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2003-06-04 - Barcelona, Zaragoza, Madrid Day 10 We had a fairly early start to begin our way to Madrid. Breakfast ended up being a little more eventful than anticipated. As we were eating our breakfast, we heard a man in the center of the room begin to choke. He was gasping for air and his condition was deteriorating. The staff called for help, but it would have possibly been too late if he had needed to wait for their assistance. Martha from our group is a lifeguard trained in the Heimlich maneuver. She went over and proceeded to administer the Heimlich maneuver and the man was then able to breathe! He was quite appreciative and then sat at their table talking with them for the remainder of breakfast. Go Martha! I think most of us took a nap at some point on the journey. Mid-day we made a stop in Zaragoza for lunch. Most of the shops were closing as we were getting into town. Mom, Megan, and I had some wonderful tapas at Café Amberes, just off the main street up from the Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar. We had a plate of manchego cheese, a plate of jamón serrano (dried ham), and bread. It was excellent! Mom and I then walked through the Basílica, where mass appeared just to be letting out. It was very ornate inside and it was interesting to see members of the clergy out and about in the church. We then ran and got some strawberry ice cream cones before meeting the group to continue our trip to Madrid. We arrived into Madrid around 6:00PM, but we encountered a bit of rush hour traffic. We arrived at the hotel around 6:30 and we had free time until dinner, which was at 8:30. Out hotel, Hotel Regina, was in an excellent location – within a 5 minute walk to Puerta del Sol. Mom and I quickly put our things up in the room and walked around in the plaza. We started out at Corte Inglés. We went to a few of the souvenir shops before returning for dinner.
Dinner was back off to the side of Puerta del Sol. The meal was definitely one of my least favorites thus far. It began with a salad topped with tuna and the main course was a plate filled with various forms of pork. Pork is a pretty major part of Spanish food, but the main course was a bit much. Dessert was pretty good – we had a choice of a Spanish version of blueberry cheesecake or ice cream. A group of us went to get chocolate and churros at Chocolatería San Ginés. The chocolate was really thick, but it was so good! Afterwards, we went to the Internet café before returning back to the hotel. Alcala, 19 Madrid, Spain Phone: 011-34-91-521 47 25 Dinner: Restaurant Magister
Chocolatería San Ginés
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