Saying Good-bye to Granada...

The time had come.  It was mid-May and we were catching a flight back to Arizona.  First we tried to say goodbye to all of our friends.  We spent a week trying to see everybody which was almost impossible, and then spent our last morning and early afternoon with Kellie, Brit, Nando, Paloma, Adrian, Daniela and Jose at Puerta de las Pesas.  Where else?

When the time came to say our final goodbyes (we had no idea how long it would be until we’d see them again) it was much harder than any of us had imagined.  Hugs all around and we found ourselves in tears as we left this wonderful family who had helped us with the culture, history, and yes, the language of Spain and Granada. 

They had been such a large part of our lives for the past year.  Even a few of the “hippies” Juan and Oscar waved and called “adios” as we returned to our apartment for the last time.

We had no idea what our future in the Peace Corps would bring and our Spanish friends struggled to understand, as they put it, “our desire to help” other people. 

Suddenly we had loaded our bags into Jose’s car and were on the way to the bus station.  A final hug from Jose and our magical year free of responsibilities was over.

The five hour bus ride passed in silence as we both were lost in our thoughts.  It was time to pamper ourselves so we caught a cab from the bus station in Madrid to our hotel near the airport.  We stayed at the HoteltaCH and it was perfect.  It had a small café/bar on the ground floor, a nicely equipped workout room and our room was clean and comfortable.  A good business hotel yet, it was just what we needed as we nursed our drinks and talked about what we were about to do.

A good night’s rest and a short hotel shuttle ride to the airport and we were checking in for our flight to Phoenix via Dulles in Washington D.C.  It was a little hard to imagine that we had left our youngest daughter in Granada, for a second time. 

After the usual airport hassles (less in Madrid than other places) we settled into our seats for the long journey back to Phoenix.  For once, our travel plans had gone off without a hitch.

Irish Pubs in Madrid

In our short three day stay in September 2013 we found and, more importantly, patronized two Irish pubs.  The first, disingenuously named International Brewery Bringas was just off the Plaza Mayor and did have Murphy’s Irish Red on tap and Magners cider although in a bottle.  Unfortunately, the bartenders were both native Spaniards and not Irish and, unbelievably, there wasn’t a Guinness to be found in the bar.

The menu was Spanish food, not Irish and the décor had a more wood-paneled western US, rocky mountain bar feeling than being Irish pub-like.   The bartenders were friendly enough when addressed in Spanish and the place was enjoyable enough for us to return to again.

So using our previously discussed rating system the International Brewery Bringas receives 1 point for ambience, 0 points for the bartenders’ non-Irishness, 1 point for having Murphy’s Irish Red on tap (although I’m tempted to give them a demerit for not having a Guinness in the house and for having Cruz Campo on the primary tap), we didn’t try the kitchen but people enjoyed their orders so we’ll give them 1 point for food quality and because the bartenders were friendly and there was the appropriate futbol match on the television we’ll give them and additional 2 points for entertainment. 

So the rundown is this:

Ambience                                 1 point

Bartenders                                0 points

Taps                                         1 point

Food                                        1 point

Entertainment                            2 points

Total for International Brewery Bringas is 5 points which puts them in a distant second behind Hannigans.  Congratulations to International Brewery Bringas for being the second Irish bar we have found in Spain.

In spite of the lower point total, if you ever find yourself in the neighborhood of Plaza Mayor in Madrid and in need of refreshment we would absolutely recommend this establishment as a quality option.

A short footnote: we found another, very Irish looking bar on our walk through Madrid from the Brazilian consulate.  We were very disappointed to find only Spanish beer available on tap, a Spanish bartender, a Spanish menu, a Spanish ambience inside and no entertainment (although it was during the day).  Because of this we took no photos, and cannot for the life of us remember exactly where it was located or the name of the place but if you find it, don’t hesitate to patronize the place because we enjoyed it. 

That does it for this edition of Irish Pubs Abroad by Marilyn and Mike.

Brazilian visas while in Spain.

