He Said:

On the #5 bus into town, I almost tricked myself into thinking I was on my way to work . It was Monday morning and everything I was sensing was something sensed in New York - honking horns, folded papers, requested stops, and long avenues opening up the city in all directions. I realized it was my first rush hour in three weeks.

The quasi-commute also reminded me of the similarities that Madrid has with New York - the awareness on buses and trains, the cops in front of all major landmarks, the 11th of blank - and it didn't feel right to be honeymooning in a city that sees our wedding day, March 11, as the worst day in its history. That being said, I was also reminded of how quickly a city can rebound. We did not hear 11-M being discussed. We didn't see it on bumper stickers or in back windows. We didn't even see a memorial at Atocha Station where the bombings took place (though we might have just missed it). Maybe the Europeans are just better at dealing with things like that because they have more practice, or maybe we're just a bit too sentimental about things in the States . Maybe it's a little of both. I don't know.

Our American experience in Spain continued on the Fourth of July, when we met up with Evan and his girlfriend, Adrienne, who are also traveling Europe this summer. (Evan is Bill´s brother. Bill is Jamie´s husband. Jamie is Alli´s sister.) When I heard that we´d be meeting up with them, I decided to postpone our museum day, especially since Evan and Adrienne were out late the night before and met a waiter with a rastafarian belt. We also weren´t too sure how they would take to three museums (Alli wasn´t either for that matter), so under the circumstances, we decided to take a cable car ride into Casa de Campo, a massive nature preserve and park with desert-like terrain, a zoo, and roller coasters. There´s nothing better than an amusement park on the Fourth of July.

We all had a great time, and I´m sure the four of us will look back one day and say, ¨Remember that year when ...¨ We´ll also remember the cultural part of the day´s tour when we stopped at the Chapel San Antonia de la Florida and saw magnificent de Goya frescoes, as well as his tomb. Well, OK, we´ll actually probably remember Adrienne almost filling her empty bottle in a water fountain until Evan stopped her and told her it was holy water.

That night we went out and watched the World Cup and experienced what the Madrilenos call La Movida, which is a nightlife renaissance that began in 1975 with the death of a much-despised Franco. As Hemingway says:

¨Nobody goes to bed in Madrid until they have killed the night. Appointments with a friend are habitually made for after midnight at the cafe. In no other town that I have lived in, except Constantinople during the period of Allied occupation, is there less going to bed for sleeping purposes.¨

I have no idea about what Istanbul was like during the Allied occupation, but I couldn´t agree more about Madrid . We had many canas, which is a lazy man´s way of ordering a generic beer (for those keeping score at home, that´s 18 days without a Guinness), and although we missed the fireworks, we did see on CNN that the Macy´s display went a little better than Kim Jong Il´s.

On our last full day in Madrid, Alli and I hit the trifecta of art museums: the Prada, Reina, Sofia, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza. A special Picasso exhibit was going on in celebration of the 25 years that his famous painting, Guernica, has been back in Spain. It was displayed in an axis with a famous de Goya depiction of a firing squad that began the war against Napolean, and on an opposite axis were two other paintings depicting firing squads. The message was clear, and the paintings all showed how war affects not just the people that wage it and fight it, but also the people that must endure it without a choice. It was great to see such amazing work all in one day, and midway through the second museum, my spine got that satisfying museum burn.

The final museum, the Thyssen, was a well-curated, chronological journey through the history of art modern art. None of the pieces could be labeled ¨Best Work¨, but it was definitely comprehensive and included many American artists. Never have I looked at a Winslow Homer or a landscape painting of the Hudson River with such interest. I guess it takes being so far away to gain perspective sometimes, which Alli must have agreed with because she sat on the benches in the middle of the room that were about as far away from the paintings as one could get .

That night we went to a great jazz club with no cover charge, expensive beers, and a great quintet called The Canal Street Jazz Band with an American trombonist front man. It was strange hearing ¨Georgia On My Mind¨ and ¨Take the A Train¨ in Madrid, but it was even stranger to have to come all the way to Europe to experience what a great jazz club should be about: people listening and get rowdy to the music, cigarette smoke rising to the rafters, and a crowd that was there for the music, not to grab a quick bite or yap through the entire set about what they did at work that day or what they thought of last night´s episode of Lost as is the case with so many jazz places in New York.

To cap off our week of Madrid, USA, I went down to the bathroom between sets. Carved into the door was a big star above the words, ¨Go Cowboys! Fuck the Redskins!¨ It doesn´t get much more American than that.

Evan and Adrienne Said:

After being stuck in the tourist hell of the central Spanish coast for 5 days as a result of a manufacturer´s defect in a brand new Peugot after only 1000 kilometers, we made our way in record time to Madrid (ask Evan for specific details) .

In the morning we met Chad and Alli at the Puerta del Sol (Madrid´s Time Square) by the "bear with it's head in a honey pot... or something" statue at about noon. Later we would learn that the bear pawing a tree was actually the seal of Madrid. We proceeded under the genius navigation of "Clark Griswold" (Chad) and made our way through the Plaza Mayor, past the Palacio Real, and onto the gondola for a very mellow ride over the surprisingly open space surrounding Madrid.

