In Madrid! Landed yesterday 130pm to a large and empty airport (locals have all gone to the beach to escape the heat). Very fast taxis into town to the Hostal Gala on Plaza San Domingo. Ex-nunnery and a relatively up-market hostel right in town. Met Dylan and Carmen upstairs in the apartment. Hit the streets about 3pm for a wander around the centre. Madrid very hot with big sun-drenched plazas, dotted by cool tree lined parks for people to escape the weight of the sun. Not many people on the streets initially but by 6pm everyone was coming out to promenade until the sun began setting after 1030pm, when the nightlife really begins. Very big on siestas, but they go until very late in the cool of the evening. Wandered with the locals,stopping regularly for coffee,
beer, sangria and tapas at markets, plazas and tavernas, including an interesting plaza with a hare krshna parade and hookers boldly trading in front of the police. A parade of African popup traders traipsing around with bags of trade goods in sheets that can be spread and swooped up in seconds when it's time to decamp. Raced across town to catch the "early" Flamenco performance at 10pm. Good show. Very intense. Traipsed back to the apartment dog-tired. Boys went out until 5am but everyone else crashed relatively early after midnight. Next day caught the metro to local flea markets for local cafe breakfast and thronging markets so full at times you were shuffling along shoulder to shoulder, mindful of the many many pickpockets. Standup bars with beer 1 euro (very large bouncers politely reminding you to drink inside, standing up), numerous cervecias serving 5 beers in a bucket of ice for 3 euros , and we got tapas to accompany. Hit the hop on bus and rode around Madrid sightseeing for the afternoon- very hot on top of the open top bus but great things to see. They built on a grand scale in Madrid. Trudged home through the hot plazas around 7pm and got into the tradition of the siesta so we could start out again after 10pm for dinner then watch the Brazil-Spain game somewhere nearby in a bar