Finally, really on the road now...Madrid day 3

I've been meaning to get something up since I arrived, but the jetlag, super busy saturday night, the vino tinto, and a really slow internet connection have conspired against me.

Teresa (Tree) and I arrived in Madrid around noon on Saturday the 1st, found the metro (which rocks) easily enough at the airport, switched trains twice and made it to the central area of Madrid called Sol. Teresa and I tried to check into a place call Cat's hostel - primarily because the lonely planet described it as "a party waiting to happen with on-site bar", and we checked it out online, and despite the potentially skanky place this might imply, it looked quite nice. Alas, it was full, so we wandered around a little, popped into a likely looking place, and found a room with 2 beds, shower and sink (but no toilet oddly, I mean c'mon, I use the shower once a day, a toilet however....) for 50 Euros a night. The room is good, and we are happy there, but the hike to the john at 4:00 AM leaves a little something to be desired.

We walked around ate some tapas and I had the second smallest glass of beer I have ever consumed, and then jetlag won over, and we crashed.....Until about 11:15, when it became apparent that our neighbourhood gets really, really busy on a saturday night so we got up, showered and hit the town. City of 3 million people, and young and old alike were all out having food and drink - why can't Canada be more like this?. We found a place for some more tapas, and wine - which is of course the cheapest thing to drink, but so far it has been very good for the price!

We woke on sunday at the crack of noon, and hit the city, walked around, skipped the Museo del Prado because the line up on a Sunday when it is free is ridiculous. Found an interesting church, and did some rowboating in the huge Parque de El Retiro (see pics!). Got out in the evening for some stellar paella, and of course more vino tinto. Got briefly dragged into a pub on the promise of a free beer. THIS was the smallest glass of beer I have ever consumed.

Today, we broke our record and slept until 1:30 PM, we are totally screwed up now, but the sleeping felt good, and Tree and I were glad the other didn't make us get up early. Unfortunately the Museo del Prado is closed on Monday, but we did make it to the impressive Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. I've concluded that Picasso must have done more work in 1937 that many artist do in a lifetime. Some very cool stuff on display, and it is a shame we (probably) won't make it to del Prado. Oh well, lots of art in Europe I suppose.

Looking forward to some food and wine tonight, but tomorrow we want to start south toward Morocco, fuguring on getting to Sevilla somehow tomorrow. We checked out the train, 2 1/2 hours, and 75 Euro to go 2nd class. Say what? So we will check out buses and cheap flights.

A few pics included to enjoy, pucky made it to Madrid.

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