Mad about Madrid

Stacy and I got up this morning in Madrid ready to make a beeline to the Prado Museum while fresh and focused. First though, we stopped briefly for coffee at the Cafeteria Casa Poli, near the hotel. Then we realized, after sleepiness was dismissed by our espresso and roll, that we were OUT OF EUROS!!!!

No problemo, there was an ATM just across street. Er, wait, there WAS a problemo! Suddenly, none of our cards would work in that ATM -- or three others nearby.

Scott headed back to the hotel for help, with Stacy being held hostage by the cafe (we owed 3,8 Euro). Of course, not a word of English was spoken at hotel desk, so communicating the problem was of little help - even with our COMPLETELY USELESS PHRASE BOOK (which we will burn upon our return to Albany).

Scott was finally able to borrow 4 Euro from the hotel clerk and rescue Stacy from cafe after about an hour. Apparently, she entertained the waiters during her internment because they joined Stacy in exclaiming "Hooray!" with hands raised when Scott appeared with the money.

Luckily, (we've had little so far) we came to Madrid with $70 American as safety cash just in case of a situation like this. A nearby bank provided a cash exchange, after Scott ran back to the hotel once again (for his passport this time), and the semi-bilingual teller asked, "Does he speak English? I don't think he understood me."

So we ended up with 50 Euros for the next 24 hours. Doable. Meaning that we made it much later than we expected to the Prado, tired and aggravated, not exactly ideal for intense museum going, but we plowed through none-the-less. That is until we couldn't find the coat-room and had to traverse both floors of the GARGANTUAN museum twice more before finding it (see attached photo for scale).

Finally, it was 3:30 pm and we could call our credit union (9:30 am Eastern Standard Time). We learned that they had locked our cards when they saw cash transactions in Spain (a "hotbed" of credit card theft, they explained). We now have to wait 24 hours for the cards to unlock. MUY POOPO!.

Luckily (again), even though it was 4:00 pm and we were FAMISHED, we had a small trove of food in the refrigerator in the hotel room's kitchenette. AHHHHHHHHH. But wait, all the food was FROZEN. So even though he was exhausted, cranky, and it was starting to rain, Scott went to El Cortes Ingles department store to get food and WINE. We are unsure how long we will need to make 50 Euros last, so therefore we can't rightly go out for a lot of tapas and vino tinto, pronto. Best to fortify and strategize from our command center at Goya Apartementos (see attached food photo - notice frozen cheese - and feet in final repose)