Spain
Ciudad Lineal

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    • Day 54

      Madrid

      June 13, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 37 °C

      Breakfast came with my hotel room so I had a lazy morning. I then walked up to the Cortes area to have a look around.

      After lunch I went to the Thyssen-Bornemisza gallery as suggested by Sandra. It was much bigger than I expected and had a huge range of artists. The highlight was an immersive musical video installation by Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson which was amazing.

      It was 40 degrees today and very draining. It was a relief to get back to my air conditioned room.

      I heard from my camino friend Lesley from Durham today. She was also suffering an injury and we spent many days with each other filling in time eating, drinking, commiserating and chatting and then later bumping into each other. After a few more days of rest, she began walking again with Ann and Den and today walked into Finistere! An amazing achievement!

      Sleep’n Atocha
      12 kms
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    • Day 53

      Santiago to Madrid

      June 12, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 36 °C

      I caught an early taxi to the airport for my 9.20am flight to Madrid. We walked alongside the airport on the last leg of the Camino but it seemed much further in the taxi.

      I then caught the airport bus to Atocha Station and my hotel is just a short walk away. It’s another great room with big windows and a balcony overlooking the plaza.

      It’s very hot. I had a walk around the neighbourhood and another gigantic pizza for lunch (and the rest for dinner).

      After a brief siesta I went for a walk through some of Retiro Park and then through the Botanical Gardens. I joined the queue for the free entry into the Prado (every day for the last two hours of opening) but they reached the quota when I was almost at the front of the line. I will try again tomorrow. I have found that entry to most places is greatly reduced for the over 65s so it is fairly economical to go to most museums and galleries.

      Although it is Sunday a lot of shops were open and Madrid is very busy. It is an entirely different pace to my time in Spain so far and I am looking forward to seeing more tomorrow.

      Sleep’n Atocha
      10 kms
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    • Day 3

      Exploring Madrid!

      May 15 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 54 °F

      We may need to move to Madrid! Such a cool area to visit explore.

      Today is a holiday so tons of people out and a show in the town square.

      Visited the King and Queen of Spain in their palace. Asked if I could rent a room for my summer getaway. They said no. I’ll keep asking.

      Found my new Starbucks to have meetings in Spain. I’ll start setting up 1:1’s

      Saw store with all rubber ducks. Never knew this was a high demand product. Starting to think how I could make a million by selling random items. Haven’t come up with anything yet.

      Started my 42 day devo I put together for my sabbatical. I sense God has some special things in store during these special times. Maybe he will call me to open up a rubber duck store.

      Love Spain food. That’s it. Just love it.

      Explored the churches. They are beautiful. Seems more like a relic and religion. Made me wonder how many people see Jesus as a religion. Asked Jesus to always be real to me. Sometime these relics remind me how easy it is to make Jesus a relic that you visit than a relationship you experience.

      Oh one last thing. Found a room in the palace that had a dinner table with 100+ chairs. I thought this would be a perfect place for a potluck. Going to try to convince them to let me have one.
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    • Day 14

      Madrid #02

      April 29 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

      Heute war ein recht gemütlicher Tag.
      Unser erster Spaziergang ging quer durch den Ritero Park, am Ende sind wir vor dem Museo del Prado gelandet. Da wir heute keine Lust auf stundenlange Museumsbesuche hatten, ging’s gemütlich durch kleine Gassen zum Mercado. 😋😋
      Danach haben wir von der Aussichtsplattform des Cortes Ingles eine Blick über die Stadt geworfen.
      Zum Abschluss sind wir noch über die Gran Via geschlendert und in einige Geschäfte gefallen. 😊 Frau hat wieder einige Kleinigkeiten erstanden.
      Da ja einkaufen bekanntlich müde macht, ging’s nach den Einkäufen retour zum Campingplatz.
      Morgen wird der Rest von Madrid erkundet.
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    • Day 15

      Madrid #03

      April 30 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

      Unser dritter Tag hier in Madrid hat es wirklich in sich gehabt. So kunstbeflissen waren wir schon lange nicht!
      Begonnen haben wir beim Königspalast. Den haben wir zwar nur nochmals von außen besichtigt - die Schlange für den Eintritt war gefühlt 1 Kilometer lang - aber wir haben ausgiebig die schöne Catedral de la Almudena besichtigt.
      Danach sind wir zum Templo de Debod, einem kleinen Ägyptischen Tempel gewandert. Dafür mussten wir unzählige Stufen bezwingen. Dafür hat man von dort oben eine tolle Aussicht in Richtung Königspalast.
      Nach so einer schweißtreibenden Wanderung war Stärkung angesagt. Da war ein super gutes Steak gerade das Richtige, auch Thomas hat es gut vertragen. 🥰
      Nach einem gemütlichen Kaffee waren wir eigentlich schon ziemlich müde, aber nix da, es fehlte ja noch was in unserer Madridsammlung…
      Richtig! Das Museo Nacional del Prado!
      Und so wurde das riesige, sehr beeindruckende Museum mit seinen unzähligen Gemälden unser letzter Sightseeing Stop.
      Schön war’s in Madrid und das Wetter hat auch recht brav mitgespielt.
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    • Day 3

