Spain 2020: Diary – Day 9

NOTE -> This trip occurred pre-COVID-19 and feels like 100 years ago

Tomatico wanted to get up early to go to the gym again today and this time I got my butt out of bed in time. Our youngest expressed interest in joining us the previous night but opted out when I asked him in the morning. He needed his beauty sleep! The gym was empty the entire time we were there and we got a good workout before breakfast.

Back to Carnavale!

We spent a lazy morning in the room planning to go to the park we had been to the previous day. The Carnavale parade event was planned for today. We took the subway again and it cost less because we could re-load the existing travel card rather than having to buy a new one. At least we knew where to go so it was much more efficient this time.

When we arrived there was lots of activity in the park. The parade was getting set up and people were playing instruments and there were two trucks with DJ’s playing music. People were in costumes everywhere, not just as part of the parade. It was like Halloween with Star Wars characters and superhero’s among the wide varieties of costumes.

Near the parade starting area there was a large log climbing structure the boys were drawn to. They climbed on it for almost an hour before the parade started. Once it started, we walked along the route to find a place to watch. When we found the place, the boys took out their football and soccer ball and started playing. They completely ignored the parade. Oh well.

The parade had sections for different Latin American countries including Brazil, Columbia, and the Dominican Republic. The costumes were colorful and the atmosphere was energetic and fun. It was a lot of fun!

It was getting towards lunch time so we decided to walk to the restaurants we had found the previous day that hadn’t opened yet. It was late enough that they were open today. We found one with options for our youngest and went in. We found a table and we sat down as my wife and Tomatico suddenly left.

Apparently they told us they were going to look elsewhere for something more interesting but neither of us heard. We were on our own and the waiter didn’t know much English, but my youngest stepped up and was able to order for us. I was so proud of him and I think it was a boost to his confidence as well. We got what we ordered and it was pretty good. We even ordered extra food because we were still hungry. He correctly asked for the check when we were done. He didn’t pay, though… Maybe next time!

We found my wife and Tomatico next at a restaurant next door where they had found some more traditional Spanish food. They said it was good but not nearly as good as the tapas from the previous night. When they were done we hailed a cab back to the hotel to rest for the afternoon.

Resting in the Hotel

On TV we found the Real Madrid channel and they were playing some youth league games. They were not much older than Tomatico but they were very good. I guess if they were good enough to be on TV with announcers it should be expected they are good, but I was still fascinated. They were playing on a full size field like the little pro’s they are. There’s so much competition in the US with other sports that you’d never find something like that. Everywhere we went in Spain, in every restaurant, bar, etc that had a TV it was playing a soccer game, either live or recently played. You couldn’t escape it, not that we wanted to. The boys especially loved it.

We scanned through the other channels and saw that there was a Barcelona game starting soon. The channels we had in the room weren’t going to carry the game so we went down to the bar/restaurant in the hotel and saw the game playing on the TV there.

It was much different watching the game on TV after having been to the Barcelona stadium on our first full day there. We figured out where we had been sitting and realized we would have had perfect seats for the game we were currently watching. We would have seen Messi score 3 goals right in front of us. We still had a fantastic time in the game we saw even though the action happened on the other end of the field for that game. Oh well, you can’t control things like that and we had no regrets.

When my wife came back from window shopping she took our youngest down to the gym while Tomatico and I watched the rest of the game. Back in the room it was getting time for dinner again.

Splitting for Dinner Again

I went with our youngest again to the Argentinian place to try out yet another cut of steak they had on their menu. This cut was the best, but by far the most expensive, one they had. It was on par with some of the best steaks I’ve ever had, though. My youngest had the same cut as the previous night and had me struggling to cut it up quickly enough.

After dinner we wandered around the streets seeing what was going on. In one of the electronics store there was a big line for people to try out two different VR demos. One strapped you into a seat and put the headset on your. The chair would go back and forth and upside down in sync with the video of a virtual roller coaster. It didn’t look fun to me, but our youngest, a natural thrill-seeker, wanted to try it. Luckily for me he wasn’t tall enough as the line was pretty long.

We wandered around a few more blocks, working off some of our dinner and enjoying our last night in Spain. We “somehow” found our way back to the gourmet popsicle shop we had discovered a few nights ago and “reluctantly” went in to get one last treat. It was worth it!

Packing and Early Bed

Back in the room we started packing our things to prepare for our departure in the morning. We had a mid-morning flight, but we’d still need to get up relatively early since we were unfamiliar with the airport. I checked with the front desk to see how difficult it would be to get a taxi at that time of day and how early we should plan to check out. They said the taxi would be easy to find but they could also call one if necessary. They also said they offered free coffee, tea, pastries, and fruit first thing in the morning that we could take advantage of since we were leaving before breakfast began. We’d definitely do our best.

Tomatico and my wife returned to the room from dinner and helped with the packing. They had gone to a different tapas restaurant that predictably didn’t live up to what they had experienced the night before. It would have been hard to match that.

We all went to bed early, ready to got our travel day home starting in the morning. Our time in Madrid and in Spain was sadly coming to an end. We had had a lot of fun and were sad for it to be ending.