City Tour

Our day started really late. The night before, we were still off our sleep rhythms, and so we vowed to make our flat ultra sleep-friendly.  It worked, as we didn't arise until 1 PM. Clearly we are still working off our jet lag. Bryce said he slept like a "Medusa victim".

My mom always recommends to take a tour bus early on in your stay somewhere, so as to get the lay of the land, and pick places to return to.  It's good advice, so we bought a ticket for the hop-on hop-off double-decker tour bus, and cruised around the city. It was cool to see parts outside of the centro, including the Salamanca neighborhood, and the Debod Egyptian temple, both of which I'd like to return to.

We split up our trip with a visit to the Corte Ingles department store to get some more warm clothes.  Madrid has been colder than we expected, and Bryce and I both got new sweaters. It turns out that if you bring your passport, you can get 10% off any purchase, plus a refund on the VAT (Value Added Tax - like a sales tax). Now we know for next time.

Dinner was at a cute little Italian place near our house. We got there at 7:45, but the kitchen didn't open until 8 (yes - we are early birds in Spain). The food was very good, and we enjoyed ourselves.

Now, we are off to bed early so we can get a full day out on Easter Sunday.