      FLAMENCO 💃

      May 15 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 61 °F

      We went to see a flamenco! This is the most famous traditional Spanish dance. In fact it is so much more than just a dance; it's an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of Southern Spain.

      I think I’m going to start a dance company and teach it. It’s probably going to look more like the Carlton dance though 🕺
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    • Day 13

      Madrid #01

      April 28 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

      Unser erster Halbtag in Madrid. Wir haben am Campingplatz Osuna eingecheckt, ein typischer Stadtcampingplatz eben. Aber die Metro ist fußläufig erreichbar. So sind wir am Nachmittag gleich in die City gedüst und haben uns einen ersten Eindruck verschafft. Nach der Durchquerung des Plaza Major mussten wir uns im Mercado stärken, mhhh war das gut!
      Zum Königspalast sind wir auch noch spaziert. Dort wollten wir uns eigentlich auch noch die dazugehörigen Gärten anschauen, sind dann aber bei einer akrobatischen Vorführung regelrecht hängen geblieben. Naja, morgen ist ja auch noch ein Tag.
      Zufrieden mit den ersten Eindrücken sind wir wieder zur Metro geschlendert.
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    • Day 6

      Welcome (back) to Madrid

      May 13 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

      Hola from Madrid.
      I think we deserve a pat on the back for catching 2 trains today and navigating ourselves through the Madrid metro. Quite worried when you have to go through electronic gates, and there's no way back without paying if you get it wrong.
      I know how a cull cow feels now.
      A good result, anyway, emerging into 27 degrees sunshine from the underground, a short walk to the hotel .
      Interestingly, they're still predominantly cork top wine bottles; we haven't had a cork screw for the last 3 days, quite the crisis.
      The supermercado was several floors and required taking this baby trolley up and down ramps. Got these cool wheels that self lock on the elevator, so no brakes are required. Great engineering 👍.
      Mainly a traveling, admin, and maintenance (aka wine) day today. Sorted our data after not being able to buy a sim card over the weekend. Bugger.
      We're now on a European sim, New phone number, same email.
      Hot tip (not); I've noticed many shop counters have chairs around them. I think you're supposed to patiently pull up a pew and wait until they get to you. Commonly 4 plus in a que. Not sure I enjoy this aspect of Spanish culture. God help us if kiwis latch onto it.
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    • Day 7

      Madrid, On and Off

      May 14 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

      A day on the hop on/ off bus. It seemed the most practical way to view this city of 6.7m people.
      The footpaths outside our hotel are 10m wide, and you still struggle to walk side by side in a forward direction.
      Apparently, the Spanish economy is going pretty well by EU standards, and people seem pretty happy. Noticeable they seem to take pride in their appearance and not a lot of homeless about considering the population. Very well presented bunch with quite different clothing choices to NZ.
      I think they could employ a few more gardeners, though, as the current lot don't seem to have come back from the Christmas break. A bit of round up wouldn't go amiss.
      Some impressive green spaces all the same, which we mostly enjoyed more than the history on offer.
      The local cuisine went down a treat tonight, Pintxos ( tapas ) were delivered every few minutes, and they just kept coming. A bit of a trap for a country lad that likes an empty plate!
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    • Day 8

      Segovia and Avila day trip.

      May 15 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

      A day trip out to Segovia in the north west to view an 1800 year old Aquaduct and Cathedral. Both are very impressive engineering features. No Cement in the Aquaduct makes it even more impressive. There are no earthquake engineering issues here, apparently.
      Onward to Avila to check out the longest city walls still in existence in Europe. Apparently, the ashes from cremations were used to fill the walls.
      We went to check out a museum on the way home but got turned away due to a festival starting tonight. Due to an early start tomorrow, I think we'll miss the fireworks tonight , we'll see.
      We checked out the Real Madrid stadium ( street view only) yesterday, but we're not big enough fans to justify the $75 pp entry fee to peek around the door.
      Off to Portugal tomorrow in keeping with the plan C itinerary.
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    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Ciudad Lineal, سويداد لينيال, Linia Urbo, シウダー・リネアル, Ciudad Lineal distritu

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