Last time we were in Santander it was nightime and raining so we didnt really get a chance to have a look at the place, this time we've got a bit of time on our hands before hitting the rails to Madrid. Santander is not a bad place at all, what I most liked about it was lots of independent shops, the hustle bustle and a pretty easy going manner of the people there. Everyone is well dressed and I didnt see anyone out in the supermercados in their pyjamas, like I see in the local co-op where I live. So fair play to everyone here for making an effort - we roam on down to the Station area and take a look at some of the more interesting shops, there's one street that caters purely to Motorcycles, they've even got a Triumph Motorbike shop, so I pop in and take a look a the latest models. All good stuff. We head to a local caff and have a coffe and tortilla...nice and cheap as well....Everyone is laid back someone popping into the caff for a beer at 9 oclock desnt call for a Police Emergency. I thought Santander a rather splendid place. The town layout also has an asian sort of style to it...you could be in Mid Levels Hong Kong in some places.

We decide to head to the Railway Station to make sure everything is on time - Madrid doesnt show up on the destination board...so after an hour, we realise we're in the wrong station, the other station is only a bit further up the road - Once in here we realise our train has been cancelled. Oh Great. No one tells you anything and eventually we get told that a bus will pick us up and take us to the next station - we're made to queue up and led like sheep into a pen where all our tickets are checked and then pointed to a bus outside the station. (This where I first saw Peter Lorre by the way). It's a short bus ride and we are then instructed to jump on the train waiting......see previous blog for waht happened...so once underway we decide to stay in the Buffet carriage, there's good sized windows and we get to see the excellent scenery of Northern Spain. Nothing of major interest happened on the ride and eventually we arrive in Madrid....

It was rush hour in Madrid and most of it's 3.3 million inhabitants were using the Subway to get home. We went through the usual process when you need to get on an unfamiliar subway system - Looking at maps, scratching your head and realising you dont have enough coins for the ticket, but somehoe we manage to get on the right line. I dont think we had the right ticket as I pretty much cheated my way on - Who knows?

The place we're heading to is Chueca - we're staying here as we know that we can use this subway station to get to the railway Station for the Seville leg tomorrow and as is our usual luck, we're told that this station will be closed for 2 weeks as from tomorrow - Doh! Anyways, anyone who knows this area will know that it's Ahem, very liberal...so we leave the station and enter Bourneville Boulevard.....so to speak. It's a short walk to our Hostal, so we sling the bags in and hotfoot it to the boozer. It's one we've been to before and it's a typical big city boozer...no one wants to know you and the bar staff pretty much cant be arsed.

Anyways in we go and Grant orders the beer, I'm looking around and seeing what everyone else is drinking and they're all drinking their beers in small 330 mill glasses...and before I can tell Grant to get some of these - he gets us Pints......so we're left looking like Brian and Stewie from Family guy, wearing 10 Gallon Stetsons in a London Gentlemans Club pretending not to be American. That's right we stick out like sore thumbs and are generally looked at as uncouth.....which we are in reality.

After this faux pas, we head to The Bosforos Restaurant....we've been here before and they do great kebabs, we sit down, order some grub and get asked if we want a beer, yes please - They then bring us even bigger glasses of beer than the last time - so once more we're left looking like idiots.

After this we have a wander around, there arent many pub type places mostly poncey ukmarket bars - We keep walking and decide in the end that we're just going to have to go into one of these places and suffer in silence - In we go, sit at the bar, actually get a beer in a glas that doesnt produce mockery from other customers - it's only a small place and I amuse myself by idendifying the cocktails that the barman is making - and I get most of them right - this is due to a stint in Joe Bananas Hong Kong when I used to rustle up drinks for the idiots there.....that's going back a bit but it's good to know I still know the cocktails. Generally I'm thinking I cant believe we're sitting in this poncey place generally getting bored but we dont really want to head anywhere else as it's getting late.

Grant says, its a bit odd today that we havent met anyone interesting - Perhaps a Spanish Barnacle Bill would show up, courtesy of the Computer Generated Simulation. As I'm sitting there thinking about doing a designer range of "I Hate Madrid" tee shirts, someone sits next to us and orders a drink - The Cocktail guy starts making it and I say that this one is a Long Island Ice Tea - correct again...and the lady sitting next to us pipes up that she had ordered it - I said "You're brave" as I can remember getting particularly monged on this drink back in the day. The customer sitting next to us is a tall attractive Blonde lady and she's by her self, so she starts talking to us - She's a New Yorker working as a medical researcher in London on a weekend break with her friend who'd decided to have a kip. She also spent her earlier career as a model in the states - then she says she spent a couple of years in Hong Kong, so we have a general chat about that and it turns out she lived in Mongkok, the most heavily populated city space in the world - populated by 99.99999% Southern Chinese people. Well if you're a 6 foot Blonde Model of Teutonic Heritage and you want to stand out in a crowd, that's the way to do it. We have a bit of a laugh and then she hops as her friend has called and they're going to meet in some other poncey place So we say goodbye - If you're reading this Jennifer, hope you had a good trip. "Well" says Grant, "She was a lot better than having to deal with a Spanish Barnacle Bill" - and he was right.