Back to realtime again. We´re coming to the end of our time in Madrid, tomorrow Bowler Sparrow Travels heads to Argentina, whilst Cuch heads home to London.

We´ve been staying in Peñagrande in north west Madrid with Carola Aikin (an old friend of Maia´s mum), her husband Jose, and their kids (8 year old twins Clara and Julia who talk like donald duck and Mateo whos 12 and much quieter). The house is fairly huge so we´ve got our own rooms and there´s a housekeeper who comes a few days a week and folds up our laundry into ridiculously neat piles. It feels like luxury.

Highlights:

*seeing amazing paintings by Goya and Hieronymos Bosch in the Museo del Prado

* the Guernica and more modern art at Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. There was also a screen showing le chien andalou, a bizarre surrealist film by SAlvador Dali and Luis Buñuel.

* rowing on the lake in Parque Buen Retiro

* drinking far too much in one of Madrid´s many irish pubs

*Cuch´s extra long birthday. We woke him up for a breakfast of eggs benedict with serrano ham and cava buck´s fizz.

In the evening, loads of the other Aikin´s came over and we had a big meal outside by candle light. Then Ivan (the son of Carola´s sister Susie) took us out. We had sangria in a packed underground smoky bar in the centre and then went to a bar called Diplodocus that only plays 70s and 80s metal and has a weird dinosaur theme. Their signature drink is ´Brontasaurus milk´, a secret recipe drink (we saw milk, sugar, grenadine and orange liquor go into it) that they serve in huge bucket-like glass containers with long straws. Tastes like strawberry nesquik. Then we moved onto a club called Sala Heineken that was like an ibizan club but less exciting. No one was really dancing that much except for this transvestite with a big purple wig and a spanish fan.

After the club we walked over to the Palacio Real to watch the sunrise (a freezing and slighly disappointing experience cos the sun was behind the trees). We hopped on the metro to La Latina in search of chocolate con churros (the traditional madrileño way to end a night out, far tastier than a kebab). We wondered through the market traders setting up the famous El Ratro market. By that time it was about 8.30 in the morning and we were exhausted so we got the tube home for a nap.

A few hours later we were up again to go have lunch at Susie´s. We fell asleep watching Team America and Susie drove us home.

We´re headng off to the park now to rent a tandem so our next blog entry will be from another continent!!!