Sailing the Med

Madrid is a big city and right now it's very hot. It is suppose to be 97 again today. But tonight is the big game, the finals for the EuroCup. It's Germany vs Spain. Spain hasn't won a EuroCup for 44 years. This should be fun tonight being in Madrid, the capital of Spain for the final game. I will head back home tomorrow morning. I will update the blog one last time with the events from the EuroCup.

My flight to Madrid wasn't until 5:00pm. I planned on Ibiza keeping in up the night before. The airport was a bus ride away. Phil and Gary went to the bus station with me to see me off. The bus was to Ibiza City. I had some time to kill, so I found a caf� on a tree lines square and had some Sangria. It was time to take the next bus to the airport. The first 'lost wallet' glitch was at the Ibiza airport. Even though I brought the ticket to Madrid before I lost my Amex card, they wanted to 'see' the card. But I explained that I lost it and they let me on the plane. I arrived at the Madrid airport and needed to find the American Express office. I asked Airport Information and they directed me to Terminal 1. I was in Terminal 2. With my sea bag and two carry-ons I headed for Terminal 1. I found the Amex office, but some at the window was doing a huge travel checks transaction. This included signing every one. When he was done, they told me that for 'card replacement' I needed to go to the Amex office in Terminal 4. I started walking to T4 when I saw a sign for the shuttle to T4. I jumped on it. Good thing, because terminal 4 is in a different city. Well almost. When the bus left the airport everyone on the bus was worried that they were on the wrong bus. But apparently terminal 4 is a new terminal way on the other side of the airport. I found the Amex office and they said I was in the right place, but they had no record of my replacement request. I started thinking of my problem. Being in a big city, with no hotel reservation and no credit cards. But the people at Amex said they would have a card in 30 minutes. During the wait I visited a hotel reservation service. They found me a hotel in the area I wanted. But they wanted a credit card. I explained that one was being made for me. He seemed to except this. It cost me 7 Euro for the service, but it was worth it. He gave me directions on how to get to my hotel. Even though Madrid's Metro goes to the airport, it's too difficult to get to town. So the directions was to get on the 204 bus and get off at Castella, then cross over the street on get on the underground Metro. Take the Metro to Callao. Go up the street and the hotel should be right there. It sounded so simple. I went back to Amex and picked up my new Amex card then headed for the bus. I asked the bus driver where Castella was. He said second stop. But at the next stop this girl saw my directions and told me that this was my stop. I looked at the bus driver and he gave me the nod. I got off the bus and looked around the Metro station. I saw it on the other side of the road. There was a overpass to get there. It was 97 degrees in Madrid. I carried all my stuff up and over to the Metro station. I figured out which line and which direction to get to Callao. I got off at Callao and up the stairs to the street. Sure enough there was my hotel. I now have a credit card and a hotel room. I will stay in Madrid for two nights and fly home.

During dinner, all we saw was a steady stream of 'kids' headed into town. With some money loaned to me from Phil, I headed to town also. What an amazing place. This one street had wall-to-wall clubs and bars. Some kids were dressed up in costumes. Some were bunnies, some were cowgirls, with toy guns. Some were in togas. I found a Irish pub and went in for a Guinness, What else! Even in the Irish pub the music was playing and the people were dancing. Beside the bars and clubs, the popular place was the KFC chicken place. I didn't need credit cards tonight. I made it back to the boat around 5:00am.

We sailed to Ibiza. It is suppose to be the best party spot in the world. Our trip took 9 hours. After tying up the boat, we had our 'Cheated death again' beer. I checked for Wi-Fi, but no luck. I was going to go with Phil to check-in at the marina to ask them about Internet access. Grab my computer, but where was my wallet. Almost the worst thing that can happen on a trip is to lose your wallet with your credit cards. I looked all over the boat, no joy. We went to town to find some Internet so I get the phone number for the wine restaurant in Palma, the last place I used it. Luckily the person answering the phone spoke perfect English, but no wallet. There was no money, but my driver's license and my credit cards were in it. My American Express and my MasterCard. I wasn't worried that some might use my cards. It was mainly trying to travel without one, and the hassle to reissue a driver's license and other cards. I reported the MasterCard loss to Bank of America. I will have a new card in 7 days. American Express has a card replacement service. I talked with them and arranged to pick a new card in Madrid. I was flying there tomorrow. They had an office at the airport. Perfect, so far.

With Gary slight more recovered from his trip to Spain, we headed for 'Old Town' for a place for dinner. We walked around a little until we found a small tapas restaurant. Finally after being in Spain for 5 days we are having tapas. After dinner we went to a wine tasting restaurant called Wineing. We had quite a few wines by the glass. You get a smart card that you use to operate the wine machines. Put the card in the slot and press the button for the wine you want. The wine was mostly from Spain, but there was some from Italy, South Africa and two from California. There is a price for each wine. For a taste it's the price. For half a glass it's 2 times. For full glass, it's 4 times the price. We each picked a wine with a taste and shared it. The first wine was equivalent to a $240 bottle of wine! There was one wine for $1400, but we didn't even think of a taste. We had a few tastes and left. The few tastes still cost us $50. It was expensive, but an interesting idea.

By George I think I've got it! The relieve crew, Gary, arrived today from Apple Valley,CA. He will continue on Souverain to the Carney Islands. I will be on the boat for one more stop, Ibiza. Gary was a bit tired from the trip, so we didn't go far for dinner. We went for Italian food. Gary missed the month of Italian food that Phil and I ate. Surprise, on the menu was Cannelloni. I was looking for Cannelloni all through Italy and I found it in Spain. After dinner I walked around Old Town again. Lots of old buildings and forts.