Madrid: a meeting of mates!

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My friend Miguel met me at Madrid airport. Megan and I used to go salsa dancing with him when he lived in Chippenham but he had to move back to Madrid about a year ago. We had about 3 hours to kill before Megan arrived so Miguel took me to a cafe near Nuovos Ministerios, quite a built up area of Madrid. We had a good chat and went to meet Megan at one. Megan and I were staying at my friend Suzie’s house (who I knew from uni and Megan had never met before - very confusing with all these people I do apologise!) It was great to see Suzie, I hadn’t seen her in two and a half years since I went to see her when she lived in Warsaw, but she hasn’t changed a bit! We met Suzie’s housemate Maria-Dalores and her little white dog, Linda, and a new faltemate (another Maria) who had just arrived. So once we had all settled a bit, we headed out for lunch, to an Arabic restaurant. Miguel was insistent that we do the Spanish thing and have a 3 course meal for lunch, so we did even though Megan and I were extremely tired and just wanted sleep!

But Miguel had other ideas, so after lunch we headed into town to see the main square, Sol, with its iconic statue of a bear under a tree, and the palace, where we went into the gardens and dipped our feet in the pool. Miguel is a fantastic guide though and he told us many things about Madrid and Spain, he was very knowledgeable and interesting. Outside the palace was an orchestra from as school in Leeds so we listened to them a bit and went to see the cathedral and the view of Madrid from the bridge. By this time Megan and I were about to drop so we went to a bar near the palace and had some extremely expensive drinks! But it was such a nice area and it was lovely to sit down! But we were very pleased to go to bed that evening, having been up since 4am!

We got up very late the next day and met Miguel again, who took us for a walk around the old part of Madrid, lots of lovely streets and squares, we saw the oldest restaurant in the world and other statues and features that Miguel was very knowledgeable about. We met up with Suzie for lunch and had paella, white wine and a good natter! Miguel had a job interview at 4pm so off he went, Suzie went home for a nap and Megan and I headed for park Retiro. We entered by the big lake and saw the amphitheatre bit near the lake, and then we decided to lay down for a nap for a while! It was so peaceful and quiet in the park, someone in the distance playing the saxophone, we easily drifted off! Miguel met us in the park and told us about his disastrous interview - a girl in Bristol in the agency he is with got the wrong name! The interview he went for was meant for someone else! So we walked around a bit more of the park, trying to cheer him up, and went in the glass house.

That afternoon we went to the Pradas museum, we didn’t have much time so Miguel gave us a speedy tour round the best bits- including Valequez and Goya, very interesting though and again he was a great guide! When we finished there we went back to Bilbao and met Suzie and her friend Rafa in Patatus, a great tapas bar, where we had some mojitos!

We decided the next day to go on a day trip to Segovia, and luckily Miguel had use of the car so he drove us! The journey through the mountains was very pretty, we saw a huge cross on the hill where General Franco is buried. We also saw a stork flying and later on we saw another stork high in a tree in its nest - they were massive! Segovia is beautiful, the huge Roman Aqueduct is very impressive and we took loads of pictures of it, from all angles! I love towns that have ancient things living right beside the new buildings; it makes me think the past and the present aren’t so distant after all. That is why I love Rome so much I think, people just getting on with their lives right next to all this amazing ancient stuff, like it’s completely normal!

We walked around Segovia; saw the pretty main square, the cathedral and the castle. And then Miguel took us to a restaurant for the local speciality (sorry vegetarians): suckling pig. Actually it was really tasty, just don’t think about what it is! After lunch we decided to go inside the castle. It was much more ornate and had more furnishings than we expected so we actually really enjoyed it! And we enjoyed deciding what all the rooms would be if we lived there - of course the main hall would be a salsa dancing room! We did a bit of shopping, had a drink in a cafe near the aqueduct, and headed for home. Suzie was feeling unwell so we didn’t see her all evening, we just had a bit of a chat and went to bed.

Next morning we were up very late, so late that Miguel had to send us a text asking if we were still alive. We met him in the chocolate cafe where we were busy eating hot chocolate and churros, very tasty breakfast! We all went to the Reine Sofia museum after that, where there are a lot of painting s by Dali and Picasso, and loads of others. It was a huge museum, we only got around one floor of it. We sat in the garden of the museum for a while to chill after absorbing all that art, and then decided to head for park Retiro again. It was a boiling hot day so again Megan and I found it very easy to fall asleep in the park! We headed back to Suzie’s but she was still really ill, so we decided to head out into town without her. It was disappointing, not seen her in two years and hardly saw her when in Madrid!

The evening out was great fun, we went to a few bars for beer and tapas, then headed to another bar for a mojito. In that bar we saw Miguel’s boss and his wife, which Miguel thought was good because that meant his boss knew he wasn’t making us up to get 3 days off work! We went to an Irish bar after that but decided to head home after that, feeling a bit worse for wear! In the morning we were up late again and chilled with the ill Suzie, watching Bridget Jones! Then we went out for a last three course meal to a Cuban restaurant, and in the evening went out for a last drink and tapas in Patatus with Miguel. It was sad to say goodbye but I am sure we will be back in Madrid soon!

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