Extraordinary Adventure 2018 Day 10: Spanish Love
We've officially reached the half-way point of our trip. Our first two stops are now at a close and I'm now writing this post from Madrid, Spain. But let's start at the beginning. We had a 2PM flight out of Marrakech so we had plenty of time this morning to wake up leisurely and relax while we waited for our ride to the airport.
We went down to breakfast at 9 AM and our waiter for the past few days was there to greet us. He then asked if we posted a room tour of our room at the Four Seasons, we said yes, and he said that he really enjoyed it and he could tell we loved the room. He then asked if we travel a lot and asked how many countries we visited. In all of our years of traveling no one has ever asked us that. When he left to grab us OJ and a cappuccino we went through all of our trips and realized after this trip we will have been to 33 different countries. How amazing is that? That only spurred us to want to get to 50 as soon as possible. When he returned with our drinks he asked if we'd be interested in a true Moroccan breakfast, we obliged and were brought two amazing dishes. Both had two over easy eggs, one with a red sauce and meatballs and the other with a nice hash. We then were brought Moroccan pancakes which were insanely delicious.
After breakfast we went to print out our boarding passes, finished packing and by 11:30 we were at the airport checking in for our flight to Madrid. Almost two hours after that we had made it through checking our bags, through two security and two customs lines, and finally were in the terminal. We made a bee-line to the airport lounge where we got two nice chairs and some waters and waited for our flight to be called. It was never called. No announcement, nothing. We showed up fifteen minutes after the scheduled boarding time and everyone was just standing around. Luckily at a quarter to 2 PM lines were formed and two hours later we landed safely in Madrid.
We got through customs, got our bags, and grabbed a taxi to take us to our hotel for the next four nights at the Gran Melia Fenix Madrid. We checked in and were fortunate enough to get upgraded again to a slightly bigger room then we booked although if you watch the video you will realize its still quite tight.
Once we recorded the video and dropped off our bags we went downstairs and across the street to a nearby Starbucks. Unlike in Marrakech (where there were two in the city) and Milan (where one opened a few days after we left) there are a ton of Starbucks in Madrid. We were fortunate to have one across the street and so we quickly grabbed our second mug of the trip. I also had a cappuccino and Jenn got a hot chocolate to give us a nice afternoon pick-me-up.
We got back to our hotel room, unpacked our clothes for the next couple of days and organized ourselves. An hour or so later we made our way downstairs in our hotel. In fact, one of the things we liked most about this hotel was that it houses one of the most renowned cocktail bars in the world called Dry Martini By Javier de las Muelas. Jenn got the "wild cosmo" and I had a dry martini with a pearl onion (instead of an olive). Jenn loved hers, and although I've never really had a dry martini before, it was quite a nice drink, even if it landed harder then I expected.
After we snacked on some bar food and sipped our drinks we went back to our room and changed for dinner. We made dinner reservations at a restaurant around the corner called Restaurante Etimo by Begona Fraire. It had a reasonably priced tasting menu that we both thought would be a nice start to our time in Madrid. Sadly it was another lesson in you get what you pay for. It wasn't bad, but it was odd. We both did their four-course menu. It started off with a trio of tapas that were phenomenal. We paired them with a glass of champagne and the dinner started strong.
Sadly from there it all sort of went downhill. Jenn got the squid ink salmorejo and I had the pork jowl with Kenya beans. Neither dish was bad at all, just nothing to write home about. Our next course up was the second appetizer. Jenn had clams in a vegetable broth which I really liked and I had the fried red mullet which might have been the worst thing we ate all evening. It was so fishy, and so oddly textured I barely got through it.
Our main courses were fine, nothing bad just sort of average. Jenn had the aged beef which was a nice piece of beef (albeit a little undercooked) and I had the red tuna with pickled risotto. For dessert, Jenn had the Creme Brule and I had a goat and sheep cheese dessert. Both were fine. But really the thing that really bummed us out was the meal ended with a small sorbet that was so chalky we almost laughed at how bad it was. Sadly Etimo was not at the same level as Contraste from Milan but you just never know until you try.
From dinner, we walked the short distance back to our hotel where we turned in for the night and got ready for a busy couple of days in Madrid. Tomorrow the true exploration of Madrid awaits.
