April 7, 2025 • 44 mins
The activities we did in Madrid (Food Tour and Flamenco show!): vi.me/1T9xd
If you're planning a trip to Europe using points and miles or have questions about traveling as a family of five, follow us on Instagram @TravelPartyofFive where we share highlights and tips from our adventures.
In this episode:
We travel to Madrid as part of our two-week European adventure, staying at the Hyatt Centric Gran Via using points, free night certificates, and suite upgrades for our family of five.
• Taking the train from Barcelona to Madrid is simple and stress-free compared to flying
• The Hyatt Centric Gran Via Madrid offers excellent location, service, and a memorable breakfast experience
• Experiencing a flamenco show provides cultural entertainment even children can appreciate
• The Royal Palace of Madrid showcases incredible opulence with special access to the royal kitchens
• Madrid's tapas culture is perfect for families, allowing everyone to try small portions of different foods
• Adjusting plans for rainy weather led to unexpected discoveries like the Museum of Illusions
• Retiro Park offers a beautiful outdoor space for kids to play when weather permits
• Following recommendations from "Somebody Feed Phil" led to authentic food experiences
• Using Hyatt Globalist status maximizes value with free breakfast and potential room upgrades
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you've been wanting to visit Madrid using
points and miles, we're going totell you exactly how we did it
as a family of five in today'sepisode, so listen in.
Hi, I'm Raya.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
And I'm Dwayne.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
And we are your hosts of the Travel Party of Five
podcast, where we share how wetravel as a family of five
around the world.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
We will also share how we use points and miles to
travel as affordably as possibleand sometimes even completely
free.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
So if you're wanting to travel more with your family
but you're not sure how, we'dlove for you to listen in.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
So welcome to our podcast, where we hope you learn
a thing or two to get youcloser to your next trip.
Hi friends, Welcome back.
Thanks for tuning in.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Happy Monday, tuesday , wednesday, whatever day it is
you're listening.
This episode will come out onMonday.
We are going to dive into partthree of our two weeks in Europe
, and today we're going to betalking all about Madrid.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yes, my favorite.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Was it your favorite?
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yeah what made it your favorite, just the hustle
and bustle of the city.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, it was hustly and bustly, that's for sure.
Reminded me of TokyoInteresting.
I've never been to Tokyo yet.
So as a side note, before wedive in, dwayne had some dental
work done the other day and ishaving a lot of mouth pain.
So if he's not speaking asclearly as usual, that is why,
(01:50):
and we apologize.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Bear with me.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
So let's dive in.
So when we left off on theBarcelona episode, we were in
the Grand High at Barcelona, andto get to Madrid, we actually
took a train, and so the trainsin Europe, if you've never been,
are fantastic.
When I was in Europe in 2012,that was the only way I got
around through I don't know,maybe 10 different countries was
(02:17):
to take the train, and so Iknew that we didn't want to take
flights every four days on thistrip, because I find airports
very stressful and I'm trying torelax, so we took a train.
It was super easy.
We left the Grand HyattBarcelona, we actually took a
taxi from the hotel to the maintrain station, which is
(02:39):
Barcelona Sants, I think, is howyou say it, and we got like you
have to go through a like akind of a security screening,
but it's nothing like theairport.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Nothing like it.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Like I think they're really just looking for like
weapons, and so you kind of runyour bags through a scanner and
that's about it.
Then you get in line for yourtrain.
There's a screen that'll showyou okay, you know you're on
this train, you know this isyour track, and you just line up
and get on the train Super easy.
I booked the train tickets acouple of months before our trip
(03:16):
through Omeo O-M-I-O.
I've used them before.
They do charge like a couple ofdollars extra as like a
surcharge, as opposed to bookingwith the trains directly.
So in Spain and also similar.
Similarly in Italy, there aredifferent trains that you can
(03:37):
book, and I had a hard time forItaly specifically being able to
book from the United States ontheir website, and so I ended up
using Omeo then and it wassuper simple, so I just used it
again this time.
They also usually are like 2%cash back on Rakuten, and so
(03:57):
that's another bonus that makesme not really feel bad for
paying a few extra dollars infees, and it's just super easy.
You have the app on your phone,that's where your tickets live
and it's it's.
I would recommend it, and Ibooked us in business class, I
think, or first class orwhatever.
(04:17):
And I kept telling, like Dwayneand the kids, like just lower
your your expectations becauseit's not like flying business
class on a plane.
But the seats were big, comfy,we had plenty of room.
What did you think?
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, I mean, I thought it was great, it was
very comfortable.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Yes, the like the economy class is just it's fine,
like there's nothing wrong withit.
That's how I traveled in 2012.
Like every time, there was nofirst class for backpacker Raya,
but with kids, I just wanted tohave a little more space.
I wanted the option of beingclose to food and we were right
next to, like, the food cartbecause it was going to be
(04:56):
lunchtime, and so I think it wasmaybe $90 or $95 total for all
five of us to go from, like, thelowest class to the higher
class.
The one thing I will say whenyou're booking a train is just
be careful, because there aresome quiet cars and you don't
want to book that.
Like, especially if you'retraveling with kids, you don't
(05:16):
want to book the quiet car.
So just pay attention to that.
And also a really goodreference for trains in Europe
is seat 61.
So I believe the website isseat61.com, but you can find
information on almost any routeand any type of train that runs
(05:36):
that route and the differentclasses available and what they
mean, and so I would recommendseat 61 as a train resource if
you're planning a trip like this.
But anyways, we took the train.
It's about three hours.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Super easy.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Yes, and it was snowing.
At one point as we were drivingthrough the country of Spain,
there was snow on the ground,which I thought was kind of
crazy actually.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
It was kind of crazy to see that.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
And we arrived in Madrid mid-afternoon.
We took the metro actually fromthe train station to our hotel.
This was the only time wedidn't take a taxi, and that was
because we were already in thetrain station, like we literally
just had to walk from the trainarea to the metro area and we
(06:27):
had one transfer, I think, toget on the line that went
closest to our hotel.
I think Dwayne was skepticalwhen I said we were going to
take the metro, but it was fine,right.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, it was totally fine, super easy.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Yeah, we stayed at the Hyatt Centric Gran Via
Madrid.
It was maybe five minutes fromthe metro.
What were you gonna say?
super nice hotel yes, it wasfantastic.
So really briefly how I bookedit.
Currently it's a category sixHyatt, which is between 21 and
29,000 points a night.
(06:56):
I actually booked this a fullyear ago when it was a category
five, and so we paid less pointsthan that per night.
We again had two rooms and Iused a combo of points, and also
I had a free night certificatethat I ended up applying.
It was one of the category onethrough seven free night
(07:17):
certificates that we earned lastyear for making our way to
globalist status with Hyatt, andI also had to use a suite
upgrade on one of our rooms inorder to get us to have a an
occupancy of five in the room.
But because one of the nightswas a free night certificate you
can't combine a suite upgradeand a free night certificate so
(07:39):
we did pay one night cashupgrade for that night.
It was 150 euros and I emailedprior and sorted this all out,
so I knew that that was comingand I was prepared for that.
I just thought that's fine.
If that's the only upgrade thatwe have to pay for all the
(08:00):
upgrades we had on this trip,like whatever, that's fine.
The other thing that wasinteresting is I don't even know
if I told you this, but I had.
Also, when I was emailingtrying to confirm the occupancy
and that we had connecting roomsand all that, I asked if they
would extend my globalistbenefits to Dwayne's room and
they said no.
And so I told Dwayne, I don'tknow, there was no club or
(08:20):
anything, so I couldn't give hima club access award.
So Ine, I don't know there's noclub or anything, so I couldn't
give him a club access award.
So I said I don't know ifthey're going to honor it, but
we're just going to go and see.
And if they don't, then theydon't.
But they did, we never paid.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Never paid for breakfast yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Never saw a bill for breakfast.
I don't even know what thebreakfast cost, to be honest,
like there charge postedanywhere, so I have no idea.
What did you think of the hotel?
Speaker 2 (08:47):
again, like I said, it was great.
Uh, breakfast was also great.
They had a lot of wait.
Talk about check-in first.
We'll talk about breakfastcheck-in.
We get there to check in.
Um, it took a while.
They had to look at all theirpassports, but they offered us
snacks and drinks, which Ithought was a great touch
Straight from the bar.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Yeah, they sat us, they took our passports, sat us
down on the couch and asked usif we'd like a welcome drink and
snacks.
And their welcome drink is likea vermouth, which in America
vermouth is something you usewhen you're making a like a
martini.
You kind of like line the glasswith it, I'm going to say, and
(09:28):
then you pour in the martini.
This was not that.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
I mean no, but I wasn't a fan.
I wouldn't like it no it was alittle too thick and too tart.
Was it tart or fruity, orsomething about it was off.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Think about it like it was like actually okay.
So we had vermouth a coupledifferent times and they were
actually quite different tasting, but this one from the hotel
was think of like a red winesoaked in like herbs and maybe
like some type of liqueur.
