Madrid. . .Meh

I'm writing in our hotel room in Madrid (nice to have a king sized bed again!) the morning of our flight back to the States.  Not every day on a trip can be wonderful, and yesterday in Madrid was proof of that.

After standing for 20 minutes in an Iberian Airline line for check-in that did not move, they finally opened a second and then third counter.  The upside of VERY slow processing of people for check-in means no one is waiting in the security line, so we did zip through that.

The flight to Madrid was uneventful and early, and we had the bonus of no one sitting between us in the middle seat.  Which was good because the seats had barely any leg room.

Our hotel room wasn't ready for us, which was not unexpected around 12:45 pm on a Sunday, so we headed off to lunch.  We walked a mile to a paella restaurant, Arroceria Gala, that came highly recommended.  Of course, the problem with paella is it takes a long time to prepare, so we had to wait for quite a while for lunch to come.  It was good, but not as good as Carol makes.

We then went off to explore Madrid.  I have not been here since our famous first overseas trip as a family in April 2001, and Carol had not been since 2009.  I refer to Madrid as "one of the least interesting foreign cities I've ever been in" primarily because Madrid is one of the least interesting foreign cities I've ever been in.

Parts of Madrid are nice, or interesting, but on the whole. . .it does not have much going for it.  We walked to Puerta del Sol, which is one of the best known squares in the city.  We then went to the more interesting Plaza Mayor, before heading off to the Cathedral.  I did joke with Carol that Plaza Mayor is the least expensive place to get a beer in Madrid.  (I didn't want a beer at that point, but it is clear that, like Plaza San Marco in Venice, the menus are quite expensive.)

The Cathedral was visually stimulating.  It is new, having been consecrated by Paul John Paul II.  Inside, the art is very new and interesting.  The stained glass is beautiful and the ceilings have interesting designs.  It was the best stop of the day.

We then went down to the crypt, which is billed as the most beautiful cathedral crypt in all of Spain.  There are 400 columns in the crypt, and little chapels, but it is not a must stop.  Our plan was then to tour the royal palace, but the line for it was still quite long, so we went along the royal gardens and then got ice cream instead.  We walked back to the hotel and napped.

Dinner was an experience that we do not need to repeat.  We went to Taberna La Carmencita on the recommendation of the hotel concierge.  Opened in 1854, it is the second oldest restaurant in Madrid (behind the famed El Botin, where we feasted on roast suckling pig in 2001, at the end of a successful trip to Andalusia).  Sunday night apparently is not their night.

Of the first three dishes we ordered (besides the small plate starters of jamon, croquettes, fried cheese, and calamari), the restaurant was apparently out of all of them, including the lamb, the veal rigatoni, and something else (I don't remember).  The American woman who sat at the table next to us then ordered lamb, and was brought lamb.  We protested (not her fault, just our moron waiter's fault), and his defense was that it was not the same lamb dish we ordered.  They only had one lamb dish on the menu, so apparently they were willing to make it for her (different waiter took her order).

The food took forever to come out, the waiter cut his finger opening Carol's water bottle (not the wine, but the water -- how does that happen?).  The veal dish didn't taste all that good. 

Oh well,  The rest of the trip was great.  Now back to our regularly scheduled programming!