Day 119: Spain Day 13

Monday, September 16, 2016

We all went to the US Embassy in Madrid in the morning to acquire new passports.  It was kind of like a large-scale DMV, complete with tons of people waiting to be heard.  After filling out the necessary paperwork, we walked around back towards the center of Madrid and found we were in the working district because we couldn't find a restaurant.  Finally, we saw a NYC-esque designed cafe, where I ordered a simple, delicious breakfast of fresh orange juice and a toasted soft bun with butter on one side and peach jelly on the other.

Sunrise

This is actually the embassy

Then, we walked to the national library of Spain, a beautiful, ornate stone building that was unfortunately closed to the public :(.  After that, we walked down to the ayuntamiento building, where a wonderful, enormous poster hang in the front that stated ALL REFUGEES WELCOME.  We were tired of walking after that, so we took a cab back to the apartment.  We packed up and chilled in the lovely place, then ordered some Pad Thai Wok from across the street.  It was delicious!

ALL REFUGEES WELCOME

With a couple of hours left in Madrid before going to Getaria, a tiny town on the Bay of Biscay, we had a plan.  We would walk to the Royal Palace and then pack the car and drop by a huge park called El Retiro before heading on our way.  Alas, it was not meant to be.  We ate pastries (delicious, gooey, small chocolate cake) from a pastelería, and then walked into what we thought was the right direction to the palace.  We were mistaken, walking too far north.

A cereal restaurant.  Any cereal you can think of, and Cereal Hunters has it.  It was beautiful--both in idea and aesthetics.  Each wall (minus the one with the window and entrance) had a display of cereal on the wall.  All kinds: I saw many American cereals, and some that I hadn't heard of.  They even had an oatmeal and granola area.  With delight and a twinge of regret for not buying an expensive bowl, we left to find the palace.

Wait, hold up.  The Merritt family?  Go do a typical tourist thing?  Oh wait, because we are Merritts it means we were late for leaving Madrid, so we ditched the palace idea and instead went back to Cereal Hunters and ate Crunch Berries.  THAT makes more sense :).

All-holy Crunch Berries

Honey I Shrunk the Kids lol

Finding Dory cereal!!!