Was initially bummed to find myself directly across from a tercera edad guy holding a maybe-two-year-old girl at the face-to-face table seating, but it ended up being fine. Actually, I ended up feeling bad for the guy -- the little girl was fussy for a good part of the 3+ hour train ride, so he would disappear with her for 20+ minutes at a time to indulge in her desire to be up and walk around. Realized he was by himself with the little girl and helped him with his stroller when we deboarded at Madrid.
Got off the train finally with my heavy luggage (although I left behind three dingy & baggy button-down shirts, along with a pair of jeans at the Sevilla hotel room), and got over to the metro station. I knew that my destination station was Puerta del Sol (translates to Door of the Sun, easy enough) -- but I could not find that as a destination when I was looking at the map. Ended up asking one of the two attendants if the station labeled "Vodaphone Sol" was the same as "Puerta del Sol", and she confirmed it was. Ok, that made sense, since it was in the center of the city, where I was staying.
So I go to buy my ticket, and there is no "Vodaphone Sol" station. Nor a "Puerta del Sol". After paging through all the stations I ended up concluding that the station "Sol" might very well be yet another name for my destination. A follow-on question to the attended confirms this. Puerta del Sol, Vodaphone Sol, Sol -- all the same station. Fair enough. I go to buy the ticket and -- my card gets stuck in the machine. Ay de mi. Get that worked out and finally purchase my 1,20 Euro ticket.
Metro ride was easy breezy, as was the trek from the station to the hotel (albeit uphill -- I have come to expect this. Anytime I need to trek somewhere with luggage, it will be uphill. Work them hamstrings and glutes... positive thinking. The power(s) that be want me to have strong legs. Fine.).
Checked into the hotel and got to my room. After getting settled in decided to check out the 9th floor terrace I was told was available for guests' use. Very cool.
Got out to see some of Madrid for myself. Used the hotel map to basically aid in getting myself all turned around and lost. Haha. Madrid feels international and (even moreso) English-language-friendly than Barcelona. Geez, Barcelona feels like so long ago at this point.
Stopped into a cerveceria nearby that didn't look to touristy for lunch -- and indeed it wasn't. I was the only person the bartender/waitress converted to English (sometimes) for (I have this thing where when I speak in Spanish to start out conversations the other party then assumes I am all fluent and replies/talks rapid-fire... and I end up asking (albeit in Spanish) questions to verify what I heard. Then they will go to English lol). I had to navigate her narration of what specials of the day were still left for the day in Spanish though (I was late in getting food), and I ended up hearing correctly for my first choice of the pasta with chorizo, then the chicken and potatoes for the second course. Got my cafe con leche to wrap it up. There were also two beers consumed -- now back to Estrella Damm, since that's what was on tap given I'm no longer in Andalucia.
Headed out to explore some more. Admittedly feeling more than a bit road-weary, I wasn't all that impressed with what I was seeing. Maybe I have become a jaded traveler. However, I will acknowledge that Madrid is probably the most Westerner-friendly walking city I've walked through yet on the Iberian Peninsula.
I decided a hop-on/hop-off bus was in order -- the significance of the memorials, the plazas I was walking through were not evident. Decided to call it a day and hopefully wake up with renewed energy for city 7 of 7...
Some Day 1 of Madrid pics:
Stumbling upon the Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz statue was a trip -- I remember reading/studying her back in college.
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