Day 14: Madrid

On our last day in Europe, we slept in a little later than we anticipated. We take the metro downtown and grab lunch at a cute little cafe. We took it easy that day and wandered by the botanical gardens and got discount student tickets into the Prado. There was a lot of baroque-era art including many portraits of wealthy families. Most of the figures (men and women) looked just like George Washington!

We stopped by the Park of the Pleasant Retreat which includes the Crystal Palace - a one-room building made entirely of windows (see picture). We wandered in, and they had some speakers set up playing random sound effects: animal calls, pings, drips, and other unrecognizable sounds. I suppose it was to demonstrate how it echoes. Also, they didn't let us take pictures from inside the building. We spent some nice time sitting on the grass and watching people and wildlife (including magpies) go by.

In the evening, we got all packed up and set out looking for a sandwich place to get food for the next day. Why are sandwiches so hard to find? We finally found a tiny fresh/organic cafe that sold everything from bagels and lox to curry chicken wraps. We grabbed some food and some quiche and put it in the fridge for the next day.

We went to our favorite little restaurant one last time to enjoy the delicious and very well-priced meal and went to bed. Early the next morning, we got up, went to the airport, and said our goodbyes.

Day 13: Madrid

We slept in, did some packing, and basically relaxed in the hotel until lunch time. This was the day of our lunch reservation at Zalacaín, a fancy and fabulous restaurant, courtesy of my wonderful grandparents as a birthday present. The restaurant had a huge staff, including several sommeliers. The head sommelier wore a wine-tasting cup and a key around his neck. Since I spoke the Spanish, I think I was considered the "man" at the meal. The sommelier gave me the wine to taste (I've never seen a woman be the first to taste wine when there was a man at the table), and the waiter gave me the bill (again, usually given to the men). I was very pleased with their perceptiveness.

The meal itself was incredible. I think there were about 8 courses. We had a roseta wine, croquetas, cold green tomato soup over caviar, some sort of mushroom and truffle dish, asparagus and peas with prawns in a tasty sauce, sea bass with basil oil and potato balls, steak with bacon (which Marc and I deemed "steakon") with leeks and more tasty sauce with hollow potato puffs, raspberry and manzanilla sorbets, molasses dessert wine, chocolate lava cake with pistachio ice cream, basil cream with amaretto jello, a nut wafer, little truffles, and savage rose and white tea.

We were quite full after the meal, so Marc and I took the Metro back to the hotel to sleep it off. We had pretty good timing, I was sick when we woke up. Being sick is no good, but at least I was able to enjoy the lovely Spanish lunch beforehand. Sick or not, we were determined to enjoy Madrid. We headed for the Metro and were delighted at how clean, understandable, efficient, and spacious it was. It was a nice change from the Rome Metro. We passed a portable harp player on our way out and emerged at the Puerta del Sol. We also wandered around to the Plaza Mayor, passing the Jamón (Ham) Museum.

We then walked to the Catedral Nuestra Sra. de la Almudena. Inside they were in the middle of services. They had a choir, a humongous pipe organ, and a couple of hundred Spanish ladies in large black veils. We walked to the neighboring Palacio Real and sat in the garden while listening to the funky harmonies of a trumpet/saxophone duo. We got a little bit lost, but we managed to find the Plaza de España and its corresponding Metro stop.

We made it home and considered going out to dinner, but we were still full 5 1/2 hours after our lunch. Still feeling sick, I wasn't up to another heavy Spanish meal. We ended up grabbing a tiny bit of Chinese food from around the corner.

Day 12: Rome to Madrid

Our second (and last) morning in Rome, we decided to repeat our delicious breakfast at the Beehive Cafe. We ordered two cinnamon apple pancakes, crepe-style (the menu changes every day). Once again, we were thoroughly pleased with the food our hotel had to offer. We didn't feel like taking the Metro again, since we only had a few hours left, so we wandered around the area near our hotel. We found a random Basilica (not THE Basilica) with some science exhibits about Galileo and his work inside the church. There was also a star map on the floor that (if you know how to read it) let you know which famous stars were overhead any time. Our last Rome lunch was wonderful - panini, a sandwich, and tomato/mozarella salad. We bought one last Italian gelato, then returned to our hotel to grab our things and say farewell to kitty Ingmar.

