Little Tidbits

Due to the sudden change in plans last night combined with a bad internet connection we weren’t able to book our train tickets for today.  So, Byron got up very early (extremely unusual for him) and took care of it.

We checked out and grabbed some lunch at a cute little café that is so typical in Spain and France.  There don’t seem to be many chain restaurants here, though there are a few, including several American fast food chains (McDonald’s, KFC, and TGI Fridays for example).  However, for the most part there are tons of independent cafés that have their own personality.  This one had coffee, pastries, bread, quiche, and those simple sandwiches we blogged about earlier.  We enjoyed watching a parade of little old ladies coming in to buy their baguettes for dinner, along with a little something sweet to go with their espresso. 

Little cafe

Dunkin' what?

We have been debating a day trip to Valencia for paella (founded in Valencia) and some specific sights, but ultimately decided to just head straight to Madrid.  So, we boarded a high speed train and arrived early in the afternoon.

We found our hotel easily, where we were greeted with cold orange juice at check-in.  The hotel is very nice and again were thrilled to see a “real” shower head in the bathroom!  It is cooler here in Madrid, but still very pleasant.  We spent some time wandering about and getting acclimated to our new city.  We first visited Playa Mayor, which I remember fondly from my previous trip.  It was lovely, but not quite as majestic as I remember.  We stopped by a few stores and ended up in a little restaurant for seafood Paella!  It came in an individual pans with mussels, clams, prawns (complete with eyes and legs), and fish.  Byron had to peel the prawns for me, at least until the eyes and legs were removed : )  We grabbed a kiwi tart and some other so-so pastry and got back around 11.

Anyway, we wanted to take a moment to highlight some things that are “interesting” here:

All the beds we’ve had so far are actually two separate beds pushed together.  Sarah would love it – you can push them apart and jump back and forth!

Here’s a picture of the tiny coffee we mentioned earlier.  Note that Byron has NOT taken a drink from this coffee.  That’s all you get!

People frequently have tiny dogs that they take with them everywhere.  We’ve seen puppies tucked into jackets of motorcyclists, riding the subway, at the airport… it’s really funny.

All the toilets here have two buttons like this.  One button uses just a little water, whereas the other one causes a lot of water to be used.  So, use the button depending on need.

We love those fast trains!