We woke to our alarm at 0500 and readied ourselves. Hopping out of the lift at the ground floor, we clambered over the breakfast items laid out on the floor, waiting to be carted to the rooftop restaurant. The receptionist insisted that we had some coffee/tea and ordered the waiter, busy with transporting breakfast, to get us our hot drink.
Our transport to Sabiha Gokcen airport turned up at 0600 as expected, after a phone call to reception alerting of their impending arrival. The ride only took 35 minutes with good traffic being early morning on a weekend. It would have been risky taking the next shuttle which was 1h30 minutes later (we had tried hard to find a shuttle that was just a little later).
It took us an hour before we got airside. Nothing took long by itself but it was the cumulative time: security to enter the airport building, bag-drop for Kim, immigration and finally security. We managed to spend an hour in the lounge before being bused to the aircraft.
The 737-800 was supposed to be completely chocka as I noticed there weren’t selling any more seats a few days prior. But the doors closed with some seats spare and we shifted ourselves to share a row with one seat between us.
Under the wing are Prince’s Islands where we were yesterday.
We landed in Madrid about 40 minutes ahead of schedule but with a very long taxi, we got to our remote gate around 25 minutes early still. It was raining as we disembarked into the bus; not drizzle but real rain even thought it wasn’t torrential. I guess it is much-needed rain as the area viewed from the sky was very brown and barren.
Immigration was swift and Kim’s luggage was on the belt as we got there. Then the walk to the T1/2/3 metro station took forever through winding corridors part of which looked into the airside area.
We got a 4 day tourist pass and made our way by metro to Hostal Main Street smack in the city on Gran Via. We opted to get off at Callao right in front of the hotel which required two changes. We could have opted to get off at Plaza Espana which only required one change but a longer walk. As we realised later, the walk would have been easier as some changes have lots of distance and step.
After dropping our stuff in our nice room, we ventured out to find some food. As it was getting a bit late, we hastily opted for tapas on El Corte Ingles’ rooftop terrace. It was nice enough but probably a bit pricey, and very busy/noisy.
While Kim rested afterwards, I went to Decathlon and found luggage which he later decided as suitable for replacing his broken suitcase; the wheel had collapsed inwards probably from being smashed against the ground.
For dinner, the La Latina area came highly recommended by the hotel reception (and subsequently many other people). We headed there but were out by a couple of streets and didn’t find much appealing. We ended up having some very yummy Tex Mex.
As always, once we had eaten, all the better options start to surface with Menu del dia options from around EUR11 for first and second courses, dessert, bread and wine/beer/drink.
Being at the western end of the time zone, sunset was late and it was still bright after a late dinner. It seemed wrong to head back to the room before 2200 especially when the temperature was so pleasant.