Madrid
Day 42. We got up this morning in plenty of time to get to breakfast, including getting a cup of coffee from the automated coffee maker that turned out to just be hot water. It looked a little thin to me. Fortunately there was another coffee make there.
After breakfast, I went off adventuring again. This time I was looking for toy stores, having done my Google Maps investigation in advance, this time looking for "juguetes" instead of "toys". I found several so I set off in search of them.
I started off heading down the hill to what looked to be some sort of shopping center. It turned out to be a mall that was part of Estacion Norte, one of the big train stations in the area. So I had fun exploring both. There was a pretty reasonable toy store there but they didn't have much in the pocket car size, most of their stuff was 1:43 and larger.
Next I boarded the Metro and headed to the Tribunal station. From there I walked for quite a while checking out things. I did stop at some more toy and hobby stores but didn't find anything of interest. Then I made it to Bazar Matey. They had an incredible selection of diecast. They also closed for siesta just a few minutes after I got there. So close, so close...
I pressed on. Went to more places on my list. At least a couple were not in evidence at all, and another toy store was closed for siesta. By this time I was too tired to try to head back to the closed stores so I just headed to the Metro and took it back to a station close to here.
One thing about the Metro is that some of these lines are incredibly deep under ground. The #10 line at Tribunal takes 5 escalators and a flight of stairs to get to ground level. I'm impressed that they would put them so deep.
Once back at the hotel, I crashed. Toward evening we got hungry so we decided to head up the hill to stop at that fair in the park, then go to dinner. We had a lot of luck finding interesting stuff in the fair, and then headed back down the hill to Duduá Palacio Restaurant.
Last night when we were dining with Sue, she mentioned that it is possible to go to some restaurants here and get wonderful beef that you grill yourself right at your table. Turns out that's what the Villagodio de Buey was, intended for two people. We had that with an opening salad (still say tuna doesn't belong on a salad, but the rest was great) and some sort of appetizer set that included some amazing soup. Then the grill came to the table and the meat. It was indescribably amazing. And they brought us a second plate of meat (for only EUR 5 more) so we came away completely stuffed.
After that, a quick walk home (half a block) and up to the room. Now we can snooze the night away in a meat coma.
After breakfast, I went off adventuring again. This time I was looking for toy stores, having done my Google Maps investigation in advance, this time looking for "juguetes" instead of "toys". I found several so I set off in search of them.
I started off heading down the hill to what looked to be some sort of shopping center. It turned out to be a mall that was part of Estacion Norte, one of the big train stations in the area. So I had fun exploring both. There was a pretty reasonable toy store there but they didn't have much in the pocket car size, most of their stuff was 1:43 and larger.
Next I boarded the Metro and headed to the Tribunal station. From there I walked for quite a while checking out things. I did stop at some more toy and hobby stores but didn't find anything of interest. Then I made it to Bazar Matey. They had an incredible selection of diecast. They also closed for siesta just a few minutes after I got there. So close, so close...
I pressed on. Went to more places on my list. At least a couple were not in evidence at all, and another toy store was closed for siesta. By this time I was too tired to try to head back to the closed stores so I just headed to the Metro and took it back to a station close to here.
One thing about the Metro is that some of these lines are incredibly deep under ground. The #10 line at Tribunal takes 5 escalators and a flight of stairs to get to ground level. I'm impressed that they would put them so deep.
Once back at the hotel, I crashed. Toward evening we got hungry so we decided to head up the hill to stop at that fair in the park, then go to dinner. We had a lot of luck finding interesting stuff in the fair, and then headed back down the hill to Duduá Palacio Restaurant.
Last night when we were dining with Sue, she mentioned that it is possible to go to some restaurants here and get wonderful beef that you grill yourself right at your table. Turns out that's what the Villagodio de Buey was, intended for two people. We had that with an opening salad (still say tuna doesn't belong on a salad, but the rest was great) and some sort of appetizer set that included some amazing soup. Then the grill came to the table and the meat. It was indescribably amazing. And they brought us a second plate of meat (for only EUR 5 more) so we came away completely stuffed.
After that, a quick walk home (half a block) and up to the room. Now we can snooze the night away in a meat coma.