Sunday, September 22, 2024
This morning, our phone alarm clocks jolted us from a deep sleep at 4 am. We scrambled around showering, dressing, and doing our final packing in order to leave our packed luggage in the hallway outside our room at 4:45 am for pickup. We proceeded to the lobby to join Paula and others in the early departure group. Cameron was there to say goodbye to us as well. We picked up a bagged breakfast and Jane, Nancy, John, and I, wheeled our luggage in the rain and dark to a waiting taxi to take us to the bus. After several taxi shuttle rides from the Parador to the bus, everyone was boarded and we departed. Paula, our Smithsonian guide was in the early departure group and so joined our bus.
The somber 1.5-hour ride to the Bilboa airport was in the dark and rain. I managed to sleep a little and to eat the breakfast provided. Check-in, security passage, and boarding went quickly and our 1.25-hour flight with Iberian Air arrived in Madrid around 10 am.
After waiting a while for our bags at the carousel, we found our way out of the terminal and John paged a Bolt vehicle large enough to accommodate the four of us and our luggage. Our driver let us off in central Madrid and we rolled our bags a short distance to our reserved U-Sense Madrid Santa Ana apartment.
—— Departing Bilboa ——
—— Arriving in Madrid ——
We still had about four hours before our check-in time, so we selected an umbrellaed table on the square among the many available and took our seats surrounded by luggage. While we were waiting, we enjoyed two rounds of beers and various tapas served from a nearby restaurant, Tapa Tapa. Meanwhile, via his cell phone, John made progress on getting early access to our apartment (for an extra fee). The street-level door on the square was unlocked remotely for John who took an elevator to our room on the third floor. That room was remotely unlocked and in it was a card key for John to use during our stay.
We all hauled our luggage and moved into our very nice and modern apartment overlooking Plaza de Santa Ana. The unit had a small combination washer-dryer, so Jane and Nancy immediately started attacking our dirty laundry. The “dryer” part of the machine was basically non-functional so that soon drying laundry was hanging everywhere throughout the apartment. Jane and John walked to a nearby Lidl grocery to buy food for our stay – cheese, crackers, bread, croissants, yogurt, and milk. Meanwhile, I took a short nap to make up for my missed sleep time this morning.
We spent the evening getting settled in with the doors to the square open letting in cool dry air and the sounds of the crowds in the square below. After a leisurely dinner in the apartment, we retired to get rested up for our first full day in Madrid tomorrow.
—— Plaza de Santa Ana ——
