A slow start ( I blame it on jet lag; a bit of laziness may have also been involved.) We got to our hotel’s buffet breakfast just before closing time; afterwards we packed up and headed first to the Plaza Mayor to wander through the weekly gathering of stamp and coin vendors. onward to the El Rastro street market, a gathering covering many city streets and plazas with vendors of clothing, jewelry, antiques, ripoffs, etc. My first encounter with the acclaimed Madrid pickpockets. I won.

Then up to Plaza Sol, back toward Plaza Mayor by a different route. Some tapas in a nice restaurant, then onward to the Mercado San Miguel. Maybe it used to be a Mercado, but now it is a high vibe tapas and wine center. We’ll revisit! A bit more wandering through the afternoon chill, then back to the hotel to regroup before dinner.

A few more impressions of this neighborhood…

Up at 0700 Friday, went through the usual business of cleaning up & packing up. A goodbye to our cat and out the door by 0930. Rental car turned in, luggage checked in at DTW by 1230. Smooth flight to JFK at 1530, onward to BCN at 2030. All in all, smooth, comfortable. Except that Delta Comfort class seats have gotten smaller.

Arrival in Barcelona around 0930, quick walk through of immigration, luggage retrieval, customs, and on to our waiting cab. Arrived Sants, the Barcelona main train station by 1045. AVE high speed train to Madrid 1250 to about 1550. Short cab ride to our hotel near the Plaza Mayor in the heart of the city. Settled in, did a walk around the neighborhood, had some light dinner tapas. Long day! Great weather throughout, cool temps, sunny…

Tomorrow is for rest and recovery, probably some leisurely exploration of this section of the city.

Some first impressions of Madrid:

I not only did what i could to clean the many fallen leaves from our lawn, but we spent some time on the new “canopy walk” at Whiting Forest (Dow Gardens, Midland).

Headed for Spain in two days, precursor to our Celebrity Eclipse cruise around the Med and Adriatic, then on across the Atlantic to South America. Before I booked this epic trip, I had different plans. We would go to Italy in mid October, do a Greek Isles cruise or similar on the Constellation, then some time in Northern Italy, Venice, etc. before taking a Transatlantic from Rome to Florida. Then this itinerary was published, I canceled the original bookings and switched. If we were on the original schedule, we would right now be coping with very bad weather in Venice…

Lets see if this link  is still alive, a news story about the weather…

I just pontificated on Cruise Critic, talking about Transatlantic cruises, when and how to choose which one. This was in response to a specific question about whether others waited until after final payment date to take advantage of possible price drop.  Thought I would share those thoughts here…

The things I consider when looking at transatlantics or other repositioning cruises:

1. What time of year? Early fall or late fall? Early spring or late spring? Weather conditions?

2. Start point. End point. Are these places I would like to spend extra time? Our first TA was from Southampton to San Juan. Great! Visited friends and relatives pre-cruise, spent some quality time in San Juan post-cruise. Our most recent was Civitavecchia to Lauderdale. Good time in Florence for a few days before heading to the port. Easy to get out of South Florida quickly post-cruise.

3. Cruise line. Available lectures, games, whatever, which will amuse us and keep us from boredom on multiple sea days? Not a big issue for us, we can find plenty to amuse ourselves, but some will go stir crazy.

4. Cabin availability? We like to pick our own. Particularly on longer trips.

5. Price?

There is a site that keeps a list of Transatlantics. You could look there for possibilities. See how they might fit your priorities similar to above.

I have adopted the strategy of booking almost as soon as a desired itinerary is announced. I then watch the price, get my fare adjusted down if/when the price drops. If I had a bit more flexibility I wouldn’t mind a last minute booking either. Biggest downer might be the higher air fares with a late booking.

I sometimes read horror stories about cruises being ruined (and maybe lives being ruined forever!) because of a cabin issue. Too hot, too cold, too noisy, no good shows on TV, bed too hard, bed too soft, whatever. I like to choose, but I’ve booked “guarantees” as well. You are on a cruise. People waiting on you hand and foot. Plenty of good food, drinks. Interesting other people around you. The ever changing ocean as far as you can see. Brilliant stars at night. How can one not be happy no matter how bad the room is?

[Update a year later... In 2020 we will be doing 2 or three Transatlantic cruises! The first is a traditional repositioning cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Southampton. But then in August we will go from New Jersey to Dublin with stops in Nova Scotia and Iceland. And maybe we will return to the U.S. on the same route. For this/these Transatlantic cruise(s), it is definitely all about the ports-of-call.]

Tonight we watched a few more Rick Steves videos (available online through PBS or Rick Steves’ site). The Madrid and Toledo episodes were both good shows, but unfortunately the Toledo show also included time on three other cities in that region. We also watched a segment on Tuscan Hill Towns; this link will take you to a short discussion of Volterra and Gigignano, towns we will be visiting from Livorno next month.