sandman319

I just read on the US forum that people like reading trip reports so I'll give it a go.

Trip report Madrid Nov 15 – Nov 18, Paris Nov 18-26


Nov 14.

Took Iberia airlines out of Kennedy after taking the subway to Jamaica and the air train to Kennedy. The air train takes the metro card in case anyone is wondering so it’s a good idea to load up your metro card before getting on the subway. When I swiped the card though, it took out 2 fares at once. After letting my wife through, I couldn’t get through. Spoke to the agent and she let me pass. It’s good that they’re a lot of agents at the air train to help out.

After boarding the plane, it was delayed at the gate for about an hour. The lady in front of me put her seat back, which was annoying, as we had not yet taken off. I’m wondering if that is proper.

Nov 14.

Arrived Madrid around noon. Met someone else who was going to the city, which allowed us to share a cab. My share of the cab was 13 euros. Stayed at the Hotel Plaza Mayor which I reserved based on someone’s recommendation on this site. I had asked for a ‘superior’ room with a request for a high floor with a nice view. When I arrived however the room was on a low level facing a small courtyard barely bigger then an airshaft. Wound up keeping the curtains closed for the duration of our stay.

The good thing was that the room was very quiet. The hotel was also in an excellent location only a block from Plaza Mayor, 90 euros/night.

I asked to put my things in the hotel safe but was told I had to use the room safe at an additional charge. Turns out the room safe was not working so I stashed my valuables in the hotel safe anyway.

At this point my wife was too wiped out from the trip so I went out and walked around myself to get the lay of the land. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon so I was sorry my wife missed it.

We went out together later and had some tapas on calle Cava Baja or is it Bava Caja. Anyway was happy to see that beers could be gotten very cheaply about 1.10 euros, even with the lousy exchange, a good deal. Tried some dried ham, felt like I was eating shoe leather , but the other tapas were ok.






Nov 15

We were late risers for most of the trip so got out around 11 or 12 most days. Not a good thing to do if you want to see a lot, but we were so jet lagged, had no choice. On this day we headed out for the Museo del Prado. We started out going through the plaza Santa Ana and saw a few historical buildings. In my terrible Spanish I managed to ask someone where to go for breakfast ( I think I asked him if he eats breakfast) and he directed us to a nice place near the plaza. I didn’t take note of the name, but we each had café con leche and chocolate croissants for about 6 euros.

Walking to the Prado, I was pleasantly surprised to see what an elegant city Madrid is. The line at the Prado was rather long but it moved quickly and once inside didn’t seem to crowded. I was perplexed when I tried to figure out the map of the museum plan, not knowing that the building had recently completed some additions which were not reflected on the map.

I thought I might take some pictures in the museum so I asked the guard if ‘photo permitido’, she said ‘NO’. So I asked ‘sin flash’ (without flash) and she replied ‘sin nada.’ (without nothing!) So no pictures.

The collection there is of course great. Listening in on someone else’s guide , I got some understanding of why El Greco is great. His subjects seem to rise out of the painting. I got to see Goya’s 2nd of May and Bosch’s Garden of Earthly delights and many other great paintings. When I got home I started reading Michener’s Iberia which describes some interesting facts about the museum and Madrid. I recommend that anyone going to Spain read this book before going.

After the museum we used a Rick Steve’s recommendation and ate at La Plateria on plaza Martinez. This turned out to be one of the best good value restaurants of the trip. Plates were around 10 euros and glasses of beer or wine around 1.10 euros each. My wife had some sort of meat with eggs plate and I had a big piece of fish, we both enjoyed our food.

After that we walked over to Retiro Park and enjoyed the crisp sunny weather, sitting around the lake, observing the locals, listening to street musicians.

We continued on out of the park and saw the Alcala Gate then walked down the Gran Via. I was surprised to see the beautiful palatial buildings , one of which turned out to be the headquarters of the phone company. From there we walked on one of the pedestrian only shopping streets which connects to the Puerta Del Sol. The crowds down near the plaza were enormous but very well behaved. In general , walking the streets of Madrid, even though crowded, I had a very serene unthreatened feeling , unlike the feeling I get when I walk the streets of NYC.