Also, I didn't mind it actually.
(10:05):
I felt like, oh, if this iswhat they drink in Spain, like
I'm going to drink it becauseI'm in Spain, you know.
Like I didn't mind it at all.
And yeah, they brought us theselike little empanadas.
They brought juice for the kidsand so it was a really nice
little touch.
We just sat on the couch andthey checked us in.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
We't do anything yeah , and everyone was super
friendly and helpful.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Yes, yes, and so we got checked into our room.
We didn't have a ton of timebecause we had something booked
that night, which we'll get intoall the activities we did in a
bit, but I mean overallfantastic hotel.
It's right on grand via, whichis a major street in Madrid with
tons and tons of shopping.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, again, like I said, it reminded me of, like
Tokyo.
It was super busy storeseverywhere, people everywhere,
cars everywhere, just so muchtraffic of everything.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Yeah, and so we got checked into our room, the that
we had again it's two roomscombined.
They called it a family suite,so basically there was like a, a
double room or a twin bedroom,and then a king room was the two
rooms I had booked, but we hadto upgrade to a junior suite in
(11:20):
order to get them connecting,and so that's what.
That's what we had, and so oneroom had two beds that were I'm
going to call them twin, but Ifelt like they were maybe a
little bigger than a twin.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
They were bigger.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
And then our room had a king bed Bathroom and each,
obviously you know theconnecting door we just left
open.
Do you think it was like thesame size as our Paris hotel, or
a little bigger?
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Oh no, it was bigger.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
It was bigger and I did ask for a roll away because
we had the king bed and then thetwo other beds.
They said they couldn't bringin a roll away, but our youngest
two ended up sharing one of thebeds in the kid's room and that
ended up being fine.
It was actually plenty of roomfor for both being fine.
It was actually plenty of roomfor for both of them.
They're as a reminder, they'refive and eight.
(12:08):
They're both pretty small.
They slept fine.
It was no issues whatsoever.
Okay, so now you can talk aboutthe breakfast.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Yes, sorry, um, yeah.
So had quite the varietyruitsfresh squeezed juice, they had
mimosas, they had pastries, theyhad meats, and then there was a
menu you can order off thetable or from the table Omelets,
(12:38):
pancakes, waffles.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
And those were like small plates, yeah.
So you're not going to get likethree giant pancakes, it was
like a few small pancakes or onesmall waffle.
Or you could order EggsBenedict and it would come with
like one Eggs Benedict versusyour normal like two, but it was
(13:02):
fantastic.
They had this chia pudding withthis really thick sweet mango
sauce on top that by the end Ihad all the kids eating because
it was so good.
And, yeah, tons of fruit cerealpastries.
You know, the european breakfastis like a lot of cured meats, I
feel like, which is not reallywhat we like, but they had a lot
(13:27):
of that, yeah.
And you know, cheeses andsalads and just I mean, it was
like Just a variety.
Yeah, I don't think that youwould have a problem finding
something you could eat there.
They had even had somegluten-free options that were
like sealed so that they weren'tcontaminated with the gluten
(13:48):
products.
So, and by now we were in verymuch a routine of like waking up
at a not super early time, likemaybe seven, eight, and then go
, you know, getting ready, goingdown, having a leisurely
breakfast at the hotel and thiswas true for Paris, barcelona
(14:09):
and also Madrid and you couldget coffees made to order.
So we would get cappuccinos.
We would probably spend aboutan hour at breakfast and Duane
and I would each have twocappuccinos and just relax and
kind of talk about the day.
Two cappuccinos and just relaxand kind of talk about the day.
Let the kids, like our kids,know their way around a
(14:30):
breakfast buffet.
They, for the most part, canget all their own food.
Our daughter needs a little bitof help because she can't
always reach it.
So you know, either Dwayne or Ihelp will help her, and
sometimes same thing for oureight year old if he can't reach
something.
But for the most part we letthem get their own stuff.
And they were making avocadotoast and putting scrambled egg
(14:51):
on top and they were loving thatand that's a super healthy
breakfast.
So no issues, no issues frommom or dad on that.
And yeah, the made to orderfood was all really good.
So and again, we never saw abill.
So I do not know how much thebreakfast costs.
Even on the little thing on thetable where you can order the
(15:14):
like the menu of made to orderitems, there was no prices next
to them.
So I mean, I don't know ifeveryone gets breakfast.
I have no idea, but we neverpaid a cent and we never saw a
cost.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
No, I saw them bring checks to some people.
Oh, they did.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Yeah, you check in with your name when you go and
your room number, and so theymust have just known that we had
status.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Yes, we were Familia San Agustin.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
So, yeah, would absolutely recommend this hotel,
would definitely stay again.
They also have like a cutelittle lobby bar where you could
order some drinks and snacks.
We hung out there a couple oftimes during our stay and they
had a rooftop restaurant whichwe did eat at, and we'll talk
about that here in a bit.
Okay, you want to talk aboutthings we did in Madrid, and
we'll talk about that here in abit.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Um, okay, you want to talk about things we did in
Madrid so the first night wewere there, we had a flamenco
flamenco show booked, yep, whichthis is not gonna sound crazy,
but I had the best olives there.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Dwayne's been talking about those olives for weeks
now.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
I don't know what the F they did to these olives, but
they were the.
I'm not even lying.
They were the best olives I'veever had in my whole life.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
When we were leaving, dwayne was looking around at
other people's tables who didnot eat their olives and he was
like what is wrong with?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
these people?
Why aren't they eating theirfreaking?
Speaker 1 (16:41):
olives.
So I let me tell how I bookedit and then you can tell what
you thought about the show.
So I booked this through Viator.
There's a lot of options forflamenco shows in Madrid.
A lot of them are like long andthey have they come with like a
dinner.
I didn't want any of thatbecause I didn't know how long
(17:02):
my kids were going to sit still,and I also, like a lot of the
reviews seem to be like oh, theshow was good but the food was
not good, or the food was goodbut the show was not good.
I didn't want to be like tiedto whatever the food was if it
was not good, because my kidswould not eat it.
So this this show was one hourfrom start to finish, again
(17:25):
booked through Viator, for likemaybe 12% cash back or something
.
When it was elevated and we wereseated second row back, we had
great seats and our tickets camewith a one drink per person and
the olives.
They also brought out candy forthe kids, like gummy bears, and
(17:47):
then they asked permissionfirst and what else did they
have?
There was peanuts or popcorn,or it was peanuts, peanuts, yeah
.
So plenty of little snacks forthe kids.
That I don't.
I don't think everyone got that.
It was just the kids tables tokeep them occupied.
And yeah, what did you think ofthe show?
Speaker 2 (18:05):
I thought the show was great.
Um, the highlight of the showwas the guy playing the guitar.
He was great.
Yep, the highlight of the showfor me.
But I mean the whole show ingeneral was pretty cool yeah, it
was good.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Our daughter at one point looked over and she said
like there was like a pause inthe show and she said is it over
?
And I said no, not yet.
And she's oh.
She says oh, good, because Iwant to keep seeing this.
I thought okay.
And so towards the end the kidswere kind of like.
My boys especially, were kindof like are we done?
(18:41):
Are we we done?
But they were all very good andwe did enjoy it and I think it
was a good experience for themto, to you know, see something
that's kind of out of the normfor them.
So we enjoyed it.
I will put a link in the shownotes to the one that we did, so
if you want to do it, I wouldrecommend uh, something else.
oh, as a side note, it was likea seven minute walk from the
(19:05):
hotel, so yeah super easy.
Something else that we did thatwe did not book in advance, we
booked this the night before waswe went to the Royal Palace of
Madrid.
This was one of the things thatI kind of had on my list, but I
didn't book it because I don'tlike to overschedule and it was
(19:26):
supposed to rain all the nextday, so that was part of why we
thought, okay, we'll do thisbecause it'll be indoors.
Part of it is indoors, part ofit is not.
So what did you think of thepalace?
I?
Speaker 2 (19:40):
thought it was pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
We had a tour booked, which Well, we had a kitchen
tour booked.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
So one of the things that you can do in the palace is
you can go like I mean, it wasin the basement, right Like you
go downstairs underneath thecastle and you can tour the
kitchen, like the royal kitchen,which which was enormous.
It was huge and I was superinterested in that.
You have to book a specialticket to get access to the
(20:09):
kitchen tour, and we had to showthis special ticket to
approximately nine differentsecurity guards throughout the
palace, like everyone makingsure that we had the right, like
, basically, that we had paid tosee it.
Um, the downside is the tour isonly offered in Spanish and, um
, we do not speak Spanish, butit's the only way to get down
(20:30):
there.
So we did the tour and I triedto use Google translate to
understand what she was saying,but one, she wasn't speaking
very loudly and two, I don'tknow the there wasn't good
service down there, so I don'tthink my Google Translate was
working very well.
So we got the gist of a coupleof things she said, but for the
(20:53):
most part, it was just likebeing able to look around and
see it.
