Having only "shut our eyes" on the six-plus hour overnight flight to Madrid, once we arrived at the Tyre Ambassador, our hotel for the next four evenings, both Heidi and Lee fell quickly asleep for a couple of hours despite the mid-day timing of our arrival. But jet lag didn't keep us down for long.
Although we took it easier than might otherwise have been the case, we still managed to make our way to Plaza de Espana (once the center of the city and dominated by a huge monument to Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote, his faithful Sancho Panza and the love of his life, Dulcinia). Our first (late) lunch followed at nearby Taberna Origen, a tapas fusion restaurant featuring only organic ingredients.
We started off with an appetizer, a glass of white wine and some fresh, hot bread before digging into a delicious fresh greens salad, some yummy chicken croquettes and vegetables done up tempura style. Our waiter insisted we try a complementary glass of herb-infuse aperitif to finish, claiming it would help improve digestion. Who'd argue with that? And the whole feast came to barely twenty euros!
The only downside was that we tarried so long over lunch that we missed visiting the Cerrablo Museum which closed its doors at 3:00 PM. We walked over to see an Egyptian temple donated to Spain by Egypt in 1968 as an epression of thanks for aid given during the relocation of Abu Simbel at the time of the buiding of the Aswan Dam -- but it, too, was closed for the daily siesta break!
We went back to our hotel for another nap as compensation...
Around seven in the evening we ventured out again and wandered through the Old Town area, visiting Puetra del Sol and Plaza Mayor and lots of the side streets in-between. We had a light dinner (Jamon sandwitches, a cured ham Maridian speciality) sitting outside on Plaza Mayor as day turned to night, recalling in our conversation all the architectural decoration and detail we'd encountered on our stroll.
Not bad for two old folks still suffering jet lag!
Although we took it easier than might otherwise have been the case, we still managed to make our way to Plaza de Espana (once the center of the city and dominated by a huge monument to Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote, his faithful Sancho Panza and the love of his life, Dulcinia). Our first (late) lunch followed at nearby Taberna Origen, a tapas fusion restaurant featuring only organic ingredients.
We started off with an appetizer, a glass of white wine and some fresh, hot bread before digging into a delicious fresh greens salad, some yummy chicken croquettes and vegetables done up tempura style. Our waiter insisted we try a complementary glass of herb-infuse aperitif to finish, claiming it would help improve digestion. Who'd argue with that? And the whole feast came to barely twenty euros!
The only downside was that we tarried so long over lunch that we missed visiting the Cerrablo Museum which closed its doors at 3:00 PM. We walked over to see an Egyptian temple donated to Spain by Egypt in 1968 as an epression of thanks for aid given during the relocation of Abu Simbel at the time of the buiding of the Aswan Dam -- but it, too, was closed for the daily siesta break!
We went back to our hotel for another nap as compensation...
Around seven in the evening we ventured out again and wandered through the Old Town area, visiting Puetra del Sol and Plaza Mayor and lots of the side streets in-between. We had a light dinner (Jamon sandwitches, a cured ham Maridian speciality) sitting outside on Plaza Mayor as day turned to night, recalling in our conversation all the architectural decoration and detail we'd encountered on our stroll.
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