Teachers on Tour

Holly
It’s Wednesday now and we’ve had some time to adjust to life in a very small apartment with seven people. The question is: are we still talking? I am happy to say we have not yet had that little hissy fit that sometimes comes when people live in very close quarters. We all seem to roll along pleasantly EVEN though three of us are females of an age where certain times of the month are more intense and we all seem to be there now. It probably comes as a surprise that I can get MORE intense but it HAS been known to happen.

Yesterday we dragged our sorry little selves out of the apartment quite late in the morning and had about enough time to take in ONE art gallery: the Thyssen. The interesting thing about this gallery is that it was owned by one family and sold to Madrid for what seems like a lot until you visit the gallery. The place just goes on and on and on.

Kenna
In fact, Kenna dragged on her observations of the final statue in the Gerome exhibit as she waited for Tom. Then Tom and Kenna waited for the kids. Then Tom, Kenna and the kids waited for Ray. And eventually, Museum Slug and Heather came up from the bowels of the museum.

Holly
Now, lest you may think Museum Slug was the cause of this; it was clearly Heather who was taking the time.

Heather
”” I WAS NOT THE CAUSE I WAS LISTENING TO THE MUSEUM SLUG’S AUDIO TAPE WITH THE MUSEUM SLUG OFFERING OTHER INFORMATION TO GO ALONG WITH THE AUDIO TAPE!!! Apparently I am being censored so there is little hope you will get to read my words. It is sad to have something to say and have no one want to hear it.

Holly
What is sad is that someone with as much writing talent as Heather has put all her quotation marks at the beginning of her speaking role, but I digress. Let us move back to our day.

Heather
At 5:00 everyone was starving except those of us who had been culturally fed. However, in the interest of common health, we decided to find a nearby tapas bar.

Tom
We traded tapestries for tapas.


Heather
Oh, I missed the bus ride. Well, we had to take Bus #27 because Rick Steves said so. Ray had to go to the bank and we waited while Bus #27 went by…twice…but we aren’t bitter. I was really happy standing there.

Kenna
Cheapo Holly said, “Don’t go for the 18 Euro bus ride. Let’s take the city bus for 1 Euro”.

Tom
The only thing I liked on the bus tour was the end. Those two buildings tilted. That was cool.

Holly
So the bus tour was brief but fun. We sat at the back and watched the buildings fly by as I read Rick’s commentary. It was one euro people. Get over it.

After the tour, we went home to dress more warmly for the evening events. The kids stayed home and enjoyed a lovely microwave meal. The rest of us went tapas hopping. Our first stop on the Rick Steve’s beginner’s tapas tour was the Museo de Jamon. This was a brightly lit, busy spot with ham hanging from the rafters in attractive patterns.

Heather
One euro wine! The seven of us ate there for 6.50! We didn’t see that kind of pricing the rest of the night.

Holly
And they say I’m cheap. We hopped up the street to the next place which was my personal favourite. This was the seafood spot: Casa del Abuelo. They had prawns deep-fried on swizzle sticks! That’s kind of like candy, isn’t it? As in many of the tapas bars, they encourage you to throw the garbage on the floor because it keeps the counters clean. They liked us because they gave us coupons for a free drink the next time we visited. We crossed the street to the next tapas bar and lo and behold, they accepted the free drink coupons! Woo-hoo!

Kenna
But nobody liked that drink.

Holly
I didn’t see you turning it down. In fact, as I contemplate this, it occurs to me that you drank mine too.

Kenna
Only half! Tom drank the other half.

Holly
Yes. Well. We tried a variety of interesting tapas that nobody cared for much but cost a lot. One was Pig’s Ears and we all agreed there are some body parts that are better left to the dogs. They love them, apparently, and don’t even demand them to be heated and served in an attractive dish. Another tapas was mini-green peppers sautéed in garlic. These were the best. The last experiment was red with white stuff inside. We think it was pimiento stuffed with potato and cheese. We liked that too but Ray didn’t finish his and since he’d already licked it none of us felt like finishing his either.

From there, we hopped on up the street and around the corner to the last recommended spot. I guess we were slow on the tapas crawl because that’s where all the other Rick Steve’s readers were. We all congratulated each other on our refined taste in guidebooks. This was where we finally tried Sangria, a heavenly drink we had previously shunned. I don’t recall Sangria tasting like this. I think there was nutmeg added. We also tried mushrooms sautéed in garlic and other stuff. That was really good. We had Potatoes Bravas and they were good. We gave the rest of our jug of Sangria to our new Rick Steve’s friends from Illinois because although I thought it was delicious the rest of the crowd weren’t as enamored. Oh, wait, Ray liked it too.

We walked home from here so we could get a good night’s sleep for the next day.