It was huge and I mean, I wasjust imagining, like, imagine
all the meals that were cookeddown here 200 plus years ago.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Yeah, and I'm not even exaggerating, but there had
to have been like 500 pots andpans down there.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Oh, yeah, yeah, and they had like a section where it
was like I'm pretty sure theywere devices that you would
skewer meat with and when I saymeat I'm talking like a whole
pig right, Like you would put alike a spit.
Right, you would put a wholepig on this and you would put it
over the fire.
There was probably 15 differenttypes of devices for that, all
(21:39):
different sizes and shapes, andso that was interesting too.
And then we did like we walkedthrough the regular palace and
saw the different rooms and Imean it's just like, like, it's
just so like massive and andlike the gold and the it's it's
(22:01):
and they still use it for likestate events and stuff today.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
You won't find anything in the US like no, no,
nothing.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
The closest thing is going to be the White House, and
it doesn't even compare, Iwould say.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
No.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
The other thing we wanted to do at the palace,
which I was super excited about,and so were the kids, was you
can see the armory palace, whichI was super excited about, and
so were the kids, was you cansee the armory, and that's where
you can see like the um, likethe armor that they used to wear
in battle and they have, likeeven like the armor for like the
dogs and stuff.
but it was closed when we werethere yeah, they were like doing
(22:38):
repairs or something, orrenovating it but what's
frustrating is it didn't saythat on the website anywhere
that I could see, so I was kindof frustrated by that, but we
weren't able to go, so instead Ijust looked up pictures on my
phone and showed the kids.
This is what it looks like.
What else do we do?
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Again.
I mean, the weather wasn'tcooperating with us in Madrid
either, so most of the time itwas raining, yeah so it rained
our entire first day there.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
The second day it actually did not rain and we had
a food tour booked, so that wasgood.
Yeah, we had some sun for maybethe first time.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Yeah, was actually able to wear shorts that day,
yeah so the food food tour Ibooked through Europe.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
They have food tours in other cities.
I think they started in Italyand the Madrid one is fairly new
and when I booked they wereoffering a 30% off coupon.
I don't know if that's stillavailable or not, but I would
check out their website and seeif it is.
We enjoyed the tour and see ifit is we enjoyed the tour.
(23:48):
We it was us, the five of us,plus another family from New
York that their daughter wasstudying abroad in Madrid, and
they came to visit.
So it was the mom, the dad, thedaughter and then the brother,
and so we, you know, chattedwith them a bit ch it with the
guides, and we got to taste theI guess viral calamari sandwich,
which it was okay.
(24:09):
It was okay, we like calamariwith sauce, and there was no
sauce.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Yeah, there was no sauce.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
So it was very fresh, though I will say yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
It definitely tasted good and the line for the
sandwich was very long, verylong.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
We didn't have to wait in it because the food tour
has an agreement, but it wasvery long.
We also tried uh jamon, whichis, you know, like the iberico
ham.
It's aged a minimum of fouryears, which is crazy, and we
got to each slice our own if wewanted to.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Yeah, off a leg.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Yeah, so that was cool.
Even our 11-year-old tried thatand he was like first in line
when they said we could do that,so I think he was pretty
excited about that.
We tried squid ink risotto.
That was very good, I enjoyedit.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
It was okay for me.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
It was very savory and it didn't taste fishy at all
.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
It wasn't bad.
It definitely didn't tastefishy, it wasn't bad, but it
needed some meat.
Oh well, some sustenance.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
What a man thing to say.
I thought it was delicious.
We also had some stuffedmushrooms that had like some
kind of sausage in it.
What's the Chor?
What's the?
Um?
Chorizo, yes, chorizo, thankyou.
And we ended with some violetice cream, so not lavender but
violet, which I found.
(25:36):
I thought that was quiteinteresting.
But all in all, we enjoyed thetour.
We got some, you know, somehistory out of it and I I would
recommend it.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
I would do another one of their tours, yeah their
tour is pretty good and bothtour guys we had two of them um
spoke really good english.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Uh, answered everyone's questions one of them
was from america and one wasfrom ireland she wasn't from
America.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Her dad was American.
She was born and raised inMadrid.
Oh, maybe that's it.
Yeah, but her dad was American.
Met her mom while he was in theNavy, yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
The other thing we wanted to do, but could not
because of the weather, was wewanted to do a day trip to
Segovia.
This is something that you canbook, like with a tour guide,
but we were just going to go,like take the bus and go and
kind of explore for the day.
Segovia is around 90 minutesoutside of Madrid.
There is a former Romanaqueduct there, as well as a
(26:41):
castle that is said to be saidto have been the inspiration for
Walt Disney's Sleeping Beautycastle.
However, the weather again wasrainy, cold, windy, and we
decided not to go because Ididn't want to spend all the
time to get there and befreezing and cold and wet the
(27:03):
whole day.
So we will have to do that onour next trip.
Instead of doing that, we endedup exploring a few places from
the show Somebody Feeds Phil.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
It's Somebody Feed Phil for the second time.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Sorry, somebody Feed Phil, okay, whatever.
So first of all, if you'venever seen the show on Netflix,
11 out of 10 recommend.
Think of it like AnthonyBourdain, except Phil is the
polar opposite of AnthonyBourdain he's just really goofy.
(27:44):
Super goofy, super happy, justloves life and everyone in it.
But he goes to fun places, andso we watched the Madrid episode
quite a few everyone in it, buthe goes to fun places, and so
we watched the Madrid episodequite a few times in preparation
and we went to Casa Dani, whichserves what is apparently the
best tortilla in Madrid Votedbest tortilla in Madrid so we
(28:08):
went there and tried that.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
So a tortilla though.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
It's like a potato omelet, kind of.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Yes, it's not like a tortilla you get in the US.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Yes, it is like literally a potato omelet is the
best way to describe it, and sowe tried that.
It was quite good, and we alsoate there for lunch.
So we had a bunch of otherthings like shrimp, I had the
oxtail, yeah, the kids got somekind of like fried chicken type
(28:39):
dish and we had some chorizo, Ithink we got to.
So, again, more tapas, likespain in general seems to be
like there's a lot of tapas andsmall plates, which I again
think is great for kids, becauseyou can order a bunch of little
plates and then they can trywhatever they want without
(29:00):
feeling pressured to like thisis your only meal and eat it or
starve, and our kids try prettymuch everything.
I'm like proud of them for that.
And so the other place we wentto from the Madrid episode on,
somebody feed Phil, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
What is it?
Speaker 1 (29:24):
called, I don't remember the churro place San
Guinness, san Guinness,something like that Churro,
choco and churros Basically theoldest churro place.
San Guinez, san Guinez,something like that Churro,
churro, choco and churrosBasically the oldest churritaria
Is that the word?
The oldest churro restaurant inMadrid.
They were good, it was prettygood.
Again, we ate churros everysingle day, sometimes twice a
(29:46):
day, and yes, this was good.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
We enjoyed it and yes , if you plan to go here, just
know again, this place had asuper long line.
Yeah, but there's like threelocations, like right it weird
to explain, but there's likethree different places you can
get it from all within the same?
Yes, city block, yeah, and soso like the main part was packed
(30:10):
with people and then we kind oflike snuck into this other spot
that was right next to it.
We waited like five minutes forours, yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Yeah, and we sat next to a group of people from
Puerto Rico.
It was funny, yeah, and yeah itwas good, we enjoyed it.
We also kind of wandered aroundthe market where Phil goes, and
that was cool too.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
We went to a few different markets, a few
different markets.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
That's the thing to do in Spain, yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Another restaurant that we ate at that we enjoyed.
This was recommended to us fromthe hotel concierge.
It was called Vinitus and itwas maybe a seven, eight minute
walk from the hotel.
Again, tapas we ordered so muchfood, too much food.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Yeah, it was.
It was good though.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
It was good.
Yes, we enjoyed that, so wouldrecommend that for sure.
We almost went back a secondtime, and then we also ate at
the rooftop of the hotel.
I forget the name of therestaurant, but it's on the
rooftop of the Hyatt CentricGrand Via.
The views are stunning.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Yes, you're on top.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Yeah, in the summer I'm sure it's even more
beautiful.
It rained while we were upthere.
They do have a covered part andan uncovered part, so we ended
up ordering fondue, which wasthe kids' first time ever having
fondue, so that was kind of fun, and they also.
We also got sliders andsomething with guacamole or
(31:58):
avocado, but it was alsodelicious it was.
The food was very good andlet's see, dwayne just reminded
me of two more things that wedid in Madrid that I totally
forgot about again because itwas raining.
So not something.
This is not something we wouldhave normally done.
This was not on our itinerary,but we went to the museum of
illusions, again recommended bythe concierge.
It was actually pretty fun.
Good way to kill a couple ofhours if it's raining when
(32:21):
you're there.
The kids enjoyed it, you knowthey, yeah it was.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
It was pretty small, but I mean, yeah, you can kill
at least an hour and a halfthere.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Yeah, we liked it.
And the other thing we did,which I don't know that I would
recommend, but we took a tuk-tuktour around the city and again,
we did this because it wasraining and they are covered.
