Me again !!

So, we moved on to Madrid, I had booked us 3 nights at a room outside the capital but on the train route and it had a little (actually VERY little) kitchen area so we could self cater and save some money. It was a bargain at £30 a night although the online reviews did say it was set in an industrial estate in a 'dubious' area. So, we arrived, all looks very nice - the hotel is very new, clean and modern and we drive off to the local supermarket. Hmm, en route we pass a number of 'ladies' waiting on chairs at every roundabout. Then (and bearing in mind it's half 2 in the afternoon) the car in front pulls over, and out gets this 'lady' who appears to have totally forgotten her skirt and is wearing a small vest, a thong and some very high heels !!! Our jaws literally dropped and we were laughing so much. We then passed another, just in her underwear and some cracking bedroom shoes. . . . well, in this weather and with that line of work I guess it saves time, and you can get a nice tan too.

Welcome to Madrid !!

Despite the intro, we have loved Madrid, it's a beautiful city, really buzzing and the weather has been gorgeous in the early 30's every day. There are loads of great parks, fountains and sculptures and a lot of areas are pedestrianised. Yesterday we did part of the hop on / hop off bus tour and saw some of the major sites as well as going to the Caixa Forum museum which features temporary exhibits and luckily for us it was celebrating 25 years of Pixar so we saw loads of behind the scenes stuff and it was very interesting. We stayed in the city right in to the evening, it was still warm enough in shorts at 11pm, the city feels like it doesn't sleep, it was choc a block and it seemed to be mainly with Spanish. Of course, it's Santa Semata which is a major holiday for the Spanish and we caught part of the parade yesterday evening. As expected, it was very sombre and incredibly slow and drawn out so we didn't watch for very long. I found the hooded people very creepy (typical church then)

Today we have explored the biggest park, Parque de el Retiro, which is just gorgeous, so green and pretty with some beautifully landscaped areas as well as some which have been left wild. We had a nice bottle of cold white in the sunshine and then walked and walked. Then we hopped on the bus and saw the Bernabeu (home of Real Madrid, who had won the Copa del Rey (Cup Final) on Wednesday night) - we didn't bother to do the tour of the ground. We had hoped we would catch the victory bus tour but they actually did this at 4am on the night they won it, so we missed that !

We also got to enjoy the Spanish treat of churros con chocolat which is strips of warm doughnut that you dip in thick, hot chocolate - delicious.

So tomorrow it's back to camping and we are moving towards the Castello de Leon region and heading North.

Ferry's booked for coming home - 19th May so the 1 month countdown begins !!

Lots of love x x x