I woke up at 7am today to get the United States Embassy in Madrid by 8:30am. We didn't even have time to eat breakfast, so while we waited in line to get into the embassy, I ate a few delicious Maria cookies. We hadn't had time to walk to the embassy, so we had to take a taxi. And here is the wonderful example of the honesty that I have come to expect from so many Spaniards: when we got into one taxi and told the driver where we wanted to go, and he told us in Spanish, "You know that it would be much cheaper to go in a taxi going in the other direction." So we took his selfless advice and went across the street and got into another taxi.
At the embassy, we got special treatment because of our US citizenship. After going through a mini-customs area, waiting for a while, and talking to someone about obtaining new passports, we were able to take pictures to go onto our new documents. Then, Daddy and I had to run to a bank next to the embassy to withdraw the money needed to pay for the passports. It was kinda fun, running to the bank and then running back into the building to pay our dues. When all of that was done, we ended up talking to a family who said that they had gotten robbed at a hotel, and we chatted with a man who has lived in Spain for five years with his Spanish wife. He loves to travel and he gets his passports with extra pages to fit all of his stamps from going to different countries. How cool! Then we talked a bit about politics, mostly discussing how much Donald Trump sucks.
Once we had finished all of our business at the embassy, we finally went to get breakfast. On the way to a café, we took pictures with art sculptures and of beautiful architecture. We ended up eating breakfast really late, at 11:30, and I got café con leche and thick buns called mollete with crispy edging and sweet strawberry jelly. Olivia got the same thing, except with peach jelly, while Mama and Daddy had sandwiches with jamón serrano and cheese.
After breakfast, we did some touristy stuff. We visited Madrid's underground information center about the history of the city as we walked toward the government building with a huge banner across the front: ALL REFUGEES WELCOME. I wish that everyone in the US felt the same way. We also visited the enormous, awe-inspiring national library. Unfortunately, we couldn't go inside because they only took in tour groups on Mondays :(.
We took a taxi the rest of the way to the apartment. Yesterday, my kind family had packed and organized everything while I took a glorious nap. So now, we tried to come up with a plan of what we were going to do with the rest of our time in Spain's capital over food from Pad Thai Wok. I cannot tell you how excited I had been to eat from that restaurant, and the food did not disappoint. We bought four spring rolls--2 veggie and 2 shrimp/spinach--one box of fried rice with vegetables, and one box of thick noodles with veggies. YUM!
Our amazing plan: walk to the Royal Palace, walk back and pack the car, drive to the colossal El Retiro park, and then drive to our next destination, Getaria.
What actually happened: We walked in the completely wrong direction of the palace. After eating mouth-watering desserts at a bakery (O and I got rich chocolate lava cakes that were to die for, and then Daddy, Olivia, and I could simply not resist the cupfuls of sugar cubes at each rustic table, so we each popped a brown sugar cube in our mouths), we walked a bit in what we thought was the right direction. As we strolled, our bellies bursting from all of the food, Mama spotted a cereal bar. Excuse me? No, that wasn't a typo. It was literally a restaurant of my dreams: it served nothing but cereal. Talk about awe-inspiring. We entered and took loads of pictures and gazed at the endless boxes of cereal crowding the walls. There were even frames with stills of movies where cereal was involved, like in "Honey I Shrunk the Kids." But we left without eating a bowl, because Olivia and I were about the explode after those chocolate lava cakes, plus we had a palace to get to. After walking pointlessly in the wrong direction for another fifteen minutes, we had made a day-changing decision. There was not enough time in the day to do all we wanted, so why not just skip the Royal Palace and go eat a bowl of cereal at a Madrileño cereal bar? So, in the least tourist-y action ever done on this trip (which is actually saying a lot), we went back to the cereal bar and ate a $5 bowl of Captain Crunch with Berries and pasteurized whole milk (a rarity in Europe). Daddy, O, and I shared the delicious bowl; Mama doesn't like milk and didn't want any cereal, so she took pictures and videos of us enjoying our bowl. It was so worth missing the Royal Palace.
We ended up not having time for El Retiro, either, so after our grand cereal bar outing, we packed the car and were off to Getaria. In typical Merritt fashion, we got there at about midnight. That's actually an improvement from the last time we visited the enchanting town, when we got there at one in the morning.
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