We returned to the hotel then changed and went out to see a Flamenco show. The hotel clerk gave me the directions, but I still had a tough time finding the place, though it was just behind the Plaza Mayor. After asking about 5 different people, I finally found the place. Unfortunately I don’t remember the name of the place but the show was excellent. If you need to know the name you can ask at the Hotel Plaza Mayor because this is the place they recommend. Michener in his book describes always seeing bad Flamenco, but for my money I thought this show was great. The emotion of the whole thing was powerful I nearly started crying

To be continued…

travginny

Interesting report, sandman.

roadlesstraveled

Thanks for sharing. I am looking forward to the rest of the report.

sandman319

Nov. 17

Today we are going to Toledo. Planned to get up early, overslept but decided to go anyway. Took the metro to Atocha. Was a little confused finding the ticket selling area but fortunately we had time till the next train. Took a number and waited. When it came time to buy the ticket, the clerk was very nice but for some reason she urged me to buy the next to last train out rather then the last one. I should have insisted on the last one out to get more time in Toledo.

Went to the food stand for some breakfast. I wanted some toasted sandwich but couldn’t remember how to say toasted. Some annoyed Englishman abruptly told me to just point at what I want, so I settled for pastries on the counter.

When we got on the train I didn’t realize that all the seats are reserved so I walked all the way to the front of the train and we sat in the wrong seats until someone came along and politely asked for the seats. Then I realized my seats were all the way at the other end of the train so we had to walk back.

The trip was only 30 minutes; from the books that I read I thought it was longer. When we got to Toledo, everything went smoothly. We got off the train and there was a city bus there waiting. We took the bus up into the walled city and got off. I have such a bad sense of direction that invariably I start walking the wrong way. I finally made it to plaza Zocodovar. I wanted to follow a walking tour in Rick Steve’s book. However, no one that I asked seemed to know where the starting street was. Some old lady became very indignant when I asked her. Some other people pointed me in the right direction. We walked the narrow medieval streets which for lack of sun light were a little chilly. We happened upon a very small grocery store and bought some water, tangerines and a pear for what I thought was a reasonable price. The proprietor was nice enough to wash my pear and direct us to the street I wanted.

We started walking the up and down hilly streets and came upon a quiet plaza behind a church. We stopped and ate our fruit and took turns taking pictures with some nice young Spanish tourists. Took some pictures of a Moorish looking tower then a Moorish looking door of the Visigoth museum. Then we found our way to the Santa Tome church where hangs the El Greco painting ‘The Burial of Count Orgaz’. Stared at the painting for a while. The most impressive thing is that it’s been there 400 years without restoration and still looks pretty good.

We went out looking for a restaurant and saw signs for the ‘Restaurante Manila’.
We followed the arrow on the sign and wound up walking downhill around a block and then back uphill around to almost where we started and there it was. My bad sense of direction at work again. Thinking we were going to get some Philippine food we went into the restaurant. We walked through a large medieval door and entered. It turned out to be an old taberna style place with low vaulted ceilings, serving Spanish style food.
We ordered the menu for 15 euros and it was excellent , maybe the best meal we had all trip. I had a meat crepe for an appetizer and a huge piece of monk fish for a main an flan for dessert. My wife had onion soup, lamb chops and some sweet milky dessert.

After the restaurant we went to the Synagogue on calle Samuel Halevi.
Being of Sephardic heritage the museum held some meaning for me. I would have liked to spent more time there reading about the history of the Jews in Spain and looking at the artifacts in the museum, but due to our late start we had to cut it short.

Now I was concerned about making it to the Cathedral on time. I figured with my poor sense of direction I would probably make a wrong turn. So we hustled along asking as we went and eventually found it. I’ve seen giant ornate cathedrals before but this was my wife’s first time to Europe, so I really wanted her to see it. When we got to the cathedral it was so huge that it took time just to walk around to the entrance. Anyway we got there in plenty of time and purchased the ticket for the sacristy.

Needless to say we were awestruck by the immensity and the ornateness. The giant golden alter was awesome. I liked the decorative opening in the ceiling. Read Michener’s Iberia for a good history and description of those openings. My wife stopped an old nun and asked to take a picture with her. Seeing the two of them hugging together I could see a bonding across the miles.

Made our way back to Madrid. Walked on Gran Via some more then decided to check out the Chueca neighborhood as I had read that there was some good shopping there. But when we got there all the stores were closed and the area around the Chueca metro stop was kind of shabby looking.

Tomorrow we leave for Paris…

artlover

sandman,
I'm really enjoying your trip report. Thanks so much for posting. (I too have an awful sense of direction but believe that getting lost is half the fun )

sandman319

To those of you who replied, thanks for reading my report. I know it's kind of dull but I enjoyed writing it.

Nov 18.