It was okay.
I didn't feel like we sawanything.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
It was okay, I think if we would have had a better
tour guide, I think it wouldhave been better.
But I mean, he wasn't bad, hejust wasn't great.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Yeah, and again, like we just found him on the street
, they just line up around thetouristy areas and they just try
to sell you and we were likeokay, like sure we'll do one,
because again it was rainy andyou know, one of our kids fell
asleep but it was fine.
I just I don't, I probablywouldn't do it again or I would
(33:18):
do it with a guide someonereally recommends, you know or
when it was sunny and warmoutside.
Yeah, yeah, and the other thingthat we did was we went to what
was the park called retiro.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Oh yeah retired park in ret did was.
We went to what was the parkcalled Retiro.
Oh yeah, retired Park in.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Spanish Retiro Park.
We went to Retiro Park and thatwas really fun too.
They had a nice big playgroundthe kids played at for a while.
This was the day we did thefood tour, so it wasn't raining
this day, so that was good.
We actually went to twoplaygrounds this day, because
before we did the food tourthere is a playground right next
to the Royal Palace.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Yeah, right, by the meeting point.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
And that was the meeting point for the food tour.
And so they played at thatplayground, like literally at a
playground looking at the RoyalPalace of Madrid, Like can you
imagine it was?
I don't know, I think that's so, so cool for a kid.
And then after we went toRetiro Park, they played again
and we kind of wandered throughthe park.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Yeah, pretty big park .
Speaker 1 (34:20):
It is very big.
Yes, yeah, it's just nice whenyou're in a city, you know, for
the kids to have room to like,run and play without you
worrying about them getting hitby a car.
So I enjoy parks for thatreason, and cities Okay.
I think that sums up prettymuch everything we did in Madrid
On our last day.
(34:44):
Our flight wasn't until about4pm, so we requested late
checkout, using my globaliststatus, and we kind of just hung
out in the hotel that entiremorning.
After breakfast, again, it wasraining, so we just didn't
really feel the need to go outand about.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Let me just add I also did laundry in Madrid.
So on the ship, I did laundryin madrid.
So on the ship, I did laundryin paris, barcelona and madrid.
So I'm internationally known inthe laundry world.
Um again, the laundromat.
They're super easy to use,super clean, all the machines
work, not like laundromats herein the?
(35:29):
U where you hope to get a dryerthat dries and it's dirty, no
one cleans it.
Yeah, so, yeah, I mean justknow that you'll be able to do
laundry if you're like me andwant to take care of dirty
clothes.
How far was it?
Not far at all From the HyattCentral Hotel.
It was literally maybe a block.
(35:51):
It literally took me like fourminutes to walk there.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
That's probably the closest one, huh, yes, it was by
far the closest one, but again,all all the laundry mats I used
were fairly close yeah, as aside note, all the hotels we
stayed at have a laundry service, so if you want to pay for them
to do your laundry, you can dothat.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
But it's expensive, like $5, five euros for a pair
of socks.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
A pair of socks.
Yes, dwayne was like looking atthe price list and he was like
it's going to cost $1,000 if wehave them do our laundry Like no
thanks.
So yes, yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
Ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Yes, okay, so our last day there, we just had
breakfast, our normal leisurelytwo cappuccinos each breakfast,
and then got packed up.
Actually, in a turn of events,duane normally does all the
packing up, but duane took a napand so I actually packed us up
and, much to duane's dismay, Ithere were some dirty clothes,
(36:53):
even though he had recently donelaundry, and I did not pack
them the way he would havepacked them.
I'll just let you all know thatright now.
He said where did you put thedirty clothes?
And I said I put some in eachsuitcase and I just saw him die
a little inside like oh no.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
I would have had all the dirty clothes in one
suitcase.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Yes, Yep, I said hey, inside, like, oh no, I would
have had all the dirty clothesin one suitcase.
Yes, yep.
I said hey, how was your nap?
Yep, okay, it's done, let's,yes.
So we um flew to paris.
We flew from madrid to parisagain about two hour flight, no
big deal and then we had anovernight layover in paris, so
we stayed at the hyatt house,charles de gaulle, uh, again had
(37:33):
two rooms booked there.
We actually didn't use points.
We paid cash because the cashrate was pretty cheap and I just
didn't think it was worth usingpoints.
I mean it's a high house, soyeah we had two connecting rooms
and each room had like a littlekitchenette in it, which our
kids thought was like thecoolest thing, and I thought of
(37:55):
all the hotels we stayed at onthis trip.
This is what you think is cool.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
Okay, we I mean the hotel was nice.
Yeah, it was fine.
They had a restaurant there, sowe ate dinner.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
It was what you would expect from a Hyatt place.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
It was not that good.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
Yeah, but it was late and we were not going to go
anywhere.
So, yep, did that?
Went to bed, yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
And the service was pretty slow yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
It was not great, but it got the job done.
And in the morning we again hadbreakfast.
And in the morning we again hadbreakfast.
I don't know if breakfast wasincluded for everyone or just
for us because of my status, butwe again did not pay for
breakfast.
I don't even think anyone askedus our name, so maybe it is
free for everyone.
(38:45):
Breakfast was fine.
You know your standardscrambled eggs like bacon, dry
hash browns, fruit, coffee,juice, whatever.
Toast, pastries, um, and thenwe headed to the airport.
Was a little stressful gettingto the airport because your
options are to either take alike a cat, like an uber, or a
(39:07):
taxi or the shuttle.
There was some concern that wewouldn't be able to fit all five
of us in the shuttle becausethere were also other people
waiting to go, and when I sayshuttle, it's like a minivan,
like.
It wasn't like a big shuttle,it was pretty small.
So we ended up getting in firston this shuttle after I called
(39:32):
an Uber two different times andit kept like delaying the
arrival time and there were likethree other people waiting to
get in the shuttle and therewere no seats, uh, and so
fortunately the guy told themlike oh, there's another one
coming in two minutes and so wewent.
But I kind of feel like we tooktheir shuttle.
(39:52):
I don't know.
You do pay for the shuttle,it's not free, so I think it was
five euros a person, maybe.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
And with the shuttle they drop you off at this one
designated place.
It's not like I'm at Terminal 3Air France.
They don't drop you off at likethe ticket counter.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
Yeah, so you have to walk, yeah, and you take a.
You have to take like a shuttle.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
A little tram.
Yeah, yeah, and so, so that Imean that added like 10 minutes
to our.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
Yes, and then, even though we had priority boarding,
we I mean, it took so long.
The security line took so longbecause we had premium economy
tickets.
So you know business classeslike zone one and premium
economy is zone two, and so youget priority boarding.
But it was stressful.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Yeah, line was super long by the time we got to the
gate.
First of all, kids need to usethe bathroom.
Raya's bag got flagged forsomething so she had to wait, so
me and the kids headed towardsthe gate.
We all used the bathroom.
By the time we got to the gate,zone 1 and 2 had already
boarded.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
Yeah, by the time I got there, they were boarding
Zone 4.
And so, of course, we just getright in line and, like you know
, they kind of let you go infront.
But I was annoyed because thethe luggage space above my seat
was full from people in first inbusiness class.
Actually, I learned I feel likewe don't have time to talk
(41:29):
about the flight back, so likemaybe that should be a different
episode and maybe we can likecompare, because I've now flown
Air France business economy andpremium economy, so I could
easily compare, but I will say Ithought the flight was
fantastic.
Let's go into more details,like in another episode.
(41:49):
One thing we should go back on,though, is in the Madrid airport
, we were able to use a visit alounge while we waited for our
flight, and that was a prioritypass lounge, and I'll just I
mean priority pass loungesinternationally are so much
better than they are in the US,so much better.
I mean, it was, it was.
It was a fantastic lounge, andwhen we walked up to the counter
(42:11):
, the girl saw all five of usand she just kind of was like,
do you have more than one cardMeaning like priority pass card?
And I was like we do, so I wasable to get in a guest, duane
was able to get in a guest,obviously, one of our kids, and
then our daughter was freebecause she was five it was five
and under were free, so itworked out perfectly was five,
(42:34):
it was five and under were free,so it worked out perfectly.
And, yeah, we spent about Idon't know 30, 45 minutes in
there before the flight boarded,got some snacks.
They had, yeah, drinks, a lotof good options.
So anything else to add aboutmadrid no again.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
My favorite place um madrid is just it's alive, like
yeah, and I love that so even inthe rain.
Speaker 1 (42:53):
yeah, yeah was yeah, and that was my first time in
Madrid.
I really enjoyed it, so wewould definitely go back again.
Um, if you want to see thehotel that we stayed at or like
see pictures of any of thethings that we did, I have a
highlight on Instagram, so comefollow us.
At Travel Party of Five,there's a Madrid highlight,
(43:13):
along with Paris and Barcelona,and I basically have pictures
and videos of pretty mucheverything that we did, so feel
free to come check us out thereand give us a follow, say hello.
If you have questions, send mea DM on there.