In early September we boarded a bus to Madrid.  We had located a relatively inexpensive hotel in the center of the city (which we later found was on the major prostitution thoroughfare) Hotel Praktik Metropol.  The area was very nice during the day and in the evening although late at night it changed a little bit.

Our first afternoon we sampled the overpriced food and beverages in an outdoor café and later, we had arranged to meet with one of our language professors, Carlos (who lived in Madrid when he was not teaching at Castile) near the Plaza Mayor.  We had a lovely evening with Carlos that included drinks in an Irish pub followed by dinner at an alleged Mexican food restaurant.  Sigh!  There just isn’t any quality Mexican food in all of Spain.

Bright and early the next day we hopped on the remarkably efficient subway system and headed for the Brazilian embassy.  It looked like the Department of Motor Vehicles in East Los Angeles.  There were hundreds of people all taking numbers but after asking, we were told that we didn’t need to do so since we had an appointment.

At our appointment time we were led through a secure door to an office area which was almost empty where we met with a young man who perused our papers, found them all in order and sent us down to a machine to pay for our visas.  This large, ATM style machine featured instructions in both Spanish and Portuguese but not English which was inconvenient since it also provided about a hundred functions from paying fines and taxes to customs costs, visas and other immigration fees.

We figured it out though and promptly coughed up 160 euros each for our visas.  It was a very, very good thing that we had brought cash since you cannot pay by credit or debit card at the Brazilian consulate for anything.  Something we will always remember no matter what embassy or consulate we are dealing with.

Returning to the young man’s desk we found that most of our three months worth of bank statements had been returned and that our file was complete.  The young man apologized for the cost of the visas but indicated that they were good for 10 years, for multiple entries and for 180 days at a time.  Very convenient if you’re planning to spend quite a bit of time in Brazil which we had no current plans to do.  He then told us to come back on Friday.

“Friday!  We won’t be here on Friday!  In fact we’re leaving tomorrow!” we yelped.  The young man stated that some employees had called in sick and they were overworked that day.  At this point Marilyn calmly pointed out that we were told that if our documents were complete that the visa could be issued the same day and the sly young man asked if we could produce the email knowing that there was no WiFi available in the building.  Of course we could, and did leaving him no choice but to grudgingly agree that our visas would be available by 3 that afternoon.  Thank God for internet café printers!

We were so happy that we decided to walk back to the hotel and stopped along the way at yet another Irish looking pub for a refreshing beverage. 

Later that afternoon, after picking up our passports containing our very impressive looking visas, we wandered around the palace and spent time in the very impressive and modern cathedral

before crossing Plaza Mayor

and walking down Calle de Toledo

to the well-known tapas district called Cava Baja (and its’ parallel street Cava Alta) to meet with Diana and her friend.

Disappointingly, the area was not very crowded in the middle of the week and many of the cafés and bars were closed.  We spent a nice, and loud because we were in Spain, evening wrapping it up with a walk through Plaza Mayor and Plaza del Sol back to our hotel where Diana and her friend intended to catch a cab.  Since it was late at night we had the opportunity to see the changed face of the area which was not very impressive.

While we have not seen everything we want to see in Madrid and although the Prada Museum (we spent hours there on our last visit to Madrid) is amazing, we find ourselves uninterested in this city overall.  We are not really night life people but we understand that is a wonderful and important feature of Madrid.  Many people we know simply love Madrid but we find it overpriced and less interesting historically than other cities and locations in Spain.

Arriving back in Granada we received another surprise.  Brent and Paige, friends from Arizona were honeymooning in Europe and would be in Granada for a couple of days in the very near future.

Just a moment in Madrid, Spain

While in Granada we discussed with our friends our plans to take the train to Madrid on Saturday.  We were flying out mid-day on Sunday and wanted to avoid any last minute transportation issues.  After all, we did have to be back at work on Monday.

Everyone thought we were nuts!  They kept asking us why we were taking the train and not the bus.  Well, in our experience buses were not nearly as comfortable as trains, took a whole lot longer, and in some places you could be accompanied by all kinds of other passengers like goats and chickens that you would not want to spend hours on a bus with.  The chuckles of laughter were enough to get us to check it out.