Today is Sunday, we fly to Paris in the afternoon. For once we get up early so we can have a final walk around the old part of Madrid before our departure. We walk to the Puerta del Sol to do a guidebook walk. Passing a streamlined tapas bar we go in for some breakfast. I finally get to try the famous Spanish hot chocolate and churros. The hot chocolate is very thick almost like pudding. The churros are cooked just right and I really enjoy dipping them in the chocolate. This is something I’ll miss from Spain.

The weather in Madrid is the same as it’s been everyday, crisp and sunny. If I ever take a November vacation to Europe again, I’ll keep in mind the beautiful weather Spain has at that time of year and probably spend my whole vacation there.

We spent the rest of the morning seeing parts of the old city including a monastery, the outside of the royal palace and the cathedral. Outside the cathedral there were street musicians playing including a really good Spanish guitarist. We went into the cathedral and there was a service going on.

We walked back to the hotel and got our stuff. There was a cab outside already letting off a couple for the hotel. We took the cab to the airport , hit a little traffic getting out of the city but the ride was fast and as usual I got to the airport too early.

We went to the cafeteria to get some food. When we went to get a table however there were many groups of revelers from Sweden I think hogging up all the tables. One guy was defending about 10 empty chairs waiting for his friends. I asked him if I could just use 2 chairs until his group showed up, I’d give him back the chairs when he needed it. So he complied and we ate quickly.

We took Easyjet to Paris, I was concerned about our bags not coming in under the 20 kg limit per bag. I knew that there penalty charges were heafty. Both our bags came in under the limit by about 1 kg each.

When we first left the US I heard that there was a metro strike going on in Paris. I hoped it would be over by the time we got to Paris. When we arrived in Paris and I went looking for the Metro, however, I found out that the strike wasn’t over. Not sure what I was going to do next, we headed outside, and down the sidewalk I saw the Roissy bus taking passengers. So we got on. It cost 17 euros for the 2 of us.

Riding into Paris on the bus took over an hour because of traffic. During the ride in I was thinking that the strike might have an impact on our ability to get around. I also noticed that the weather in Paris wasn’t so nice. In fact it was cloudy and drizzly and I was kind of wishing I was back in Spain.

When the bus finally got to the city we got out near the opera house. My destination was Monmartre where we were going to be staying in an apartment that we swapped our apartment for.

Walking in the rain I was wondering if I would be able to find a taxi. I figured since there was a strike one would be hard to find. Then I saw a taxi stand so we went there but there was no taxi. I started studying the map to see which way to walk when suddenly a taxi pulled up to let off some passengers. We quickly got in and we got driven to our apartment for only 7 euros.
When we got to the apartment building it was the typical Hausman style building. I had the code for the entry system so we got into the building. We saw that the hallways of the building were a little run down. Then we saw what I was afraid would happen , there was no elevator and the apartment was on the 5th floor. I’m getting a little old but thankfully I am in good enough shape to carry my bag up. My wife who is younger then myself , though small is thankfully strong enough to carry her bag. I’m glad we bought rolling duffels with straps to carry like a back pack , for the trip. So we hoist our almost 20kg bags on our back and head up the spiraling staircase.

When we get to the fifth floor, out of breath , we ring the bell we expect our swap mates brother to be there waiting with the keys. We ring a few times and there is no answer. Oh great I think , no way to get in and we have no phone. So I leave my wife with the bags to head down and look for a phone. Luckily the neighbor on the floor below is just coming out of his apartment and more luckily , he speaks English. I asked him if he could call the brother and he did. The brother shows up about 15 minutes later, and apologizes saying that he thought we’d get there later.

He lets us in to the apartment and the apartment is a little strange. The good part is that since it’s on the fifth floor it has a balcony which we could step out on and have a nice view of Paris. The apartment is also in a very nice neighborhood near place des Abesses and near Sacre Coure. The building itself is on a hill, which is why we have the nice view. The bad part is the apartment is draughty and the floor is very sloped.

My wife was annoyed but I was determined to not let anything bother me and I was going to focus on the charm of living like a Parisian. Once we figured out the electric heaters and got the heat turned on it wasn’t too bad. The sloped floor however was something I could never get used to. I felt that I was constantly fighting gravity just to stand up. The layout of the apartment was the livingroom had a door at one end which led to the kitchen. At the other end of the kitchen was a door that led into the hallway and the hallway had a door which led back into the livingroom. In other words you could make a circle around the apartment this way. Anyway the floor was so sloped that I felt like I was walking uphill to get to the door to the kitchen. Once in the kitchen rather then go back uphill again to get back in the living room , I’d go down hill toward the hall and come back around into the livingroom. The living room was also the bedroom.

