SUNDAY 10th JUNE 2012

MADRID

Not such a long drive today, so we did not have be on the bus till 8.30am, giving us time to have a lovely breakfast - many tour buses stop at this place so we got familiar stuff - nice scrambled eggs and bacon, plus all the great local fare of cakes, breads and cheeses! Suffice to say we didn't need lunch! Which was just as well because after climbing up through some very picturesque mountains we leveled out on a very barren plateau, with scrubby trees and very few farms. Our lunch stop was a pretty dodgy truck-stop, the sole food outlet having very weird looking local stuff in the bane marie and was pretty grotty! So we settled on an ice cream and a drink just to be safe!
The countryside changed after a while and we were back to acres of crops, nearly ready for harvest and quite a few pig farms!
Segovia was our one main stop - a lovely little village with numerous castles and cathedrals, with dozens of tour buses parked up! We joined the crowds and walked to the remains ancient of a Roman built aqua-duct, which runs through the towns main square! It was about sixty metres high - god knows how they managed to construct a waterway like that back in the twelfth century!!!
It was only about ninety minutes from there to Madrid and we made it in good time driving through a new six kilometre underground city bypass! Hello??? Isn't this place supposed to be broke?? We had just driven over a hundred kms on a brand new four lane freeway, admittedly a tollway, but the best road you have ever seen! Some of the overpasses weren't even connected to roads yet, they are for the future!!!! Easy to see why they need a bailout! But I guess they HAVE the infrastructure and we don't!
I expected Madrid to be dry, dusty and quite a rough place, but boy was I surprised! A well laid out city in the newer part, with wide tree lined avenues and at every main intersection a fountain and a statue!!! There is no rubbish (workers with brooms and shovels everywhere) and the plentiful gardens neat and well maintained! It was very noticeable that it was siesta time when we arrived - hardly a soul about and lots of shops shut - but the old buildings are just as beautiful as Paris, but clean and tidy!
Our hotel is a few Metro stops from the city centre and turned out to be a beauty! Big rooms, lovely beds and bathroom and yes!!!! air-conditioning at last!
After getting our cases we had a couple of hours to get some lighter clothes washed and hung on every available space in the room and on the tiny balcony!!! The very expensive laundry service (5.60 euro for jeans) was not available on weekends, and as we leave Monday morning we had to make do with just hand washing! As usual keeping clothes clean and fresh is a major headache, as trying to find a laundromat and the time to wait while the washing and drying is completed, is nearly impossible! Will try to get some done in Barcelona as we have two nights there too!
Just before siesta ended we were taken into the old part of Madrid to look at some of the original buildings and more narrow cobbled streets! Again we were impressed by the cleanliness! Victor took us to a bar built inside some old gypsy cave dwellings where we had local tapas and sangria! Tapas in Spain is not a meal but just a snack while you are "hanging about" after work - the main meal comes much later! We had huge fat olives, pickled capsicum and a type of corn cake, all of it lovely! We also visited a type of food court packed with stalls selling any type of tapas dish you could imagine! Cheeses, olives, meats, sausages and all types of seafood - but the meats and fish were in the open and not in a fridge??? We weren't game to have a try!
From there we went Plaza del Mayor, a huge square surrounded by high buildings, with an arched entrance at each corner! The locals were just rousing from their siestas and were setting up hundreds of chairs, tables and umbrellas outside the dozens of restaurants!
Victor left us to own devices to find dinner so we chose a nice spot and had a selection of dishes and a pitcher of Sangria - beautiful! And to finish off we went to a little cafe and had freshly made churros and hot chocolate fudge!! Oh boy! Calorie blowout! They were scrumptious!
Got to bed about midnight after a great day!