Back during our first day in Rome, we did some extensive research on transportation to the airport. We chose the train over the Metro, since it was cleaner and cheaper and less crowded. However, we ran into a slight problem. The train station was not actually next to the airport. Luckily, we improvised and managed to make the rest of our journey with a fairly inexpensive cab ride (the only taxi we took during our entire vacation). We were pleased to make it to the airport with time to spare, and even more pleased to be done with our last RyanAir flight. Avoid RyanAir, it is not an airline we recommend.

We arrived safely in Madrid, and it was nice to be back in a familiar city. We retrieved our extra suitcase that we had left in hotel storage, settled in, and searched for a good place to eat. We ended up eating at a restaurant we had eaten lunch at our first day in Madrid. The fixed price menu was inexpensive, tasty, and traditional, and the entire restaurant was filled with Spaniards. We tried Spanish cheesecake for dessert that night, mmm.

Day 11: Rome

Our first morning in Rome, we decided to eat at our hotel cafe. We had freshly made cinnamon break and the most wonderful strawberry pancake either of us have ever eaten. We then took the Metro over to Vatican City and visited the Vatican. We kept expecting to see the Sistine Chapel, but we must have passed through a hundred different rooms before finally getting there. The Vatican was bigger than we expected. After we'd taken about 15 pictures, the security guards in the Sistine Chapel said that no photography or video was allowed. Since there were several hundred people all crowded in there, they really had no way to enforce that rule.

We wandered over to the Basilica and watched the nuns and priests go by. At first, we wanted to go inside, but a look at the long line under the sun in the 90 degree heat made us realize that the Basilica was less special than we previously thought. We grabbed some Nutella flavored gelato (our favorite) and headed back to the hotel to rest.

That evening we took the Metro back to the Spanish Steps stop and visited a huge park. We couldn't really find the nice part of the park and ended up wandering around some scary-looking deserted sections until we found the street again. We decided to revisit the Trevi Fountain and wander around before getting dinner. Our hotel was only 2 Metro stops away from there we ate, so we decided to walk back. We made it just fine, but we were exhausted.

Day 10: Florence to Rome

Since we only had one night in Florence, we packed up and headed to the train station less than 24 hours after our arrival. We took our (slightly delayed) train into Rome and were very pleased to discover that our hotel was a block away from the Rome train station. Our room wasn't ready yet, so we left our bags at the hotel and went to explore the city. We quickly learned that the Roman Metro was not our favorite way to travel. It was confusing to navigate, it was very crowded, and it was not the cleanest of underground railways. We braved the Metro anyway and made our way over to the Colosseum area.

We were pretty hungry after our morning of travel, so we did our best to find a restaurant away from the overpriced and touristy area around the Colosseum. We found a little side street with a tasty pasta restaurant and made sure to refill our water bottles before heading back out. Rome was in the middle of a heat wave, and walking down the street was exhausting. We kept our visit to the Colosseum and Forum brief, since the weather was so difficult to maneuver in.

The Beehive in Rome was the most fun and interesting hotel we stayed in on our trip. Hippies should feel right at home there. It's filled with bright colors, cheery paintings, natural soaps, and reusable towels. They try to preserve water and their cafe is entirely vegetarian and organic. The cafe menu has no set prices or portion sizes, you pay what you feel is fair. One of the most memorable aspects of the hotel was the resident cat, Ingmar. He has lived in the hotel for many years and is quite old. We often found him sitting on couches or curled up on bathroom rugs when we walked around the hotel.

After a settling in at our hippie hotel, we once again braved the Roman Metro for a trip to the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain. We ate dinner at a restaurant with 100 different pasta dishes and had tiramisu for dessert, which was very satisfying and delicious.