We were not expecting too much from a capital city (generally we do not like cities having worked in one for so long) but in all fairness we were pleasantly surprised by Madrid. The place was spotless and the authorities and public obviously look after their city.
After a good sleep and a long lay in bed working on this blog. It was late getting started as we had a problem with the camera card not working with the computer and this slowed things down a bit but now it is workable if not completely sorted.
We set off for the centre of Madrid on the 'Metro' (Underground) and buying tickets was an adventure in itself. We knew which station we wanted to go to but for some reason every time we tried to type the station name into the ticket machine it would not appear. This had the net result of completely confusing 2 idiots for a good 15 minutes. We ended up putting a nearby station in and settling for that. Once through the turnstiles and on the train we then saw signs stating that the station we wanted was under refurbishment. Shame they could not have advertised that in the ticket office !!!
Anyway, we got off the train and walked the short distance to get the cattle class tourist bus tour of the city. I have to say, the place really impressed us. These people are clearly very proud of their heritage and all the monuments and old public buildings were incredibly clean well preserved.
The following pictures are somewhat snatched for being taken from a moving bus but are reasonable.
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| Christopher Columbus or Christof Colon as the Spanish call him. He was Italian but worked from Spain under authority and sponsorship from the Catholic church. He discovered parts of the Americas whilst looking for India, hence native South Americans are generally called Indians. |
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| The Spanish national Library. |
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| Fuente de Cibeles. The font of the Roman Goddess of agriculture and fertility. |
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| The Metropolis building. This is just and insurance companies HQ. |
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| The Templo de Debod. An Egyptian Temple made in the 2nd century BC. Donated by the Egyptians as it was to be flooded during the making of the Aswan dam. |
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| The Palace of Real. (As in 'Real Madrid' the football team) |
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| Cathedral De Santa Maria (I think!) |
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| One of the gates to the city. |
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| Come on - own up. Would you eat here ? |
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| La Plaza Mayor. |
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| The Madrid Bull Ring. |
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| Finally a capture of the Boss smiling in front of a camera. |
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| A statue to the bull fighters. |
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| The bar from the inside was lively and had a fantastic atmosphere. |
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| Garlic prawns in white wine and a meat/cheese platter. Very tasty - especially the stinky garlic. |
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| And then this turned up. Glasses of sorbet, 2 small ice creams and two bottles, one with a Baileys type liqueur and the other with a lemon cello type drink in. All gratis. Woohoo.... |
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