On our last day in Madrid, we decided to sleep in somewhat in preparation for a really early morning on Monday. Then we headed out to the Monasterio Real at San Lorenzo El Escorial, which involved taking the Cercanias or regional trains. Talk about slow travel--after the AVE fast trains, this felt like I could have walked there faster! But the scenery was beautiful, lots of mountains (and more importantly, TREES, which are so lacking in this dry country) so it was quite a pleasant ride, especially after I banished Sean to another row of seats because he was determined to make me his bored-time plaything.
When we got there we took a shuttle bus up the hill to the monastery, and I totally recognized the street next to it where we had lunch on the NWC trip. The monastery is very austere and imposing, but I loved the structure. We had to get the audioguides, which I generally hate doing, in order to be able to visit the Pantheon of the Kings, but it turned out to be fairly well-done. The Pantheon seemed so much bigger when I was 15! I still remember Ms. Sibley asking if the king had a son and if he were single after seeing the kind of luxury they could expect for their burials. Lol. I had forgotten, though, exactly how many royal folks are buried down there; there were like 9 rooms of sarcophagi, and the guidebook dutifully told you every name of every person in each room, in case you wanted to know where Prince Baltasar Carlos, son of Phillip IV (the Pinto!) is buried. There was a 20-sided sarcophagus containing children of the Hapsburgs who died in infancy, which was impressive, but also quite sad. Unfortunately, the basilica was closed for restoration, so we finished up our visit in the library, which is Sean's new favorite place in the world, probably.
Back in Madrid, we cast about for a restaurant, since it was Sunday night and most of those recommended by the Lonely Planet weren't open. The one we ended up at, La Finca de Susanna, turned out to be the best one of all--the interior was really designer and made it look like it would be uptight and expensive, but the food was really cheap and amazing. I had croquetas and albondigas (meatballs), possibly my two favorite foods in this country, and Sean had a rice/marinara/crawfish dish that was really tasty, despite my being horrified by the crawfish still having eyes and tentacles. Which Sean ate ALL OF. That is nasty.
The next morning we rose at the obscene hour of 6am to head to the airport. Our flight leaving Madrid was uneventful, except for right before we left; I had reserved two aisle seats for Sean and I, and I was sitting with these two little girls, one of whom apparently was supposed to be next to Sean. Then this jerk showed up who was supposed to be sitting in the window seat one of the girls was in, and he refused to sit by Sean, so the attendant asked me to move. I couldn't say no, not when these girls had total sadface on. But then this guy even refuses to take my seat so the girls could have the window; he wanted the window seat no matter what. Such a jerk. Anyway, Sean let me have the aisle halfway through the flight, because he's nice. :-)
We landed in Dublin around noon and had five hours to kill before our flight home. Sean had had a seven hour layover on his way out to Spain and had taken the bus into Dublin for lunch (totally my suggestion, btw), so we did the same. It was a very brief intro to Dublin, but the place we went for lunch, the Queen of Tarts, was awesome and the food delicious. For dessert I had what was advertised as the city's best carrot cake, and they were not lying!
The flight home was likewise uneventful; I watched Pink Panther 2, Bolt, and Herbie Fully Loaded. The two bottles of wine I purchased in duty-free really helped with the last two movies, let me tell you. Then, having been awake for a full 24 hours, we landed in New York, got an extremely fast shuttle van back to New Haven (1.5 hours...it's supposed to be 2.5) and then chauffeur service from Daniel. And then bed! And now I'm here. Lol. End of honeymoon!!
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