I love it when people sendmessages and like.
More and more people aremessaging, and so I love that.
(43:34):
So come say hi and we will beback next week with kind of a
what we learned, what we woulddo differently, logistics, stuff
about we'll answer thequestions you have.
Yes, quite a few people sentquestions on Instagram about the
trip, and so we'll answer allof those and I'm excited for
(43:55):
that episode.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
So, yes, and, as always, we appreciate you
listening and thanks for tuningin.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
Yes, if you find any value in the podcast, please
share it with a friend, leave usa review and just know that we
appreciate you and we will catchyou on the next episode.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Have a good one, bye.
If you've been wanting to visit Madrid using
points and miles, we're going totell you exactly how we did it
as a family of five in today'sepisode, so listen in.
Hi, I'm Raya.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
And I'm Dwayne.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
And we are your hosts of the Travel Party of Five
podcast, where we share how wetravel as a family of five
around the world.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
We will also share how we use points and miles to
travel as affordably as possibleand sometimes even completely
free.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
So if you're wanting to travel more with your family
but you're not sure how, we'dlove for you to listen in.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
So welcome to our podcast, where we hope you learn
a thing or two to get youcloser to your next trip.
Hi friends, Welcome back.
Thanks for tuning in.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Happy Monday, tuesday , wednesday, whatever day it is
you're listening.
This episode will come out onMonday.
We are going to dive into partthree of our two weeks in Europe
, and today we're going to betalking all about Madrid.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yes, my favorite.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Was it your favorite?
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yeah what made it your favorite, just the hustle
and bustle of the city.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, it was hustly and bustly, that's for sure.
Reminded me of TokyoInteresting.
I've never been to Tokyo yet.
So as a side note, before wedive in, dwayne had some dental
work done the other day and ishaving a lot of mouth pain.
So if he's not speaking asclearly as usual, that is why,
(01:50):
and we apologize.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Bear with me.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
So let's dive in.
So when we left off on theBarcelona episode, we were in
the Grand High at Barcelona, andto get to Madrid, we actually
took a train, and so the trainsin Europe, if you've never been,
are fantastic.
When I was in Europe in 2012,that was the only way I got
around through I don't know,maybe 10 different countries was
(02:17):
to take the train, and so Iknew that we didn't want to take
flights every four days on thistrip, because I find airports
very stressful and I'm trying torelax, so we took a train.
It was super easy.
We left the Grand HyattBarcelona, we actually took a
taxi from the hotel to the maintrain station, which is
(02:39):
Barcelona Sants, I think, is howyou say it, and we got like you
have to go through a like akind of a security screening,
but it's nothing like theairport.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Nothing like it.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Like I think they're really just looking for like
weapons, and so you kind of runyour bags through a scanner and
that's about it.
Then you get in line for yourtrain.
There's a screen that'll showyou okay, you know you're on
this train, you know this isyour track, and you just line up
and get on the train Super easy.
I booked the train tickets acouple of months before our trip
(03:16):
through Omeo O-M-I-O.
I've used them before.
They do charge like a couple ofdollars extra as like a
surcharge, as opposed to bookingwith the trains directly.
So in Spain and also similar.
Similarly in Italy, there aredifferent trains that you can
(03:37):
book, and I had a hard time forItaly specifically being able to
book from the United States ontheir website, and so I ended up
using Omeo then and it wassuper simple, so I just used it
again this time.
They also usually are like 2%cash back on Rakuten, and so
(03:57):
that's another bonus that makesme not really feel bad for
paying a few extra dollars infees, and it's just super easy.
You have the app on your phone,that's where your tickets live
and it's it's.
I would recommend it, and Ibooked us in business class, I
think, or first class orwhatever.
(04:17):
And I kept telling, like Dwayneand the kids, like just lower
your your expectations becauseit's not like flying business
class on a plane.
But the seats were big, comfy,we had plenty of room.
What did you think?
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, I mean, I thought it was great, it was
very comfortable.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Yes, the like the economy class is just it's fine,
like there's nothing wrong withit.
That's how I traveled in 2012.
Like every time, there was nofirst class for backpacker Raya,
but with kids, I just wanted tohave a little more space.
I wanted the option of beingclose to food and we were right
next to, like, the food cartbecause it was going to be
(04:56):
lunchtime, and so I think it wasmaybe $90 or $95 total for all
five of us to go from, like, thelowest class to the higher
class.
The one thing I will say whenyou're booking a train is just
be careful, because there aresome quiet cars and you don't
want to book that.
Like, especially if you'retraveling with kids, you don't
(05:16):
want to book the quiet car.
So just pay attention to that.
And also a really goodreference for trains in Europe
is seat 61.
So I believe the website isseat61.com, but you can find
information on almost any routeand any type of train that runs
(05:36):
that route and the differentclasses available and what they
mean, and so I would recommendseat 61 as a train resource if
you're planning a trip like this.
But anyways, we took the train.
It's about three hours.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Super easy.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Yes, and it was snowing.
At one point as we were drivingthrough the country of Spain,
there was snow on the ground,which I thought was kind of
crazy actually.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
It was kind of crazy to see that.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
And we arrived in Madrid mid-afternoon.
We took the metro actually fromthe train station to our hotel.
This was the only time wedidn't take a taxi, and that was
because we were already in thetrain station, like we literally
just had to walk from the trainarea to the metro area and we
(06:27):
had one transfer, I think, toget on the line that went
closest to our hotel.
I think Dwayne was skepticalwhen I said we were going to
take the metro, but it was fine,right.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, it was totally fine, super easy.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Yeah, we stayed at the Hyatt Centric Gran Via
Madrid.
It was maybe five minutes fromthe metro.
What were you gonna say?
super nice hotel yes, it wasfantastic.
So really briefly how I bookedit.
Currently it's a category sixHyatt, which is between 21 and
29,000 points a night.
(06:56):
I actually booked this a fullyear ago when it was a category
five, and so we paid less pointsthan that per night.
We again had two rooms and Iused a combo of points, and also
I had a free night certificatethat I ended up applying.
It was one of the category onethrough seven free night
(07:17):
certificates that we earned lastyear for making our way to
globalist status with Hyatt, andI also had to use a suite
upgrade on one of our rooms inorder to get us to have a an
occupancy of five in the room.
But because one of the nightswas a free night certificate you
can't combine a suite upgradeand a free night certificate so
(07:39):
we did pay one night cashupgrade for that night.
It was 150 euros and I emailedprior and sorted this all out,
so I knew that that was comingand I was prepared for that.
I just thought that's fine.
If that's the only upgrade thatwe have to pay for all the
(08:00):
upgrades we had on this trip,like whatever, that's fine.
The other thing that wasinteresting is I don't even know
if I told you this, but I had.
Also, when I was emailingtrying to confirm the occupancy
and that we had connecting roomsand all that, I asked if they
would extend my globalistbenefits to Dwayne's room and
they said no.
And so I told Dwayne, I don'tknow, there was no club or
(08:20):
anything, so I couldn't give hima club access award.
So Ine, I don't know there's noclub or anything, so I couldn't
give him a club access award.
So I said I don't know ifthey're going to honor it, but
we're just going to go and see.
And if they don't, then theydon't.
But they did, we never paid.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Never paid for breakfast yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Never saw a bill for breakfast.
I don't even know what thebreakfast cost, to be honest,
like there charge postedanywhere, so I have no idea.
What did you think of the hotel?
Speaker 2 (08:47):
again, like I said, it was great.
Uh, breakfast was also great.
They had a lot of wait.
Talk about check-in first.
We'll talk about breakfastcheck-in.
We get there to check in.
Um, it took a while.
They had to look at all theirpassports, but they offered us
snacks and drinks, which Ithought was a great touch
Straight from the bar.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Yeah, they sat us, they took our passports, sat us
down on the couch and asked usif we'd like a welcome drink and
snacks.
And their welcome drink is likea vermouth, which in America
vermouth is something you usewhen you're making a like a
martini.
You kind of like line the glasswith it, I'm going to say, and
(09:28):
then you pour in the martini.
This was not that.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
I mean no, but I wasn't a fan.
I wouldn't like it no it was alittle too thick and too tart.
Was it tart or fruity, orsomething about it was off.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Think about it like it was like actually okay.
So we had vermouth a coupledifferent times and they were
actually quite different tasting, but this one from the hotel
was think of like a red winesoaked in like herbs and maybe
like some type of liqueur.
Also, I didn't mind it actually.
(10:05):
I felt like, oh, if this iswhat they drink in Spain, like
I'm going to drink it becauseI'm in Spain, you know.
Like I didn't mind it at all.
And yeah, they brought us theselike little empanadas.
They brought juice for the kidsand so it was a really nice
little touch.
We just sat on the couch andthey checked us in.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
We't do anything yeah , and everyone was super
friendly and helpful.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Yes, yes, and so we got checked into our room.
We didn't have a ton of timebecause we had something booked
that night, which we'll get intoall the activities we did in a
bit, but I mean overallfantastic hotel.
