Well, we’re on our way home now, through Newark where we’ll make our connection to LAX.
It was still raining when we left Toledo, although lightly. We took the taxi to the train station after breakfast and a bit of packing. Once at the train station, I took a number of photos – the only ones I took in Toledo while waiting to board the train. The line that terminates in Toledo is high-speed, so our baggage got x-rayed again as we made our way to the train.
The trip to Madrid’s Puerte Atocha Station only takes 30 minutes (did I mention that before?), where we took a short taxi ride to the hotel. The taxi ride was so short that when I showed the hotel address to the taxi driver he snorted and rolled his eyes as if to say “why not walk?” But it was raining and we’d never had to navigate the city, so I gave him a nice tip for his trouble.
Once we dropped our bags in our room, we walked across the street to El Prado Museo. Jonathan was most interested in the Flemish paintings, which include the famous triptych by Heironomous Bosch, “Garden of Earthly Delights.” You can stand and look at that painting for a long time, there is so much going on in its panels. Also we looked at the museum’s extensive collection of Goya paintings, the most famous and touching was from the “Horrors of War” – “Executions on the Third of May 1808” After about two hours at the museum, we checked the museum cafeteria (deemed unacceptable) and had lunch at the hotel restaurant.
We found some reading material at a nearby newsstand (NY Times international edition and the Economist) and repaired to the hotel lounge to read and sudoku. We decided to try one of restaurants Nick had recommended, so the hotel staff called and made reservations for us at 2000. When we headed out the door, the rain was coming down moderately – most folks were using umbrellas – however, we decided to tough it out, so we were fairly damp when we reached the restaurant. We presented ourselves to the maitre d’, who announced he couldn’t seat us, even though they had our reservation (it was right there in the book for 8pm). “Not until 8:30, 9:00” was the line they gave us.
With our taxi and flight the next morning, neither of us felt like cooling our heels at the mercy of a capricious maitre d’, so we walked out and went back to the hotel restaurant. I was in a grumpy mood, although Jonathan pronounced his shrimp brochette exceptionally good.
We did a bit of rearranging amongst the luggage, putting the bulk of the dirty laundry in the big pink bag – which we check on the flight. The next morning we had breakfast and were at the front desk checking out when the taxi arrived 15 minutes early. Traffic on a Sunday morning in Madrid is quite light so we made it to the airport very quickly.
Upon check-in, we were pleased to discover that we had cleared the waiting list and were upgraded to first class for the seven hour trans-Atlantic flight. Barrajas Airport in Madrid (well Terminal 1, at least) had the same tired feeling as Tocumen Airport in Panama City, Panama, the one Jonathan derided as being “just this side of Quonset huts.” Fortunately, we had access to the VIP lounge which was pleasant and had access to refreshments at no charge. We boarded on time, but some mechanical issues delayed our departure for an hour. The pilot claimed he’d get us to Newark on time, but both Jonathan and I are skeptical. Our connecting flight to LAX is over booked (we’re both in coach on this leg), and we have to claim our bag and get through customs to make the connection so we shall see.
Well, we didn’t make the connection. Although we got to the gate before the plane left, Continental had rebooked us on a later flight. The twist to this was I had been upgraded to first class on the original connecting flight, but due to overbooking, I was stuck in a middle seat in coach for the rebooked flight, as was Jonathan. Continental picked up the hotel tab, but at a cheesy Howard Johnson’s tucked scenically in the loop of an exit ramp near the NJ Turnpike. The hotel restaurant – the only food available without having transportation – was little better than a coffee shop.
The next day we made our flight and the flight back to LAX was uneventful. When we got to LAX, we reclaimed our checked bag, which hadn’t missed our flight the night before, although we had to have the airline staff unlock the cable that secured it.
We made it home, and after a brief dash to Green Street Restaurant for lunch, we started sorting through the mail and other accumulations. The cats showed up pretty quickly – Argo right away, and Xena about an hour or so later.
So now it’s on to constructing the web site and processing the photos – and reliving the vacation.