Contiki Adventure Day 1: Europe Here We Come!

January 8, 2012

Day One Boston-London-Madrid

We flew out of Boston at 7:10pm on Saturday night. Taylor, Brittany and I were seated together on our American Airlines flight from Boston to London. After a complete lack of sleep, a 3- hour layover, and a surprisingly healthy breakfast at a Heathrow restaurant called simply “Giraffe,” the three of us were off on our two-hour flight from London to Madrid.

Now when I say complete lack of sleep, I may be exaggerating a little bit because I actually slept quite well for a bit of both flights. The key to sleeping on a plane is preparation: I packed my neck pillow, a padded eye mask, and noise-canceling

 headphones. Did I look like a freak with all of my gear on? Probably. Did I look a lot less like a zombie afterwards? Definitely. 

We arrived in Madrid and quickly had to figure out how to make our way to our hotel. We read online that the AeroCity taxi s

ervice could bring all three of us from the airport into Madrid for €23 – quite a steal. After wandering around the airport for 20 minutes trying to find the AeroCity stand and then after being informed that we would have to wait another 30 minutes before our driver would arrive, we decided to cut our losses. We made sure that there was no fee if we canceled the reservation (there wasn’t), canceled it, and promptly hopped into one of the many cabs sitting outside. With taxes and tips, the cab ride was €34 and considering the convenience, was well worth it in our eyes.

European Holiday Takeaway #1: From the airport in Madrid, if you’re not going to attempt the Metro, just spring for a cab. It will get you into the city much more quickly and not much more expensively than the group sharing options. Just make sure that you’re taking an official taxi. You’ll see them lined up together outside your terminal at the Madrid airport.

We arrived at our hotel, the Sunotel Amaral Madrid, and were pleasantly surprised by a clean, tidy, well-kept hotel. While the rooms aren’t spacious (this is Europe after all – twin beds in hotel rooms are not uncommon), and there was a bit of a problem with the water temperature in the shower, the hotel was nice and secure. We met our tour guide Angie at 4pm in the lobby for an introductory meeting. Angie is an experienced Contiki guide and gave us a ton of great tips for travel in Europe as well as the itinerary for that night and the following two days.

Our trip had a total of 51 people in it, from all over the world. One part of the trips that’s really fun is getting to know all of the other travelers. We learned, for example, that in South Korea you count your age differently. Instead of starting at 0 when you are born like you do in the US, in Korea when you are born, you are 1 year old. So when you meet someone from Korea, instead of asking how old they are, you’ll get a better idea if you ask them what year they were born.

That night we had an included group dinner (not all meals on Contikitrips are included in your tour price – it gives you the chance to do some exploring on your own) on Sunday night at El Caldero de Azahar Restaurante at C/ Pintor Juan Gris, 2 28046 Madrid. We started with two shared appetizers – the first was a stacked potato and eggplant dish and the second was a potato and ham dish, and then each had a chicken and fish Paella followed by rice pudding. We rounded out our evening with a glass of Cava (Spanish bubbly) back in our hotel room. Some of the people from our trip went out but we were too exhausted from traveling and wanted to be well rested for a fun second day in España!

This is a partner post. All opinions are 100% ours.