It's right on grand via, whichis a major street in Madrid with
tons and tons of shopping.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, again, like I said, it reminded me of, like
Tokyo.
It was super busy storeseverywhere, people everywhere,
cars everywhere, just so muchtraffic of everything.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Yeah, and so we got checked into our room, the that
we had again it's two roomscombined.
They called it a family suite,so basically there was like a, a
double room or a twin bedroom,and then a king room was the two
rooms I had booked, but we hadto upgrade to a junior suite in
(11:20):
order to get them connecting,and so that's what.
That's what we had, and so oneroom had two beds that were I'm
going to call them twin, but Ifelt like they were maybe a
little bigger than a twin.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
They were bigger.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
And then our room had a king bed Bathroom and each,
obviously you know theconnecting door we just left
open.
Do you think it was like thesame size as our Paris hotel, or
a little bigger?
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Oh no, it was bigger.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
It was bigger and I did ask for a roll away because
we had the king bed and then thetwo other beds.
They said they couldn't bringin a roll away, but our youngest
two ended up sharing one of thebeds in the kid's room and that
ended up being fine.
It was actually plenty of roomfor for both being fine.
It was actually plenty of roomfor for both of them.
They're as a reminder, they'refive and eight.
(12:08):
They're both pretty small.
They slept fine.
It was no issues whatsoever.
Okay, so now you can talk aboutthe breakfast.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Yes, sorry, um, yeah.
So had quite the varietyruitsfresh squeezed juice, they had
mimosas, they had pastries, theyhad meats, and then there was a
menu you can order off thetable or from the table Omelets,
(12:38):
pancakes, waffles.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
And those were like small plates, yeah.
So you're not going to get likethree giant pancakes, it was
like a few small pancakes or onesmall waffle.
Or you could order EggsBenedict and it would come with
like one Eggs Benedict versusyour normal like two, but it was
(13:02):
fantastic.
They had this chia pudding withthis really thick sweet mango
sauce on top that by the end Ihad all the kids eating because
it was so good.
And, yeah, tons of fruit cerealpastries.
You know, the european breakfastis like a lot of cured meats, I
feel like, which is not reallywhat we like, but they had a lot
(13:27):
of that, yeah.
And you know, cheeses andsalads and just I mean, it was
like Just a variety.
Yeah, I don't think that youwould have a problem finding
something you could eat there.
They had even had somegluten-free options that were
like sealed so that they weren'tcontaminated with the gluten
(13:48):
products.
So, and by now we were in verymuch a routine of like waking up
at a not super early time, likemaybe seven, eight, and then go
, you know, getting ready, goingdown, having a leisurely
breakfast at the hotel and thiswas true for Paris, barcelona
(14:09):
and also Madrid and you couldget coffees made to order.
So we would get cappuccinos.
We would probably spend aboutan hour at breakfast and Duane
and I would each have twocappuccinos and just relax and
kind of talk about the day.
Two cappuccinos and just relaxand kind of talk about the day.
Let the kids, like our kids,know their way around a
(14:30):
breakfast buffet.
They, for the most part, canget all their own food.
Our daughter needs a little bitof help because she can't
always reach it.
So you know, either Dwayne or Ihelp will help her, and
sometimes same thing for oureight year old if he can't reach
something.
But for the most part we letthem get their own stuff.
And they were making avocadotoast and putting scrambled egg
(14:51):
on top and they were loving thatand that's a super healthy
breakfast.
So no issues, no issues frommom or dad on that.
And yeah, the made to orderfood was all really good.
So and again, we never saw abill.
So I do not know how much thebreakfast costs.
Even on the little thing on thetable where you can order the
(15:14):
like the menu of made to orderitems, there was no prices next
to them.
So I mean, I don't know ifeveryone gets breakfast.
I have no idea, but we neverpaid a cent and we never saw a
cost.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
No, I saw them bring checks to some people.
Oh, they did.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Yeah, you check in with your name when you go and
your room number, and so theymust have just known that we had
status.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Yes, we were Familia San Agustin.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
So, yeah, would absolutely recommend this hotel,
would definitely stay again.
They also have like a cutelittle lobby bar where you could
order some drinks and snacks.
We hung out there a couple oftimes during our stay and they
had a rooftop restaurant whichwe did eat at, and we'll talk
about that here in a bit.
Okay, you want to talk aboutthings we did in Madrid, and
we'll talk about that here in abit.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Um, okay, you want to talk about things we did in
Madrid so the first night wewere there, we had a flamenco
flamenco show booked, yep, whichthis is not gonna sound crazy,
but I had the best olives there.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Dwayne's been talking about those olives for weeks
now.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
I don't know what the F they did to these olives, but
they were the.
I'm not even lying.
They were the best olives I'veever had in my whole life.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
When we were leaving, dwayne was looking around at
other people's tables who didnot eat their olives and he was
like what is wrong with?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
these people?
Why aren't they eating theirfreaking?
Speaker 1 (16:41):
olives.
So I let me tell how I bookedit and then you can tell what
you thought about the show.
So I booked this through Viator.
There's a lot of options forflamenco shows in Madrid.
A lot of them are like long andthey have they come with like a
dinner.
I didn't want any of thatbecause I didn't know how long
(17:02):
my kids were going to sit still,and I also, like a lot of the
reviews seem to be like oh, theshow was good but the food was
not good, or the food was goodbut the show was not good.
I didn't want to be like tiedto whatever the food was if it
was not good, because my kidswould not eat it.
So this this show was one hourfrom start to finish, again
(17:25):
booked through Viator, for likemaybe 12% cash back or something
.
When it was elevated and we wereseated second row back, we had
great seats and our tickets camewith a one drink per person and
the olives.
They also brought out candy forthe kids, like gummy bears, and
(17:47):
then they asked permissionfirst and what else did they
have?
There was peanuts or popcorn,or it was peanuts, peanuts, yeah
.
So plenty of little snacks forthe kids.
That I don't.
I don't think everyone got that.
It was just the kids tables tokeep them occupied.
And yeah, what did you think ofthe show?
Speaker 2 (18:05):
I thought the show was great.
Um, the highlight of the showwas the guy playing the guitar.
He was great.
Yep, the highlight of the showfor me.
But I mean the whole show ingeneral was pretty cool yeah, it
was good.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Our daughter at one point looked over and she said
like there was like a pause inthe show and she said is it over
?
And I said no, not yet.
And she's oh.
She says oh, good, because Iwant to keep seeing this.
I thought okay.
And so towards the end the kidswere kind of like.
My boys especially, were kindof like are we done?
(18:41):
Are we we done?
But they were all very good andwe did enjoy it and I think it
was a good experience for themto, to you know, see something
that's kind of out of the normfor them.
So we enjoyed it.
I will put a link in the shownotes to the one that we did, so
if you want to do it, I wouldrecommend uh, something else.
oh, as a side note, it was likea seven minute walk from the
(19:05):
hotel, so yeah super easy.
Something else that we did thatwe did not book in advance, we
booked this the night before waswe went to the Royal Palace of
Madrid.
This was one of the things thatI kind of had on my list, but I
didn't book it because I don'tlike to overschedule and it was
(19:26):
supposed to rain all the nextday, so that was part of why we
thought, okay, we'll do thisbecause it'll be indoors.
Part of it is indoors, part ofit is not.
So what did you think of thepalace?
I?
Speaker 2 (19:40):
thought it was pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
We had a tour booked, which Well, we had a kitchen
tour booked.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
So one of the things that you can do in the palace is
you can go like I mean, it wasin the basement, right Like you
go downstairs underneath thecastle and you can tour the
kitchen, like the royal kitchen,which which was enormous.
It was huge and I was superinterested in that.
You have to book a specialticket to get access to the
(20:09):
kitchen tour, and we had to showthis special ticket to
approximately nine differentsecurity guards throughout the
palace, like everyone makingsure that we had the right, like
, basically, that we had paid tosee it.
Um, the downside is the tour isonly offered in Spanish and, um
, we do not speak Spanish, butit's the only way to get down
(20:30):
there.
So we did the tour and I triedto use Google translate to
understand what she was saying,but one, she wasn't speaking
very loudly and two, I don'tknow the there wasn't good
service down there, so I don'tthink my Google Translate was
working very well.
So we got the gist of a coupleof things she said, but for the
(20:53):
most part, it was just likebeing able to look around and
see it.
It was huge and I mean, I wasjust imagining, like, imagine
all the meals that were cookeddown here 200 plus years ago.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Yeah, and I'm not even exaggerating, but there had
to have been like 500 pots andpans down there.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Oh, yeah, yeah, and they had like a section where it
was like I'm pretty sure theywere devices that you would
skewer meat with and when I saymeat I'm talking like a whole
pig right, Like you would put alike a spit.
Right, you would put a wholepig on this and you would put it
over the fire.
There was probably 15 differenttypes of devices for that, all
(21:39):
different sizes and shapes, andso that was interesting too.
