Getting ready to go!

 

Hola!

Dinner last night at Bistro Zazu was great – even better than the evening before!  We arrived about 8:35 pm and were seated at “our” table near the window. Turns out that a party of 19 were being accommodated for dinner on the floor above us…lots of scraping of chairs and tables, as originally there were 15 people at two tables, and now they were suddenly 19 and wanted one table.  The kicker came when, apparently, they asked for separate checks!   And who picks up the wine?! 

Our last dinner in Salamanca!

Robert's steak with dijon sauce and potatoes

My excellent chicken with mushrooms

R's tarte tatin 

My sticky toffee pudding!

Breakfast!

Very modern bathroom

Keeping that sink clean...

Excellent amuse-bouche!

We split the salad

R's "dwarf" chicken!

My pasta with truffles!

However, back to our meal.  We again ordered the sun-dried tomato and parmesan salad, which was great. Then Robert had a beef steak with a red wine sauce, which he enjoyed very much.  I ordered chicken again, this time chicken with parmesan cheese and mushrooms.  It was fabulous!  For dessert, Robert ordered a wonderful tarte tatin, and I had their sticky toffee pudding with ice cream.  YUM! Then, we both had lovely (complimentary) glasses of Pedro Ximenez tawny sweet port.  Everything was great, and we got home around 10:45 pm, tired but happy!

Up this morning about 7 am, and showered and ready to go out about 8:30 am.  Today, we walked up to the Plaza Mayor, where I had spotted an interesting looking pastry/sandwich shop.  We had two glasses of freshly squeezed O.J., I had hot chocolate and R had coffee, with excellent croissants and strawberry jam.  Great! Then back to the hotel to organized and get ready for our one last move – to the Hilton Madrid Airport.  As we didn’t want to arrive too early, we waited until about 10:30 am to make our move. Down into the bowels of the parking garage, loaded up the luggage, and then out the door.  We had a relatively easy drive getting to the hotel, where we are now, and dropped the luggage.  Then the final details – fill up the rental car with gas and turn it in at the airport, which is about half a mile away.

And that’s when the fun started!  First of all, Emmy (the GPS) had a terrible time trying to find a place for us to get gas, mainly because we are near a freeway interchange and the streets around here 

resemble a huge knot! After lots of frustrating turns and into and out of traffic circles, Robert finally just turned her off, and we followed the visual signage to a small gas station.  YEAH!  From there, we needed to find out where to drop the rental car.  Now, anyone who has tried to drop off a rental car at a strange (to them) airport, knows how frustrating it can be looking for appropriate signage.  And truly, at Madrid’s airport, they did not make this easy.  We FINALLY found signage on our second trip through the various airport terminals – it’s at Terminal 1. This was SO frustrating – we’d follow the little car with key signs, and then suddenly they would disappear!  I mean, is this Italy for heaven sakes??!!  At any rate, we finally were successful at finding Europcar and dropping it off.  From there it was a very easy walk to the hotel shuttle area, and in 15 minutes, the Hilton shuttle was there and whisked us back to the lovely hotel!

We are now in Executive Room 615 on the Penthouse floor (tee hee…) and heading as soon as I’m finished here to the 4^thfloor, and the Executive Lounge!  I do really like those, I have to admit!

So – more later!

Lots of love,

m

xxx

Back already!  There wasn’t much to choose from in the Lounge, so we decided to head downstairs for lunch or dinner.  Turned out to be dinner, and it was great!  We split a mixed salad with Iberian ham, which was wonderful, and then Robert had “dwarf” chicken with potatoes and vegetables, and I had their tagliatelle with a cream and truffle sauce.  YUM!  The amuse bouche to start was a mussel and bits of shrimp and red and yellow peppers in a lemon sauce.  It was excellent!  Don’t think we’ll be wanting much more to eat today, so I am settling down for my nap!

Lots of love,

m

xxx

Note:  Robert has totally repacked everything, and of course, it all fits.  I need to watch more closely what he does, because it’s like magic to me!  Now ready for tomorrow!

m

xxx