As proper Americans, we found the tallest roller coaster on the horizon and celebrated our Independence at the least crowded theme park in the world. Alli took pictures, we went upside down... twice. The Spanish sun fried our energy and our skin as Clark led us on the obligatory cultural excursion known as Goya's tomb. For Adrienne and I, this mini museum represented the first artistic attraction in over a month of traveling Europe(the price was right, $0) .

As Chad repeated his sole Spanish word, cana, over and over again, we fulfilled his needs with a beer here a beer there and then another beer in the hostel room after finding the only seats with a view of the Italy-Germany game in a Turkish restaurant with plastic desk chairs. Chad broke a glass, and the night was complete.

She said:

We arrived in Madrid from Ronda via overnight train. We got on the train around 11 p.m. and discovered that we were sharing a "room" with another girl (there is the capacity for 6 so all things considered we were lucky). The seats were reclinable, so the guy who sold us the tickets put Chad and I opposite each other, in the window, so our seats could recline into each other and we could sleep (head to toe). When we boarded the train, the other girl sharing our cabin was not only in our seats sleeping, but instructed us to turn the light back off before we even put our stuff down. She then proceeded to tell us to take the other two seats because she didn't want to move and goodnight! I am not sure if we were stunned or tired, but we obliged. We then proceeded to gesture and whisper to each other like children and felt a little better about ourselves.

When we arrived in Madrid, it was early in the morning. Most hostels won't let you check in until noon, but we went to the hostel anyway . The guy told us to come back in an hour for a room and unfortunately I listened to Chad when he said, "Let's just walk around and see what we find in the neighborhood". After a necessary coffee break, we continued our newly adopted routine of Chad waiting with the backpacks and I run up to see the rooms and pick the place. We found another hostel, about 14 Euro cheaper than the one we were waiting for; however, I told Chad I was a bit hesitant. We decided to take it anyway because the woman was very nice, and it was in the heart of the area we wanted to be in. Unfortunately, my hesitation was correct.

The nice woman would not leave us alone and I could only understand about 50% of what she was saying to me. Also, there was no A/C in this place which required us to leave the door open. Leaving the door open provided absolutely no air, and kept us both awake almost the entire night because this happening neighborhood was ridiculously loud. Needless to say, we switched to the original hostel the next morning with not so happy glares from the owner and an extra 2 Euro charge for leaving early!

When we arrived Monday morning we found ourselves part of the morning work commuters. As we sat in the back of the bus watching people board in their suits and work attire, we both silently felt a bit weird being "those people" on an infinite vacation, unemployed . I felt a tinge of guilt for my previous co-workers and how busy they probably were. We settled into the big city of Madrid with somewhat of an adjustment period coming from smaller towns in the past few weeks. We followed Chad's guidebook (which has been quite handy and efficient) and went tapas hopping the first night we were there.

We heard from Bill's brother, Evan, and his girlfriend, Adrienne, that they were going to be in town and made plans to meet the next day, the fourth of July. We met in the center of town, and after they settled into our hostel, we began Chad's tour of the day. We all make fun and call him Clark, but I will say that most of the time thus far, his organization has come in handy and made for some nice activity filled days. This one consisted of quite a lot of walking, but the rewards made it worth it. I will be vague here to save space and time because I know Chad gave accurate details of our ventures, but we found some beautiful parks, went to see Goya's tomb inside a beautiful chapel painted by Goya himself, went to an amusement park where I watched them all go on an upside down roller coaster ride (twice), and took a cable car across the vast city of Madrid . We then ate something other than tapas for lack of a seat at any other bar to watch the World Cup game and proceeded to watch the second half in our hostel rooms for better viewing and A/C. We had a nice day overall and somehow felt very American (despite the missing fireworks).

We said goodbye to Evan and Adrienne and spent the next day doing "chores". A necessary down day, we did laundry, caught up on the blogs/emails, and of course, took a siesta. We took a walk to a new neighborhood, village-esque, ate lunch, and found an English bookstore. We watched the game and called it an early night.

The next day is what I like to call the "Triple Crown" museum day. Chad insisted that we needed to get the all-inclusive passes to go to the Prado, the Reina Sofia, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza. I am not sure how I got bamboozled, but after going to the first two, I insisted on a break. One of the activities in Chad's guidebook was to walk through the gardens outside of the museum to see a crystal palace and a lake with rowboats . Chad may call it spite for going to three museums in one day; however, I like to call it a reward. Yup, we rented a rowboat, and Chad rowed his little princess all around the lake in the sweltering sun. There was a hefty amount of complaining on his part, but he tried not to ruin it for me too much.

After the third museum, which turned out to be the best, we took a brief siesta and went to Plaza Mayor for paella. The food was fair at best, but once again, we paid for the view. Plaza Mayor is a cool place, and we sipped on sangria while listening to the street performers play Sinatra tunes. From there we agreed that it was a long, somewhat expensive day and we should probably call it a night. However, there was a jazz club around the corner from our hostel that we really wanted to check out so we decided to "just walk past it". So glad we did, we ended up jamming with "The Canal Street Jazz Band" for the next 1-2 hours and left wishing we had checked this place out earlier in the week. It is great to leave a city on such a happy note....

They Said:

Happy birthday, Jaden!!!
Happy birthday, George W.!!!
Happy birthday, America!!!