It’s train day! One of my favorite travel days of a trip because I love riding trains so much. They’re fast, efficient, and a very comfortable way of getting around. Our Airbnb host was very nice and let us check out 2 hours later since the train station was only a 15 min walk and there wasn’t really much left to do in Madrid. Maybe I’m missing some of the major places to visit but I felt like 2-ish days was enough to get a feel for the city. We were pretty ready to move onto Granada which is 2.5 hours south of Madrid on the train.
We had no issues finding the train and getting on. It did start moving at 2:01 though, totally not up to Japanese bullet train standards as those trains are on time to the second. I guess it was a warning for what was to come because we were scheduled to depart at 2:00pm and arrive at 5:35pm. The train topped out at 135mph but it came to a complete stop 4 separate times. It’s funny how boring it feels when you’re sitting on a stopped train vs a moving one. We ran out of snacks and wandered over to the dining car. I was happy to see they had toasted baguette sandwiches. This one was roasted chicken, camembert cheese, and caramelized onions for 6 EUR. It was good but so far none of the baguette sandwiches I’ve had on this trip were nearly as good as any of the ones we had in France. I feel like I’m a baguette sandwich snob now.
With my job, I’m mainly remote where I go into the office if we have collaborative meeting or team building events. I have team members in India, Spain, Mexico, and spread across the North East. I have to say that I feel SO fortunate to have been included on 2 trips this year where I was able to meet some of my peers in person in Wilton Connecticut and in Mumbai India. It just makes a good working relationship even better.
Some of the team members I work with on my project are located in both Madrid and Barcelona. I’ve been working with Maria for at least a year now meeting once a week to talk through team planning. As we got closer to this trip, a larger proportion of our 30 minutes together was spent more on trip planning because both of us love traveling so much. I was excited to meet her in person on this trip as she lives in Granada. We had dinner reservations for 8pm which according to her, was VERY early for dinner. I was a little worried that we wouldn’t arrive on time as we got to the train station at 6:45pm. We dropped our stuff at the airbnb, freshened up, and took a cab to a restaurant she crowd sourced from her foodie friends called Restaurante andaluz – Casa Torcuato.
I was so glad she ordered food because I’ve basically been playing menu roulette the whole time we’ve been in Spain. I can read the words but I don’t know what I’m ordering. So far we’ve been really lucky where all the food’s been very good. Maria ordered salmorejo which is a local dish where they put olive oil and sliced tomatoes on top of stale bread. Once the bread is hydrated, you blend it up as a soup and put toppings on top. Ours had bacon, boiled eggs, and tuna. It was so delicious, I wanted more of it. We of course ordered a pitcher of sangria. She laughed because she said only teenagers, old ladies, and tourists order sangria. She recommended a german beer that’s half lemonade called Radler to try next time we have a chance so we could appear more like locals.
Drinking in Granada usually results in free tapas. The dish they brought us were roasted potatoes with garlic aioli on top. We also got a platter of assorted fried seafood: squid, shrimp, anchovies, and some tiny squiggly fish that I wasn’t familiar with as well as a “secret” cut of roast pork with potatoes.
After dinner, Maria recommended that we walk over to a very scenic view which in 1997 Bill Clinton said was the most beautiful sunset in the world. While it was a bit too late to catch the sunset, we did have a cloudless sky with the moon shining brightly over Alhambra which we are scheduled to tour while we’re in Granada.
We love the feel of this city, so much history and personality!
Even though we just met Maria in person today, it’s like she knows us so well because she recommended that we end the night with gelato.
It was so great meeting her. Hopefully we’ll be able to hang out again before we head out to Seville on Friday. After we got back to the airbnb, it was almost midnight. I got a text from her saying “I have to give it to you, having dinner at eight is not that bad! We did all that and I still can walk the dog and be in bed by midnight! 🙌🏻”
