Our first full day in Madrid!

Our first full day in Madrid!

 

Hola!  We had such a lovely evening last night; a great dinner, a nice walk and it was very quiet (as far as I know…).  Up this morning, actually around 6 am and it was still really, really dark outside!  (We’re both having difficulty with that!)  Into the shower (which is excellent, by the way) and now we’re all sparkly clean!

 

The first day in a new place is really always fun, as there are some basics that need to be covered – transportation?  First load of groceries?  Whatever!  So, our first stop today was to the Metro station right at the corner of our street.  We had decided to get 5-day Tourist Transport passes, which should take us to most (if not all) of the places we want to go.  While we could have purchased the debit type of cards, and just put $$ on them as we need it, the Tourist pass is really simple – we can get on and off all central buses, metro and trams (if any?) as many times as we want.  And while technically we are here for six nights, we didn’t need the passes at all yesterday, and we won’t be needing them on the day we leave, as we will Uber to the long-term parking and then head out to Avila!  The really great thing is that there was a very nice man at the Metro station to help people such as ourselves navigate through the computer screens, and he was happy to help!  So, voila, we’re good with transport.

 

We do need to get to the grocery store (a Dia basically across the street and a Carrefoura 3-minute walk away) but it turns out that these stores do not OPEN until 9 am.  Whew!  (We need to get some laundry detergent, as I am a bit suspicious of that which was left in the apartment…) and I need to run a load today.  So, as it wasn’t quite 9 yet, we turned into R’s very least favorite chain store – Starbuck’s!  However, as we had had no breakfast, and there it was, in we went.  R got very good black coffee (surprise!), and I got hot chocolate (very good!) with whipped cream.  R also got two croissants which he enjoyed, and I very much liked my slice of lemon pound cake with frosting.  (I’ve often seen it, but never had it – and it was quite good…although I should have gotten the red-velvet muffin …). Found a bit of space upstairs to sit and eat, and by the time we were finished, the grocery stores were open!  Went to the Carrefour, and got our basic staples:  laundry detergent, spray and wash, water, orange juice, ham of several varieties, cheese and salami.  Now we can eat breakfast at home the next couple of days.  

Our first Madrid groceries!

 

Back to the apartment and now on our second “rapido” load of wash – only 15 minutes, and it’s ready!  Oh, to have a timer on our washer at home … I know, don’t start; I won’t go there… Found the drying rack the one place I didn’t look last night – under the bed!  Duh!  So now things are just about ready for us to head out to the Archaeological Museum, which is our goal for today.  R currently studying maps, so the public transportation wizard can get to work!

More later!

m

xxx 

 

We’re back from the National Archaeological Museum!  Turns out that paper bus maps are really non-existent anymore – everyone “uses their phone…” so, trying to save steps, we decided to use the Madrid Metro system.  Down into the bowels of the system, but with only one change of line, we popped out near the museum.  Very pleasant ride, and almost all the people were wearing masks!  At this point, R spotted (he has very good eyesight!) a Santander bank, and we were able to use the ATM.  It’s amazing though, that this has really become the age of no-cash; credit cards only.  We used to use $$/Euros/Pounds/Turkish Lira all the time; it’s a new world out there, for sure!  From the bank we only had a block or two to walk to the museum.  Interesting find, though – entry into the museum is FREE, but the entire second floor of this truly wonderful world-class museum is closed!  Hmmm… At any rate, we started in the basement in their pre-history section, and spent the next 2½ hours browsing.  I know that there are artifacts we’ve seen before, because I really do remember them, but for the most part, we had a wonderful stroll. It was now about 2:30 pm and we were both ready for a sit/lie-down.  Note:  I did find one of the staff members who spoke some English, and asked her why the top floor was closed.  She indicated that it was because of a lack of government funds!  Not really surprising considering everything in the world, but sadly interesting.  Do hope they re-open earlier rather than later!

 

Called a Warrior Stela

Warrior Stela

Warrior Stela

Love the strainer!

One of my favorite pieces!

Note detailed carvings

Ancient textile!

I love the images carved on bone!

I'm thinking this is an auroch!

So, what do you think?

Carved 3-dimensional bone!

One of the greeters of the museum!

Front of Museo Archeological Madrid

Great construction celebrating October 1492!

Left the museum and walked out to Calle Serrano, and saw a passing bus!  Turns out, we could get back to the apartment with only one bus – the good old #1!  Incredible!  It was so convenient; truly, this apartment’s location is great. 

 

R expressed a wish for Argentinian beef last night, so we are no on the look-out.  I’ve found a place several blocks away called “Mu” which has great reviews on Tripadvisor, but R wants to do some more looking.  So …until dinner or afterwards!

m

xxx