November 6, 2012 Deb’s impressions of our apartment and neighborhood

We met Julia and Jose when we exchanged with them while they visited their son Alex who is a professor of economics at Metro. They live just outside Arles in southern France, and we had a wonderful exchange at their house, especially with their talented cats, one of whom drinks water out of a glass using her cupped paw. Julia and I kept in touch from time to time.

When we started exploring the idea of our “grand adventure,” I remembered that Julia’s mom had had an apartment in Madrid. I asked Julia if they might be willing to rent it and when she said yes, we were off and running. She had described the place and sent a couple of pictures, but I had no idea it would be as charming as it is.

Julia and Jose came to Madrid from France to meet us at an ungodly early hour at the airport. They showed us around the apartment and then, after I had a quick nap, all around our new neighborhood – the market, the shops, the bus stop, and best of all a great little tapas bar that we’ve come to love. After lunch at the bar, they opened a bottle of Black Bottle Bubbly, Freixenet, and we just chatted in our usual mixture of English and French, this time with a few words of Spanish thrown in for spice. Julia and Jose are the world’s best tour guides, and we cannot thank them enough for making our adventure possible. And just for being such incredibly nice people to know.

So – a bit of description follows:

We are on the fourth floor (third floor by European count) of an apartment building with six floors. The “piso” (kinda like condo or apartment) has about 60 square metres or about 725 square feet. We have a bedroom, shower room with sink, toilet with sink, kitchen, hallway, dining room and TV room. The whole thing was completely remodeled recently and is just like new.

Some scattered impressions:

·    Windows on two sides, with the biggest ones on the south side,

      so the warm winter sun comes in and gives great light and warmth. We sit in the sun and eat our decadent lunches at the table   with the windows open.

 

          That’s also the side where I hang out wash. It’s a three story drop to a roof below, so I really need to concentrate on being careful to hang things well and securely. Wash dries quickly, and smells so nice from hanging out. Julia’s washer is a dandy.

·         Kitchen is all tiled and brand new. It’s taking me a bit to get used to using ah induction range, since they are new to me, but we’re getting used to each other. I’m learning “induction stove language” besides Spanish. It beeps at me when it’s irritated with me, but we are adapting to each other. It is teaching me.