Before takeoff in Philly
Well we finally arrived here in Madrid and WOW! This place is AWESOME! The people so far have been unbelievably nice and very helpful. I guess I'll start with the plane rides over here. First of all, THANKS BOB!!! I've never flown in such luxury before. We flew first class from LAX to Philly, which was really nice, but the best part was the flight from Philly to Madrid via Business Class. WOW! Let me tell you, business class is the way to go. I had enough leg room to actually stretch my feet out ALL THE WAY to the seat in front of me. Upon boarding the plane, I was greeted by Heidi, our stewardess for the flight. She offered Stef and I a glass of champagne right after we sat down. After we sipped on champagne, we looked at the dinner menu to see what we wanted to eat. The entrees consisted of flat iron steak, red snapper, rack of lamb, and a few others. After putting my order in with Heidi, she asked if we would like a beverage after takeoff, so I ordered a beer and Stef had a glass of wine. I couldn't help but sit there and giggle like a little school girl at all the amenities and luxuries of the business class. The first thing I did was play with the reclining seat, which almost folds down flat into a bed. I then continued to pull out the FREAKING TV out of my armrest. I was seriously grinning from ear to ear and just laughing. It was by far the best flight EVER!!!
After takeoff we started to get settled in. I reclined my chair and just relaxed and listened to some music while the announcements were being made. Soon thereafter, Heidi came by with a hot towel to wipe my face. After a quick fresh-up with the towel she brought over my beer and Stef's glass of wine. For dinner, we enjoyed a salad as the first course, our entree as the second course, and desert as the third course, which was either a cinnamon chocolate cake or an apple butter tart. Stef had the flat iron steak for dinner and the cake for desert and I had the snapper and the butter tart for desert. The food was excellent. My snapper came with spinach and brown rice and Stef's came with a twice baked potato and peas. She didn't like her peas so I ate them and gave her some of my spinach. After dinner was over I relaxed and layed back to enjoy a movie on my little TV. I had many a choice of movies, music, and TV to watch. I was debating to either watch The Dark Knight or Baby Mama. I had seen The Dark Knight before so I chose to watch Baby Mama, starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. It was quite entertaining and funny, but I ended up falling asleep towards the end. Stef chose to watch Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. After our movies we both ended up asleep in our lounge chairs sleeping like babies. I slept really well but woke up with a sore neck.
Upon landing in Madrid we made a hasty exit toward the baggage claim to get our luggage. It took a little longer than expected and I was starting to worry after about 30 minutes of not seeing our luggage. While waiting we met a nice guy who lives here but was in the States visiting some family in Phoenix. He was very nice and his two kids were really cute. He had a 1 year old little boy and a daughter who I'd guess was about 2 or 3. Shortly after talking to him our luggage showed up and we were on our way. We went outside and there was a driver waiting for us with my name on a sign and everything. I felt like a VIP traveling in such style. Our driver's name was Christobal and he was very nice. I decided that there was no time like the present and starting conversing with him in Spanish. He told me that my accent was "perfecto." Oh, and by the way, he drove us in a VERY nice Mercedes that drove really smooth and nice. Might have to pick up one of those some day. Anyways, I digress. As we were driving we kept talking and in Spanish and English and he was telling us about some of the things and places around. I told him where we were going and what we were doing and he was very helpful in giving us information on what to do and how things worked. Twenty minutes later we arrived at our hotel in the Plaza de Santa Ana. As soon as our car stopped we had two bell hops help with our luggage and escort us into the hotel to check in. The gentleman who checked us in was very nice and courteous. We got our keys and headed up to the room. Upon entering the room we found a very narrow corridor that led to a room a little bigger than a king sized bed. The room is very small but also practical. It's nothing like a hotel in the States where there is a lot of empty space to fill. It has the bare necessities and a nice flat screen TV mounted flush in the wall. As we speak, I'm sitting on the bed watching Dirty Jobs on the Discovery channel in Spanish.
So far our time here has been awesome and we haven't even done anything yet! Oh, I forgot, I keep asking everybody about how the tipping system works here. I asked the concierge about tipping for taxis and such and he said no more than 1 or 2 Euro and the guy who brought up our luggage said its not required. It feels weird not to tip because we're so used to it back home. We gave our bell hop 3 Euro for bringing our bags up and he was very thankful. We're going to shower and possibly take a quick nap before we head out to explore the city. I'll try to keep everybody updated as often as possible but there's so much to do here! In the mean time, here are some pictures from our flight. Enjoy!
Whats that?
Coming into Madrid from the plane
We're tired
This is pretty much our whole room
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