And then we did like we walkedthrough the regular palace and
saw the different rooms and Imean it's just like, like, it's
just so like massive and andlike the gold and the it's it's
(22:01):
and they still use it for likestate events and stuff today.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
You won't find anything in the US like no, no,
nothing.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
The closest thing is going to be the White House, and
it doesn't even compare, Iwould say.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
No.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
The other thing we wanted to do at the palace,
which I was super excited about,and so were the kids, was you
can see the armory palace, whichI was super excited about, and
so were the kids, was you cansee the armory, and that's where
you can see like the um, likethe armor that they used to wear
in battle and they have, likeeven like the armor for like the
dogs and stuff.
but it was closed when we werethere yeah, they were like doing
(22:38):
repairs or something, orrenovating it but what's
frustrating is it didn't saythat on the website anywhere
that I could see, so I was kindof frustrated by that, but we
weren't able to go, so instead Ijust looked up pictures on my
phone and showed the kids.
This is what it looks like.
What else do we do?
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Again.
I mean, the weather wasn'tcooperating with us in Madrid
either, so most of the time itwas raining, yeah so it rained
our entire first day there.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
The second day it actually did not rain and we had
a food tour booked, so that wasgood.
Yeah, we had some sun for maybethe first time.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Yeah, was actually able to wear shorts that day,
yeah so the food food tour Ibooked through Europe.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
They have food tours in other cities.
I think they started in Italyand the Madrid one is fairly new
and when I booked they wereoffering a 30% off coupon.
I don't know if that's stillavailable or not, but I would
check out their website and seeif it is.
We enjoyed the tour and see ifit is we enjoyed the tour.
(23:48):
We it was us, the five of us,plus another family from New
York that their daughter wasstudying abroad in Madrid, and
they came to visit.
So it was the mom, the dad, thedaughter and then the brother,
and so we, you know, chattedwith them a bit ch it with the
guides, and we got to taste theI guess viral calamari sandwich,
which it was okay.
(24:09):
It was okay, we like calamariwith sauce, and there was no
sauce.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Yeah, there was no sauce.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
So it was very fresh, though I will say yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
It definitely tasted good and the line for the
sandwich was very long, verylong.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
We didn't have to wait in it because the food tour
has an agreement, but it wasvery long.
We also tried uh jamon, whichis, you know, like the iberico
ham.
It's aged a minimum of fouryears, which is crazy, and we
got to each slice our own if wewanted to.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Yeah, off a leg.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Yeah, so that was cool.
Even our 11-year-old tried thatand he was like first in line
when they said we could do that,so I think he was pretty
excited about that.
We tried squid ink risotto.
That was very good, I enjoyedit.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
It was okay for me.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
It was very savory and it didn't taste fishy at all
.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
It wasn't bad.
It definitely didn't tastefishy, it wasn't bad, but it
needed some meat.
Oh well, some sustenance.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
What a man thing to say.
I thought it was delicious.
We also had some stuffedmushrooms that had like some
kind of sausage in it.
What's the Chor?
What's the?
Um?
Chorizo, yes, chorizo, thankyou.
And we ended with some violetice cream, so not lavender but
violet, which I found.
(25:36):
I thought that was quiteinteresting.
But all in all, we enjoyed thetour.
We got some, you know, somehistory out of it and I I would
recommend it.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
I would do another one of their tours, yeah their
tour is pretty good and bothtour guys we had two of them um
spoke really good english.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Uh, answered everyone's questions one of them
was from america and one wasfrom ireland she wasn't from
America.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Her dad was American.
She was born and raised inMadrid.
Oh, maybe that's it.
Yeah, but her dad was American.
Met her mom while he was in theNavy, yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
The other thing we wanted to do, but could not
because of the weather, was wewanted to do a day trip to
Segovia.
This is something that you canbook, like with a tour guide,
but we were just going to go,like take the bus and go and
kind of explore for the day.
Segovia is around 90 minutesoutside of Madrid.
There is a former Romanaqueduct there, as well as a
(26:41):
castle that is said to be saidto have been the inspiration for
Walt Disney's Sleeping Beautycastle.
However, the weather again wasrainy, cold, windy, and we
decided not to go because Ididn't want to spend all the
time to get there and befreezing and cold and wet the
(27:03):
whole day.
So we will have to do that onour next trip.
Instead of doing that, we endedup exploring a few places from
the show Somebody Feeds Phil.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
It's Somebody Feed Phil for the second time.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Sorry, somebody Feed Phil, okay, whatever.
So first of all, if you'venever seen the show on Netflix,
11 out of 10 recommend.
Think of it like AnthonyBourdain, except Phil is the
polar opposite of AnthonyBourdain he's just really goofy.
(27:44):
Super goofy, super happy, justloves life and everyone in it.
But he goes to fun places, andso we watched the Madrid episode
quite a few everyone in it, buthe goes to fun places, and so
we watched the Madrid episodequite a few times in preparation
and we went to Casa Dani, whichserves what is apparently the
best tortilla in Madrid Votedbest tortilla in Madrid so we
(28:08):
went there and tried that.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
So a tortilla though.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
It's like a potato omelet, kind of.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Yes, it's not like a tortilla you get in the US.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Yes, it is like literally a potato omelet is the
best way to describe it, and sowe tried that.
It was quite good, and we alsoate there for lunch.
So we had a bunch of otherthings like shrimp, I had the
oxtail, yeah, the kids got somekind of like fried chicken type
(28:39):
dish and we had some chorizo, Ithink we got to.
So, again, more tapas, likespain in general seems to be
like there's a lot of tapas andsmall plates, which I again
think is great for kids, becauseyou can order a bunch of little
plates and then they can trywhatever they want without
(29:00):
feeling pressured to like thisis your only meal and eat it or
starve, and our kids try prettymuch everything.
I'm like proud of them for that.
And so the other place we wentto from the Madrid episode on,
somebody feed Phil, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
What is it?
Speaker 1 (29:24):
called, I don't remember the churro place San
Guinness, san Guinness,something like that Churro,
choco and churros Basically theoldest churro place.
San Guinez, san Guinez,something like that Churro,
churro, choco and churrosBasically the oldest churritaria
Is that the word?
The oldest churro restaurant inMadrid.
They were good, it was prettygood.
Again, we ate churros everysingle day, sometimes twice a
(29:46):
day, and yes, this was good.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
We enjoyed it and yes , if you plan to go here, just
know again, this place had asuper long line.
Yeah, but there's like threelocations, like right it weird
to explain, but there's likethree different places you can
get it from all within the same?
Yes, city block, yeah, and soso like the main part was packed
(30:10):
with people and then we kind oflike snuck into this other spot
that was right next to it.
We waited like five minutes forours, yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Yeah, and we sat next to a group of people from
Puerto Rico.
It was funny, yeah, and yeah itwas good, we enjoyed it.
We also kind of wandered aroundthe market where Phil goes, and
that was cool too.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
We went to a few different markets, a few
different markets.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
That's the thing to do in Spain, yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Another restaurant that we ate at that we enjoyed.
This was recommended to us fromthe hotel concierge.
It was called Vinitus and itwas maybe a seven, eight minute
walk from the hotel.
Again, tapas we ordered so muchfood, too much food.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Yeah, it was.
It was good though.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
It was good.
Yes, we enjoyed that, so wouldrecommend that for sure.
We almost went back a secondtime, and then we also ate at
the rooftop of the hotel.
I forget the name of therestaurant, but it's on the
rooftop of the Hyatt CentricGrand Via.
The views are stunning.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Yes, you're on top.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Yeah, in the summer I'm sure it's even more
beautiful.
It rained while we were upthere.
They do have a covered part andan uncovered part, so we ended
up ordering fondue, which wasthe kids' first time ever having
fondue, so that was kind of fun, and they also.
We also got sliders andsomething with guacamole or
(31:58):
avocado, but it was alsodelicious it was.
The food was very good andlet's see, dwayne just reminded
me of two more things that wedid in Madrid that I totally
forgot about again because itwas raining.
So not something.
This is not something we wouldhave normally done.
This was not on our itinerary,but we went to the museum of
illusions, again recommended bythe concierge.
It was actually pretty fun.
Good way to kill a couple ofhours if it's raining when
(32:21):
you're there.
The kids enjoyed it, you knowthey, yeah it was.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
It was pretty small, but I mean, yeah, you can kill
at least an hour and a halfthere.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Yeah, we liked it.
And the other thing we did,which I don't know that I would
recommend, but we took a tuk-tuktour around the city and again,
we did this because it wasraining and they are covered.
It was okay.
I didn't feel like we sawanything.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
It was okay, I think if we would have had a better
tour guide, I think it wouldhave been better.
But I mean, he wasn't bad, hejust wasn't great.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Yeah, and again, like we just found him on the street
, they just line up around thetouristy areas and they just try
to sell you and we were likeokay, like sure we'll do one,
because again it was rainy andyou know, one of our kids fell
asleep but it was fine.
I just I don't, I probablywouldn't do it again or I would
(33:18):
do it with a guide someonereally recommends, you know or
when it was sunny and warmoutside.
