13 February 2010 - Madrid

Travelling on the 13th always spells a bit of disaster doesn't it? Add to that a flight with Easyjet and the 13th is shaping up nicely for something to go wrong. Having checked in online we arrived at the swift bag drop just when all Easyjet systems had gone down. So the swift bag drop turned out to be not so swift afterall. I did wonder at one point if we'd all get on the flight on time at the rate they were working at. But the flight took off only a little bit late and the systems down problems were soon forgetten when in just under 3 hours we spotted Madrid below.

Now I don't know about anyone else but I'm a belt and braces type of gal when it comes to travel preparations. And as part of my pre holiday checks I'd established that a legitimate Madrid taxi was a white car and a red diagonal stripe. I mean heaven forbid we got into the taxi of the famous Madrid mad axeman! So spectacles on and exit airport only to find 100's of white and red taxis parked outside the airport. Never seen so many taxis in all my life!! OK so I over reacted with the taxi checking.

Our taxi driver seemed a pleasant enough chap but spoke no English and with our limited Spanish you can imagine just how quiet that journey was from the airport to our hostel. YES.......... hostel, we were staying in a hostel. The reference to a hostel kind of freaked me out too when I first spotted it but Hotel Lusso de les Infantas turned out to be a rather nice hostel! Located just 2 short side streets off the main Gran Via it was ideal. Quieter than in the main thoroughfare and within walking distance of the 3 main art galleries.

Oh and aren't the side streets of Madrid really narrow? And our taxi seemed to have developed a small technical fault with the accelerator pedal sticking at 30 mph even in the very narrow side streets!! Be scared.

Tiredness was clearly setting in when we eventually got to our room and I unpacked. After calling the porter and asking for a hairdryer to be brought up to the room, he arrived within a minute then kindly showed me the hairdryer hung up slap bang in the middle of the bathroom wall. You could hardly miss it....... I mean didn't you spot it Andrew? Make a mental note.........next time go to Specsavers Ange!