“Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow.” ― Anita Desai

Thursday 25^th June

Last day in Madrid

We woke late, as checkout was a very civilised noon. The cases were repacked and we set off to explore Madrid for the last time (this time). Many of the shops in Madrid have rebajas, which means REDUCTIONS, one of Mary’s favourite words, and one of her favourite stores, Desigual, had up to 70% off. The main store in Madrid has five floors. Wacko! It also helps that non European Union customers are able to have tax free purchases. So, shopping we went. Picked up a couple of bargains and then went for brunch at our favourite chocolateria, San Gines. Orange juice, coffee and churros with chocolate.

Somewhat revived we the headed off to the Royal Palace, open today.

2800 rooms, although we only saw about 20, but those 20 are spectacular. We can only assume that the other 2780 are equally OTT. Gold, Tiepolo frescoes, gilt, Stradivarius instruments, porcelain and/or silk covered walls, marble, parquetry and sumptuousness everywhere. The king who built it back in the late 1700’s wanted it to be the Versailles of Madrid. The Portuguese wanted to do that too, but obviously the Spanish had a lot more money.

After revelling in the wealth, and playing around in 38 degree summer sun with panorama shots,  we then needed a reviver and went to Taberna Real, which used to be the living quarters of the palace servants, and today is bar. A popular and traditional Madrid drink is Vermut, a vermouth on tap, which we had with some olives. Then we walked around to find La Casa del Abuela, a restaurant we went to on the Food Tour, which specialises in gambas (shrimp). We had their speciality, shrimps in garlic, olive oil and parsley (the holy trinity of Spanish cooking) and crumbed shrimps. on sticks, deep fried. 

Things were going beautifully, well timed so that we could return to the hotel, get changed and get the cab to the airport. We decided to get a taxi, as it was very hot and we wanted a little extra time to have a cool drink. The taxi trip should have taken about five minutes, and after five days in Madrid we knew which way to go. The taxi driver did not. Although we said the name of the hotel, ATLANTICO, several times, especially as we seemed to be going the wrong way, and told him the street and repeated the hotel name, he still kept going and took us to the Grand Atlanta Hotel, across the other side of Madrid. Dick told him to turn off the meter and get us to Atlantico, quickly. The peak hour traffic was horrendous. We were hoping to be at the airport at seven. At 7:20 we were still in traffic. As we neared the hotel, we threw some euros at him, raced into the hotel, grabbed the luggage and then crossed Madrid’s busiest street to hail another cab to the airport. The driver of this cab was terrific and promised to get us there in 20 minutes. Which he did. We gave him the last of our euros – the fare and a good tip.

We checked in and then tried to get our tax refund. There are several steps in the process, involving a few different agencies, customs being one and the money refund office being another. These offices are in different parts of the airport, through a maze of escalators, lifts, security checks, passport control and one-way, no return doors. The receipts got stamped, but there was not time to get the refund. I will try posting them back and see what happens.

We are on the plane and about to have a bit of a snooze (hopefully).

A good flight back and home at 6:45 am Saturday morning. We hope you have enjoyed the 40 days and 40 nights of VerweysAway2015.