We had a wonderful day with Erica yesterday. We looked at another apartment which was a bit of a disappointment but had a great time going for wonderful meals, visiting the Matisse exhibition, and of course dealing with my toes. I failed to report about our after-dinner visit to Retiro park. For those not familiar with Madrid, El Retiro “The Retreat” is a real treasure. Besides its unusual beauty it adds special holiday lighting during the Xmas season. Erica was excited to share this with us. Dinner was at a restaurant across the street from the park so after a brief walk we were treated to a beautiful show. We stopped for a quick photo as we planned to circle the display and then return to the hotel.
As we came to the end of the display a security guard drove rather close to us and gave me a bit of a startle. We continued our stroll, then suddenly all the display lights turned off. At that point we started to walk toward the exit. Before we got to where we entered we were told by another tourist that the gate was closed and we had to find another place to leave the park. So we then started towards the metro exit. Before we could get to the metro station we met 4 tourists from Belgium who let us know the metro exit was locked. Erica said let’s try the Atocha exit. She seemed confident that we would be able to leave the park at that location but I was nervous about possibly being forced to spend the night in the park. We then picked up 3 Spanish speaking women who seemed more interested taking pictures than finding a way out of the park. Next we met a French student doing a study abroad year She seemed very grateful to Erica for apparently leading her to safety. I wasn’t as confident. Finally, all 8 of us, (we and our new found friends) made it to the Atocha gate and were able to exit the park and get back to our hotel. The whole event was a bit traumatic but will make for a funny story one day (hopefully today). Later, Patrice read about some tourists who got stuck in the park for two hours looking for an exit after closing hours. I suppose by comparison we were very lucky.
With the trauma of last night behind us, we spent today mostly looking at apartments for Erica and………. eating. Both are very fun activities for me.
A little travel tip that most of you probably already know, but maybe will help one of you. Years ago, prior to travel you would need to get local currency prior to boarding your plane at home. Now that is totally unnecessary. You will find that pretty much every merchant will take your credit card (I recommend using Apple Pay) for reimbursement. You might want some local cash for small purchases (for a dollar or two). When you use your credit card you will be asked if you want the merchant to charge you in the local currency (in Spain, it is the Euro) or US Dollars. ALWAYS choose the local currency. You will get a much better exchange rate from your bank than from the merchant. For example today we had a lunch that cost us 44.05 €. The merchant option was to pay $56.01. The conversion of 44.05 € using Google was $52.22. I was charged $51.88 on my credit card.
We are headed to a late dinner now so I will check in with you again tomorrow.
Love those comments. Please keep messaging me so I know I am not just writing to myself.
Adios
Robert Reiss Travel Blog and Other Ramblings 