh squeezed orange juice (incomprehensibly called zumo here) and delicious café con leche made with fresh espresso. The Kid ordered a hot chocolate which was so thick that it might as well have been simply a melted chocolate bar. As he later exclaimed upon our promenade back to the apartment, "A chocolate a day keeps the pouting away!" which is a good thing since I have had just about enough of that shit right now.

We then proceeded to take a nap which was interrupted by the arrival first of my popcorn and then of the cleaning lady who had come to wash our curtains. Wha????

In a way this turned out quite fortuitous because it seems she works by the hour and will clean the entire apartment for 30 euros every other week. Sweet!

We traded rooms with the kid, unpacked, got more or less settled, found an unprotected network (hi there! coming to you live!) and went out to eat. There is a Cuban restaurant three doors down which served a good enough lunch for 8.50 euros per person all inclusive. For that, I got a spinach salad, a veal cutlet and fries, peach juice and watermelon for desert. Ricardo had the same. My maritime child had ceviche, grilled turbot and pineapple juice instead. And the Spanish do not skimp on the portions. It was a nice big salad which was great!

Now I am back at the apartment resting my knee and the boys are off exploring and walking. It's perfectly pleasant outside. It's 90° but there is no humidity at all. The laundry has been drying in about an hour and a half (yeah, no dryer which is a pain in the keister). So compared to home it's perfect outside. People complain of the heat, but it's perfectly pleasant and this morning was cool and lovely.

I am hoping I can stay awake until 10pm but I do not have high hopes. I am afraid to lie down to read for fear that I will simply fall dead asleep. But so far, good first day!