Yeah, yeah, and the other thingthat we did was we went to what
was the park called retiro.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Oh yeah retired park in ret did was.
We went to what was the parkcalled Retiro.
Oh yeah, retired Park in.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Spanish Retiro Park.
We went to Retiro Park and thatwas really fun too.
They had a nice big playgroundthe kids played at for a while.
This was the day we did thefood tour, so it wasn't raining
this day, so that was good.
We actually went to twoplaygrounds this day, because
before we did the food tourthere is a playground right next
to the Royal Palace.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Yeah, right, by the meeting point.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
And that was the meeting point for the food tour.
And so they played at thatplayground, like literally at a
playground looking at the RoyalPalace of Madrid, Like can you
imagine it was?
I don't know, I think that's so, so cool for a kid.
And then after we went toRetiro Park, they played again
and we kind of wandered throughthe park.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Yeah, pretty big park .
Speaker 1 (34:20):
It is very big.
Yes, yeah, it's just nice whenyou're in a city, you know, for
the kids to have room to like,run and play without you
worrying about them getting hitby a car.
So I enjoy parks for thatreason, and cities Okay.
I think that sums up prettymuch everything we did in Madrid
On our last day.
(34:44):
Our flight wasn't until about4pm, so we requested late
checkout, using my globaliststatus, and we kind of just hung
out in the hotel that entiremorning.
After breakfast, again, it wasraining, so we just didn't
really feel the need to go outand about.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Let me just add I also did laundry in Madrid.
So on the ship, I did laundryin madrid.
So on the ship, I did laundryin paris, barcelona and madrid.
So I'm internationally known inthe laundry world.
Um again, the laundromat.
They're super easy to use,super clean, all the machines
work, not like laundromats herein the?
(35:29):
U where you hope to get a dryerthat dries and it's dirty, no
one cleans it.
Yeah, so, yeah, I mean justknow that you'll be able to do
laundry if you're like me andwant to take care of dirty
clothes.
How far was it?
Not far at all From the HyattCentral Hotel.
It was literally maybe a block.
(35:51):
It literally took me like fourminutes to walk there.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
That's probably the closest one, huh, yes, it was by
far the closest one, but again,all all the laundry mats I used
were fairly close yeah, as aside note, all the hotels we
stayed at have a laundry service, so if you want to pay for them
to do your laundry, you can dothat.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
But it's expensive, like $5, five euros for a pair
of socks.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
A pair of socks.
Yes, dwayne was like looking atthe price list and he was like
it's going to cost $1,000 if wehave them do our laundry Like no
thanks.
So yes, yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
Ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Yes, okay, so our last day there, we just had
breakfast, our normal leisurelytwo cappuccinos each breakfast,
and then got packed up.
Actually, in a turn of events,duane normally does all the
packing up, but duane took a napand so I actually packed us up
and, much to duane's dismay, Ithere were some dirty clothes,
(36:53):
even though he had recently donelaundry, and I did not pack
them the way he would havepacked them.
I'll just let you all know thatright now.
He said where did you put thedirty clothes?
And I said I put some in eachsuitcase and I just saw him die
a little inside like oh no.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
I would have had all the dirty clothes in one
suitcase.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Yes, Yep, I said hey, inside, like, oh no, I would
have had all the dirty clothesin one suitcase.
Yes, yep.
I said hey, how was your nap?
Yep, okay, it's done, let's,yes.
So we um flew to paris.
We flew from madrid to parisagain about two hour flight, no
big deal and then we had anovernight layover in paris, so
we stayed at the hyatt house,charles de gaulle, uh, again had
(37:33):
two rooms booked there.
We actually didn't use points.
We paid cash because the cashrate was pretty cheap and I just
didn't think it was worth usingpoints.
I mean it's a high house, soyeah we had two connecting rooms
and each room had like a littlekitchenette in it, which our
kids thought was like thecoolest thing, and I thought of
(37:55):
all the hotels we stayed at onthis trip.
This is what you think is cool.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
Okay, we I mean the hotel was nice.
Yeah, it was fine.
They had a restaurant there, sowe ate dinner.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
It was what you would expect from a Hyatt place.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
It was not that good.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
Yeah, but it was late and we were not going to go
anywhere.
So, yep, did that?
Went to bed, yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
And the service was pretty slow yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
It was not great, but it got the job done.
And in the morning we again hadbreakfast.
And in the morning we again hadbreakfast.
I don't know if breakfast wasincluded for everyone or just
for us because of my status, butwe again did not pay for
breakfast.
I don't even think anyone askedus our name, so maybe it is
free for everyone.
(38:45):
Breakfast was fine.
You know your standardscrambled eggs like bacon, dry
hash browns, fruit, coffee,juice, whatever.
Toast, pastries, um, and thenwe headed to the airport.
Was a little stressful gettingto the airport because your
options are to either take alike a cat, like an uber, or a
(39:07):
taxi or the shuttle.
There was some concern that wewouldn't be able to fit all five
of us in the shuttle becausethere were also other people
waiting to go, and when I sayshuttle, it's like a minivan,
like.
It wasn't like a big shuttle,it was pretty small.
So we ended up getting in firston this shuttle after I called
(39:32):
an Uber two different times andit kept like delaying the
arrival time and there were likethree other people waiting to
get in the shuttle and therewere no seats, uh, and so
fortunately the guy told themlike oh, there's another one
coming in two minutes and so wewent.
But I kind of feel like we tooktheir shuttle.
(39:52):
I don't know.
You do pay for the shuttle,it's not free, so I think it was
five euros a person, maybe.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
And with the shuttle they drop you off at this one
designated place.
It's not like I'm at Terminal 3Air France.
They don't drop you off at likethe ticket counter.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
Yeah, so you have to walk, yeah, and you take a.
You have to take like a shuttle.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
A little tram.
Yeah, yeah, and so, so that Imean that added like 10 minutes
to our.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
Yes, and then, even though we had priority boarding,
we I mean, it took so long.
The security line took so longbecause we had premium economy
tickets.
So you know business classeslike zone one and premium
economy is zone two, and so youget priority boarding.
But it was stressful.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Yeah, line was super long by the time we got to the
gate.
First of all, kids need to usethe bathroom.
Raya's bag got flagged forsomething so she had to wait, so
me and the kids headed towardsthe gate.
We all used the bathroom.
By the time we got to the gate,zone 1 and 2 had already
boarded.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
Yeah, by the time I got there, they were boarding
Zone 4.
And so, of course, we just getright in line and, like you know
, they kind of let you go infront.
But I was annoyed because thethe luggage space above my seat
was full from people in first inbusiness class.
Actually, I learned I feel likewe don't have time to talk
(41:29):
about the flight back, so likemaybe that should be a different
episode and maybe we can likecompare, because I've now flown
Air France business economy andpremium economy, so I could
easily compare, but I will say Ithought the flight was
fantastic.
Let's go into more details,like in another episode.
(41:49):
One thing we should go back on,though, is in the Madrid airport
, we were able to use a visit alounge while we waited for our
flight, and that was a prioritypass lounge, and I'll just I
mean priority pass loungesinternationally are so much
better than they are in the US,so much better.
I mean, it was, it was.
It was a fantastic lounge, andwhen we walked up to the counter
(42:11):
, the girl saw all five of usand she just kind of was like,
do you have more than one cardMeaning like priority pass card?
And I was like we do, so I wasable to get in a guest, duane
was able to get in a guest,obviously, one of our kids, and
then our daughter was freebecause she was five it was five
and under were free, so itworked out perfectly was five,
(42:34):
it was five and under were free,so it worked out perfectly.
And, yeah, we spent about Idon't know 30, 45 minutes in
there before the flight boarded,got some snacks.
They had, yeah, drinks, a lotof good options.
So anything else to add aboutmadrid no again.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
My favorite place um madrid is just it's alive, like
yeah, and I love that so even inthe rain.
Speaker 1 (42:53):
yeah, yeah was yeah, and that was my first time in
Madrid.
I really enjoyed it, so wewould definitely go back again.
Um, if you want to see thehotel that we stayed at or like
see pictures of any of thethings that we did, I have a
highlight on Instagram, so comefollow us.
At Travel Party of Five,there's a Madrid highlight,
(43:13):
along with Paris and Barcelona,and I basically have pictures
and videos of pretty mucheverything that we did, so feel
free to come check us out thereand give us a follow, say hello.
If you have questions, send mea DM on there.
I love it when people sendmessages and like.
More and more people aremessaging, and so I love that.
(43:34):
So come say hi and we will beback next week with kind of a
what we learned, what we woulddo differently, logistics, stuff
about we'll answer thequestions you have.
Yes, quite a few people sentquestions on Instagram about the
trip, and so we'll answer allof those and I'm excited for
(43:55):
that episode.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
So, yes, and, as always, we appreciate you
listening and thanks for tuningin.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
Yes, if you find any value in the podcast, please
share it with a friend, leave usa review and just know that we
appreciate you and we will catchyou on the next episode.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Have a good one, bye.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.