We couldn’t get the TV to work, so we were without TV all week. This didn’t turn out to be too bad as we got into listening to the French radio station. We even got to like some of the songs which were repeated each day.

We went out to eat that night and found a Chinese takeout place. It was different then Chinese takeout here in the US. All the choices were pre cooked and in a display case. All the food was paid for by the gram. So we picked a couple of things and some rice and we were having our first meal in France. I calculated the dollar equivalent of the meal and realized we just paid $27 for some Chinese food.

We walked around a little and to get familiar with the neighborhood. We passed a bar and some revelers invited us to come in. We went in and had a couple of beers, but we didn’t talk to anyone as I didn’t think they knew English. I know a little Spanish from high school and that was very helpful in Spain. Except for the niceties words, I knew no French. It was also very smoky in the bar, so that was the last time we did something like that.


Nov 19 - 26

The rest of the trip is nothing unusual. We do the usual tourist things. Hit the major museums , walk around Paris a lot. The strike didn't hamper us too much as they run limited service rather then shutting down entirely. We discovered the Rue St. Anne where there are a lot of chinese/japanese restaurants and ate there a few times. I got to see the passages which I'd been wanting to do. My wife did some shopping on Rue Petit Prince where we found some good bargains in bags and wallets.

One interesting shopping experience took place in Galleries Lafayette. There were these 2 older Parisian customers who were helping their daughter pick a coat. When they saw my wife trying on coats they became very attentive to her , adjusting the coat for her , helping her with belts etc. I thought it was very cute and maybe they used to be fashion people.

As for restaurants, we ate 2 times at Le Poulbot. Lunch there was only 10 euros for a 3 course meal. The food was good and the atmosphere was very nice with all French people eathing there.

We ate at Cafe Constant , the food was good , but the portions were very small. There seemed to be only Americans eating there and the price for just an appetizer and main dish for the 2 of us with a bottle of wine came to about $100.

We ate at Relais Gascon in Montmartre. The food was good and fairly reasonable. I had a delicious big salad which came with a large piece of liver pate in it. My wife had lamb and we had wine. I think the total was about 50 dollars.

At Le Grain Au Folie, walking in the place was very small and seemingly in disarray. There were only a few diners but the owner had to move some stuff out of the way for us to sit down. The kitchen was in open view almost as if we were in her apartment. But the vegetarian dish she whipped up for us was absolutely delicious.

Our week in the apartment turned out to be pretty good. The apartment was very bright with big windows. The view off the balcony was wonderful. One morning I went out and got some hot baguettes and some cheese then ate it it up on the balcony. That was a nice sunny day and the experience was awesome and unforgettable.


Anyway to the 2 or 3 of you out there enjoying this.. thanks for reading.

--Sandman

sandman319

Link to pictures. Enjoy.

http://tinyurl.com/2anbgf

Mara

Nice report and wonderful pictures! Thanks for sharing

DeborahAnn

sandman, Thanks for your trip report. You had a good attitude about the apartment, I hope your wife was able to find the charm in it's sloped floor as well.

You are fortunate to be living in a city that is attractive for apartment exchanges; much more of a draw than those of us in the suburbs Deborah

Treesa

Sandman, thanks for sharing. Loved the picture of St. Severin church. I just love that church.

sandman319

Thanks for the replies. Yes, I'm lucky to be a location where I can do exchanges. Next time though, I'll do more interrogation into the condition of the apartment I'm getting. All in all though it was a great experience and good exercise doing that 5 floor walkup everyday. I lost 5 lbs. , one for each flight of stairs.

AnnMarie_C

Bookmarking...thank you for your wonderful trip report, sandman!

ekscrunchy

Victor your report made me laugh out loud! The photo of the boy with baguettes is just one of many great ones!!

How did you find the home exchange? Is there a link to the apartment that we can see just to get the idea of what it looked like inside??

sandman319

Ekscrunchy,

I'm glad you enjoyed

If you can imagine the part where my wife was trying on coats in Galleries Lafayette and that old French couple were helping her, adjusting the collar , pulling on the hem, putting belts on her. I was just standing there laughing.

I got the home exchange using Craigslist. I posted just to see if I would get a bite and I got a response the very next day.

I don't have any pics of the inside. But the other day I watched a movie on cable called 'The Science of Sleep', which takes place in Paris. The layout of the apartment in the movie is almost identical to the one we stayed in. Even the buildings staircase looked the same. I guess this is what's meant by 'Hausmann' style.