The intercity bus system in Spain is very, very good.  The buses are very modern and equipped with restrooms on board.  They are clean and very efficient and cost a fraction of what the train does.  So we looked at the schedules, much to our surprise the bus to Madrid only took 30 minutes longer than the train and we would not have to deal with the overwhelming size and confusion of the Atocha train station.  The additional trip time is spent at a very modern travel stop where everyone gets off the bus to stretch, go to the bathroom and get something to eat or drink.  These stops are typically well equipped and might also have a book store, tourism office, cafeteria and grocery store.

Many of the buses in Spain are equipped with WiFi and some are even set up as luxury executive transportation with large seats, plugs for all your electronics; and food and drinks included in the ticket.  Even these special buses, which are double the price of a normal bus, are a fraction of the price of train tickets.  There are routes in Spain where the train is a better option because the roads are so difficult and the buses take a lot longer.  In these cases the train is worth the money.  To travel from Granada to Madrid the train was 80 euros per person and the bus was 17.  No contest!

We arrived in Madrid early afternoon and checked into our hotel, a charming small hotel just a 15 minute walk to the Prado and very near both the bus station and Atocha.  Taking a walk, we did what every self-respecting tourist should do in a new city; we found a café and sat down outside to have a bite to eat and a beer. 

Madrid is a big city, over 4 million people live there and the noise and traffic confirm it.  We knew we did not have a prayer of a chance of getting to know Madrid in one night so we decided to limit ourselves to just one thing on the agenda, the Prado museum.  We were there on a Saturday and much to our delight we discovered that the Prado opens its regular exhibits to the public on Saturday and Monday evenings for free from 6pm until they close.  The days of the week and times may change from season to season but they do this so that the residents can go and enjoy the Museum without all the groups of tourists that fill it up during the daytime hours.

The Prado is far too large and has way too many exhibits to be seen in an evening (or a week for that matter) so we picked just two artists and tried to see everything that was on display by Velazquez and Goya; after all we were in Spain.  We did manage to see most of the collections by these two wonderful Spanish artists in the three hours we were there but the closing bell rang much too soon; hours in the Prado fly by like minutes.

We had a late dinner in the hotel restaurant and slept soundly on our last night in Spain.  In the morning we had our coffee in the hotel and checked out the metro and buses schedules to the airport, we decided to relax for the morning and just take a cab.  We knew the travel back to the states would be grueling and we could not have been more right.

Flying out of Madrid was very interesting.  Additional security measures were being implemented on all flights to the US due to an elevated terrorism threat level at the time, we still don’t know why.  These security measures cause major operational problems for many airports.  The Spanish way of implementing “additional security measures” was to put all the planes that were leaving Madrid to go to the US at the very far end of one terminal and restrict access to this area by installing additional security procedures.  Once you passed through this additional security and went down to the gate area you were absolutely not allowed to leave for any reason.  There were no restaurants or shops located at this end of the terminal though water bottles were available from a vending machine, and of course, our flight was delayed by an hour.  Poor Mike, the smoking area was 20 yards outside the secure perimeter!

We were flying a US carrier that we have flown many times and never liked.  We had an eight hour flight across the water, a four hour lay-over in Philadelphia and then a five hour flight home to Phoenix.  Well, in Madrid, our flight was delayed another hour, and then another…..by the time our flight left we were exactly four hours behind schedule.  Once we got settled in our seats and got off the ground the announcement was made that one of the restrooms was not working, really….four extra hours on the ground in Madrid and they could not find a plumber?

The pilots managed to make up about 40 minutes time in flight, probably not long enough to make our connection but long enough to let us hope.  In the Philadelphia airport we found much to our delight that Spain had gone through their seasonal daylight savings time adjustment, which had not been reflected in the aircrafts schedule, and we actually had arrived in time to make our flight to Phoenix!  Clearing customs and immigration in Philadelphia we were surprised and slightly chagrined to discover that the US was now stamping an entry stamp into the passports of its own citizens.  We wonder if we’ll need an exit stamp as well.  Needless to say by the time we arrived in Phoenix we were very happy to be done with the “travel” part of traveling.