Madrid

Tuesday, November 22, 2016
Lisbon, Estremadura, Portugal
Marriott was great, but no free breakfast, so we took Hop On Hop Off bus into Lisbon, walked thru old town section and found an outstanding restaurant outside on the street. Breakfast cost 8,50 Euros and included eggs, bacon, toast, croissant, & coffee. Nan was "divergent" because she had cappuccino instead of coffee and was charged ,50 extra. One Euro is about $1.10 US. It might be only $1.05 by now. It was $1.35 a couple of years ago.

Continued to hike thru shopping center and found ruins of old church . Had coffee at McDonalds. You ordered at a kiosk and were given a number and picked up and paid for your order. It takes fewer workers to do it this way.

In the afternoon we went to a Lisbon history demo that showed all the famous explorers of 500. - 600 years ago and emphasized how bad the 1755 earthquake was. It destroyed the city. We went thru the exhibit with 28 4th graders and their teacher. The teacher spoke English. The kids not so much. We exchanged how to say hello and thank you. I ask how do you ask where the bathroom is. Every kid then asked to go & the teacher lost her class. Sorry.

Later we accidentally met some friends we had first met on the cruise. We had also run into them the day before. So we stopped for supper.

We needed to get back to the Marriott to get our luggage, so we hailed a cab. He spoke no English. We discovered he had no idea where the Marriott was located. I told him I thought it was near the zoo, so we headed for the zoo at breakneck speeds. After 25 minutes of driving around the zoo, Nan spotted the Marriott.

Picked up our bags and called another cab. This guy also spoke no English, but he knew where the Oriente Train Station was located. Alas there was a Futball game in Lisbon against Real Madrid, so there was a traffic bottleneck.

Got to the station. All signs were in Portuguese. No one could help us, but we managed. Gould the correct track and a little Korean girl started speaking English to us . She was lost. After 30 minutes people ask us questions. Turns out she was 21, but looked 16, and was going to school in London working on a masters degree in English. She was riding the train by herself before she flies home to South Korea.

We had a sleeper car. See the pictures. We didn't speed much with the noise and the rocking, but we made it to Madrid by 8:50 AM.
Got a cab to our Best Western with one free night and had breakfast. Nothing much. It was supposed to be free but wasn't.

Took hop on hop off bus around Madrid. Got off a few times to do some sightseeing . Nan bought a beret because it was cold - about 7 C. Ate supper at a tapas restaurant.

Tomorrow (Thanksgiving) we take a bus trip to Toledo.

Comments

jackday
2016-11-24

Sounds like its been a great trip. Will you be able to visit The Prado?
Interesting how McDonalds demonstrates how a high minimum wage results in greater unemployment.
Are you going to tell us about the cruise??

Joe
2016-11-24

May go to Prada tomorrow, nov 25th

2025-02-16

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