Nick and I flew Air Canada from Toronto to Montreal thinking we had an hour or so to wait before heading to Madrid. Well I must have merged some info from all the research I had done booking flights because as we were checking for our gate number I got a text saying our flight to Madrid was boarding. We were at gate 40 and had to hustle to get to our gate – 64 on time. Whew!
I would recommend Air Canada if only for their list of amazing films. I saw “Our Darkest Hour” with Gary Oldham as Winston Churchill. It was amazing. I also watched the original Dial M for Murder and Cats. I didn’t sleep.
It was still dark when we landed, so I watched the sun rise from the very long line for passport control. Well you have to make the best of things.
My plan was to take bus 203 from the airport to downtown. But there was no stop for it. There was a stop for bus 200. But you know close in numbers doesn’t necessarily mean close in proximity. Someone said go down to the arrivals level. But we couldn’t get back into the airport because we didn’t have a boarding pass from Madrid. Meanwhile bus 203 stopped at the pole for bus 200 and you guessed it we missed it. OK I really didn’t need proof that I was back in Spain. We decided to take a cab which wasn’t too expensive.
We arrived at our hostel “The Hat” as in anywhere I hang my hat is home very early. We had breakfast at the hostel and had to kill time until 3pm when our beds would be ready so Nick and I walked around Madrid for an hour or so, had coffee and a croissant at a very nice cafe Pascal and then wandered back to The Hat where we dozed in the main sitting room for 3 hours.
I was a little annoyed when they showed us to a basement room with no windows when I specifically booked a room with 2 bunks – 4 beds in a lovely room with windows. Nick and I are now in two separate rooms but a least we are above ground and have windows.
My son is a lovely companion. Easy to chat to and very considerate. He’s already met a chap who speaks English in his room and I’m with what looks like a 3 other women by their shoes although no one is here right now.
We found what looked like a great restaurant just a few doors away. On the plus side it has a 5 star rating and very authentic Spanish food. On the downside it doesn’t open until 9:00pm. We both agreed that this was too late. It may be 5 Guys tonight which is also close by alas!
Nick plans on doing the pub crawl put on by the hostel tonight. It starts at 10pm. I reminded him that we had to get a cab to the train station at 9am. Wish me luck.