I’m not sure why we were surprised that the Irish airlines flight to Spain on Independence day wasn’t full but there you go: we had great bulkhead seats and there were loads of empty seats to spare. Kudos to Aer Lingus for a smooth trip and no problems.
After making our way to the hotel to find that our room wasn’t ready at 9 a.m.(no surprise there) we dropped off our bags and went, sleep deprived, to explore Madrid. We headed first to the Royal Palace, a supposed “must see” and it did not disappoint. Like lots of other European palaces, there was gilt and too much everything everywhere – including a room where the walls were completely made of porcelain and a room with vines and flowers on the floor, ceiling and wallpaper! The most impressive part though was the royal armory. I’ve never seen so many samples of horses in armor in one place. And, appealing to the Muppet lover in me: the suits of armor were all worn by squishy purple velvet people! Jim Henson would have loved it!
The sun was pretty intense by the time we finished around noon but when you were in the shade, you didn’t notice the 30 C temperatures – it’s a dry heat! (which means that your eyeballs and throat get scratchy!) We wandered around the Plaza Major, the Plaza del Sol and stopped in a few shops before finding a nice place for lunch (paella for starter, pork loin and chips for main course, wine and rice pudding – 10 euros!) Then back to the hotel for a much needed nap! Got up around 6 and showered before wandering out again all over the city. We found people queuing for hand made canvas shoes and queuing to get into the oldest restaurant in the world (according to Guinness). We are going to go back the street with all the shoe makers off the Plaza Major because there were some really cute hand made shoes for not a lot of money…. 😉
Finally around 9:30, we were tired of traipsing the streets and found a cafe with outdoor seating, good paella and sangria and we had dinner. Duncan had is first sangria (two actually!) and the day was topped off with a Mariachi band (I thought they were Mexican!) playing in the Plaza and a large crowd singing along. Now it’s time to plan the day tomorrow and try to get a full night’s sleep. Pictures to come but the hotel wifi doesn’t seem to want to play tonight.
Three things we noted today:
- We saw many more gay men in Madrid than women and they have an interesting sense of style – although “manpris” (capris for men) are not their exclusive territory.)
- We’ve heard lots of English being spoken – most of it with an Australian accent.
- The local grocery store has an entire wall of GF goodies. I was in heaven.
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