Our day in Madrid

We both had a reasonable sleep, with a bit of wakefulness, but when the other was asleep, but overall we are now on Spanish time, and woke to a beautiful morning. Quite pleasantly cool to start with, and now warmer, but amazingly it is not bothering me! Cathy and I are having a lovely downtime in our room, with the curtains and windows open, listening to the bustle outside and quietly doing our thing. Margaret has gone to see a Spanish friend a short distance away for an afternoon visit, and I will try and remember our doings so far.

We met Margaret and set off at about 9.30…(Cathy and I had already had a short wander to test the air) and then we went to my very favourite pastry shop just off Sol and had breakfast…I had an indulgent Napoletana crema, Cathy had a ham and cheese toasty and Margaret 2 mini croissants…all happy, but we did agree that it wasn’t an amazing coffee!!

Then we searched for and found the market - the Mercado San Miguel - this was not a market of fruit, veggies, meat, fish, cheese sellers, but a display of delectable foods for you to eat there or take away…amazing stuff, and I took a photo of my two faves all in one display…chiperones a la plancha and pimientos de padron…we got some fruit and I had an orange and strawberry juice…we were still full from breakfast…

We then wandered past the royal palace, an enormous building, and also went into the modern but beautiful cathedral right beside it. Then wandered further to the Plaza de España which had works and scaffolding everywhere and wasn’t looking its impressive best…then back along the Gran Via, past so many enormous beautiful buildings, back through Sol and found the place where Amr and I had a wonderful time together on our last day in Madrid in May last year. I really wanted to revisit it, and the experience was delightful again…we just had their specialty which is garlic prawns, done SO well…with crispy bread to dip in the oil…and with a couple of beers, and sangria in Cathy’s case, all was perfect…

Well that was a pause …we had downtime, totally relaxed, and set out at about 6 o’clock…not exactly sure, but we felt it was time, and we didn’t know if Marg was going to come to eat with us or not. It was beautifully clear, with this intense Spanish sun at the end of the day, and we had a bit of a walk before we settled in at the bar we see from our room, and where we were yesterday….so Cathy and I had a red wine for me, and an Alberiño, which she had had and enjoyed yesterday, for her. We were having an apertiser of crocquetas and suddenly Marg appeared…the waiter saw her and directed her to us…he knew where she belonged! We are now locals!! So we continued with some salad, and calamaris a la plancha, which is essentially chiperones a la plancha…and was divine!!! I remembered to take a photo before it was all eaten…otherwise, we just talked and enjoyed our time…and I ended up with a Baileys (not O’Donnell’s), and at 10.30 we are back in our room..Cathy showered first while I wrote this, and now she will add her take…
Cathy’s comments:
To be fair, Mum has done a reasonable account of our day. A great day in Madrid and it was quite warm. When preparing for tomorrow’s departure, Amr was with us, ensuring we were ready to go probably a half or hour before we needed to. We will honour his wishes and onwards to Leon. Czytaj więcej