What a weekend.

Our plane left Edinburgh at 6:30pm on Friday evening, and then, somewhere over the channel, we lost an hour (even though Madrid's on similar longitude to Edinburgh) and landed around 10pm.

Caught the metro from the airport, changed lines twice, and arrived at our hostel, located just off Gran Via (so it was very central), at about midnight.But the night was still young and we went for a walk around Gran Via, which reminded me a lot of Auckland's Queen Street (sloping, wide, bright lights, old style cinemas with the five storey movie posters).

Back to the hostel, which was good value for money (shower and basin in the room), although the bed stretched the definition of 'double'.Stretched is the wrong word.The bed 'shrunk' the definition of double.Good thing we were knackered when we finally crawled in (being used to/spoilt by our king-size behemoth in Edinburgh).

Up bright and early the next morning (Saturday) to a bright blue sky.It was still cold, hovering between 6-12 degrees all day, but once you got walking, it was just like summer (only with coats and occasionally gloves and beanies).

Our first stop, after being waylaid by several shops with Marisa in their title, was Puerto del Sol, which had a fountain and a few statues, but wasn't all that interesting.Next was Plaza Mayor, which was very cool.It was reminiscent of some of the enclosed Italian Piazzas we came across back in September, but this one could stand on its own feet.The exterior of one of the buildings was entirely decorated with frescos.Quite stunning.

We then headed to the big Catedral de la Almundena, which was pretty impressive from the outside, but the real surprise was the interior.We didn't pay for a tour or one of those audio guide-thingies, so I'm just working of my own impressions, but the cathedral's interior felt a lot more contemporary than all the other big European churches we've been in so far.Upon entering, I was fixated by the roof, which was decorated in abstract forms, random but decorative: kinda like someone's doodles blown up and stuck on the roof in vivid colours.The colours/patterns reminded me of the indigenous peoples of South America the Spanish kind of, well... I guess stealing their colour scheme weighs lightly on the national conscience when put in perspective.

I've just wikipedia'd the cathedral and it was only completed in 1993 (after the first plans were drawn up in the 16th century).Who needs those audio guides?!?!

Right next to the cathedral is the Palacio Real (royal palace).Again, time limits and financial parsimony meant we didn't fork out to go inside the palace, but it was cool enough walking around.And anyway, there was plenty more to do.

We cut through the centre of town towards the Art Galleries and the Parque del Buen Retiro, and on the way came across dozens of amazing buildings.The architecture in Madrid is something else.A lot is neoclassical, but then there were some (like the fake moss covered one in the photo album) which are ultra-modern and way out of left field.Oh, and they love their fountains.Every round-a-bout has a huge fountain, often featuring neoclassical sculptures as well.It's funny because in all the toilets there were stickers about how Madrid is running low on water and yet they've still got all their fountains pumping 24-7.A big contrast to Brisbane who've taken the wrench to all their fountains (though it took them ages).Something tells me Madrid isn't slow to act on this: the fountains will stay no matter what…

Yes, so anyway, it was now around 1pm and the sun was still shining and we thought we'd make the most of the pleasantness in Madrid's favourite park, The Park of Pleasant Retreat (...sounds a bit naff in English).We had a beer at a café beside the rectangular lake, watching the couples on first dates in row boats (guys trying not to look puffed doing all the rowing, girls trying to look like they're having fun).The park reminded us a lot of the one in Hamburg, but it might have just been the fact it had a lake and it was sunny.

From 2.30pm on Saturdays the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid's twentieth century art gallery, offers free admission, so guess where we went at 2:30?The whole 2nd floor of the museum is built around Picasso's 1937 masterpiece, Guernica, going through the lead up to and high points of cubism in painting and sculpture and looking at Picasso's preliminary studies and the various phases the final mural went though before it was exhibited.Really fascinating stuff, and just a great painting to stand in front of for ages in and of itself.

There was also a more general exhibition on other important Spanish artists of the last 100 years, including Salvador Dali, Jean Miro and Pablo Gargallo.Madrid has two more world class Art Museums/Galleries, and I especially would have liked to also check out the Prado, but there just wasn't enough time during the weekend.Also, after all the walking on Saturday, both outside and then within the Sofia, it was time for a rest before dinner.

We went to La Catedral, a restaurant on Calle Arenal (I think), which was recommended to us.For starters we had paella and a prawn and eel casserole (well, the English translation said casserole, but it was mostly just prawn and eel drizzled with oil… it was nice all the same).Then for mains we had sword fish and ostrich sirloins.Top notch nosh.

After dinner we walked around, part-touristic enquiry, part-lost.We stumbled upon Plaza de Espana, which we had meant to get to during the day but didn't have time, and Meze said, "You know what we haven't done for a while?Handstands!"

That was pretty much Saturday.

Oh, I forgot this one observation: Until this weekend, I didn't know how much Spaniards love ham (or Jamon).We passed about three Museo del Jamon's (Museum of Ham… again, doesn't sound right in English), and a dozen similar outfits where the locals go in for a beer or coffee - all standing up - and a plate of ham.The rolls Royce of Spanish ham is Iberian Ham, which, for a tapas sized plate costs about 20 euros (while other plates cost between 2 and 8 euros).There are whole legs of Iberian Jamon in the windows of all these delis and even in the supermarket.One of these legs would set you back, oh, about 400 euros.

Okay, Sunday - today - we got up as early as we could and walked to La Latina, which was a little outside the circle we walked on Saturday, to check out the market there.Unfortunately there wasn't any food, and all the stalls sold the sort of novelty t-shirts and crocheted rasta hats you get at markets everywhere, so we didn't stay there long.We walked down Calle de Toledo with the dual goals of finding something Spainishy to eat and getting to the river.With what looked like the banks of the Rio Manzanares insight we went into a little Cervezaria and got out chow.When we made it to the banks of the river, however, we realised why we'd never heard it mentioned as a place to check out in the maps and brochures: though the distance from one bank to the other was about a kilometre, the river itself was relegated to a ten metre wide concrete canal, and even then, there were islands of mud/sludge in the canal.So, like I said before, water may be an issue for Madrid, but something tells me the fountains aren't going any time soon.

The bridge over the 'river', the Puente de Toledo was nice though.Very old.So were all the locals walking over it.

After that, it was time to hop on the metro and make our way back to the airport and back to Edinburgh.We landed at about 5pm Edinburgh time.It's hard to configure my day, sitting here at my computer like I have been a lot recently (writing hard or hardly writing) when, a matter of hours ago I was gazing at the Rio Manzanares.

I guess that's the wonder of Europe.

In Edinburgh related news: it snowed properly for the first time on the 3rd of January and again, only slightly, on my birthday. Two bonus photos attached to the end of the Madrid album.