[INSIGHT TRAVEL - EUROPEAN GRANDEUR] - Madrid, Day 1

DAY 8 - SEPTEMBER 7, 2000
MADRID, HOTEL ALGUNA
ROOM 134 (2200H)

It was an easy drive from Lourdes to here, and not even a token inspection of passports at the border.

My beret was quite the fashion statement this morning with members of the group, the locals, and even Dmitri had something to say about it -- in French, of course. He asked first if I'd slept well, then said if I wore the beret, I should speak in French. Yes to both questions, of course.

Smooth driving up to the coffee stop, which had quiet a long line in front of it because of the blockade of oil refineries being conducted by the French truckers union over a recent oil price increase. Yeah, sure. As if they could make a realistic difference by inconveniencing the rest of the world's population. So we lost some time to top off the fuel tank, but better safe than sorry, considering that petrol stations were closing on our route since they can't get their supplies from the blockaded refineries. Tonight we heard that Tarbes airport had to close because of the fuel crisis -- that's not good. Dmitri decided to use his personal card to pay for our extra fuel load, which got a whole lot of cheers from the group. I'm sure Insight will reimburse him promptly.

Lisa went through the list of optional tours with us again, asking us to recompute our costs and to get our travelers' checks ready for turnover before pulling into Madrid. All told, our total expenses comes out to USD 1711 -- so we're giving USD 1800 in travelers' checks. Change will come in the form of Italian lire, just in time for Italy and souvenir spending.

Something interesting happened on the way to the coffee stop. It seems while Greg was reaching up for his bag, a pot of fruit preserves fell out of it and nearly hit Rob on the head. Seems the fruit preserves came from our Lourdes hotel, which set poor Greg up for a lot of ribbing.

This incident was quoted by Lisa later when she started the "getting to know you" portion of the trip. She went through all the names on the manifest and we all had to tell a little bit about ourselves. Lots of interesting bits and pieces surfaced, not the least of which were the details Lisa provided about herself. Still single at her age (38) -- but she'd like to have a baby and a husband -- not necessarily in that order. If she really is serious about that, she'll have to make up her mind to settling down someday. Of course it only takes one night to get pregnant, as was somewhat greenly pointed out by our peanut gallery in the back, but considerably more time to build a relationship that endures.

We pulled into the coffee stop in Burgos in good time, and I made a hit with the cashier by speaking in Spanish to ask where the spoons and forks were. She was very helpful and I got a kick out of realizing that I can speak Spanish creditably enough for the natives to enjoy hearing me. Here we found out that the bathroom lights are on a timer setting. Not just the stall lights, but the central lights go out as well after preset intervals. I had to hit my stall switch at least twice to get enough llght to see what I was doing!

Lisa let us have a long nap from that stop to the next one, and by the time most of us woke up, the weather had changed into hot and dry from the fresh mountain breezes we had come to know in Lourdes.

At this coffee stop, we managed to buy Dad the rubber slippers he had been looking for ever since London. Handing me down from the bus, Dmitri asked if I spoke French, and I told him, a little bit. He really seems to get a kick about seeing how far my French will go -- which isn't really all that far, considering I don't remember how to say the future tenses of my French verbs any more.

Finally paid Lisa for the optional tours, which is one less headache out of our hair. I must say I like this arrangement of paying all our optionals in one sweep, better than shelling out the money per tour. I should think it helps Lisa as well, to confirm everyone well in advance with our hosts in the countries ahead.

Arrived in Madrid at around 1730H, with just enough time to freshen up before going off on our optional dinner. First Lisa trotted us down to the Plaza Mayor for a few photo ops and souvenir shopping. I got a fan for Desiree and mom picked up some table decor. So with that and the Sherlock Holmes stuff for Mike and Hope, all I need are pasalubongs for May, Tina P and Liza to complete the list.

One thing I will regret about Madrid is not having the time or the money for a coat of arms souvenir to be made. One hour, for the surname of your choice, and 300 pesetas for a single blazon, 5000 pesetas for a matched pair. I missed the boat (ack, bad pun!) when the same thing happened to me in that little shop on the Queen Mary. Pity, but not necessary to my salvation -- I can live with it. Who knows, I might be given another chance, by God's grace.

From the Plaza Mayor, we went on a mini-walking tour of the area, covering the Plaza de Villas, the old fruit market, and finally landing at the Quinta del Sardo, which was Goya's old house.

We started with good food -- I had the gazpacho, which was of a quality not to be found anywhere but here in Madrid. Cold tomato puree miexed with cucumber, celery and fresh bell peppers. Simply the best. When the appetizers were served, I do believe I won the heart of our maitre d' by squealing delightedly at the sight of the chorizos -- the real thing, spicy and yummy and great with the Sangria. The salmon went to Mom and Dad, and the lechon was mine -- all of them excellent, and all I could have asked for was rice to go with the lechon. Still, I was perfectly happy with things just as they were.

The entertainment we had was good -- a guitar trio whose lead singer was a dead ringer for Jojo Almirante. Right down to the glasses. They sange the usual songs -- Guantanamera, La Bamba, Granada, Cielito Lindo. For me they sang Quizas and Besame Mucho -- which rather made it into a karaoke night for me, since I was singing with a gusto to rival the trio. Certainly I made them happy by saying they were the handsomest men in all Madrid -- and in Spanish, too.

Lisa did manage to pry us out of the restaurant long enough to have our illuminations tour of Madrid. There's lots of fountains in Madrid. Mostly under renovation or with the water shut down, but after going past Neptune's fountain (empty), Cibele's fountain (empty), the Plaza del Sol and the Alcala, we finally got to Christopher Columbus' fountain. It's got a wonderful concept -- a pedestrian walkway underneath the cascade, so you're surrounded by the roar of all the water -- like the endless ocean waves Columbus and his crew had to face. Up on the plaza where the fountain sits, a whole bunch of skateboarders having fun and practising their moves. I immediately thought of Weiss Kreuz and started missing all my mailing lists.

Eventually we got home to the hotel and tumbled wearily into bed -- but not before I laundered my smalls first. The off to sleep, confident in the knowledge that we could sleep in and simply take our time with tomorrow.