Observations of Madrid

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Madrid
What a pleasant surprise. We came in from the airport by subway to Plaza De Espana- to be greeted by a wonderful park. After walking with our bags in a circle we finally found our hotel, Plaza De Espana no. 7. Our rooms, a very spacious, clean; efficiency is just what we need. We have been up at this point for 22 hours give or take, however John has scoped out an aggressive walk to see the sites of Madrid, as it is 10:00 am here.
The weather was perfect, the city very clean and extremely friendly.
We came into Parque Del Buen Retiro, with wonderful fountains, beautiful topiaries, and both formal and woodland gardens. All the local people were out spending their Saturday with family and friends; walking, visiting, singing, boating, kissing and soaking in the sunshine. In the center of the park lies the Estanque, a huge pond , with boats to rent and a monument in the center. Family seems to be very important and precious to the Spanish. Around the park were Punch and Judy shows, clowns and musicians. John and I could have spent our whole day in that one park, but my batteries died in my camera so we had to go out to search for more. We did however find our way back later in the day. We saw the Prado, the lines quite long and not enough time to see it all, another trip perhaps? We strolled through the old city section around the Plaza Mayor, the Placido Real, and along the Plane Tree lined streets. We shopped the book market along the Paseo de Recoletos and stopped for café to people watch. The people fascinated me in the way they spent their days, dressed their children, and communicated with each other.
We put our Spanish to use beginning at the train station, then the hotel, the cafes and ending with dinner in a little restaurant on the Grand Via. We quickly learned the tapas hop. For lunch we stopped in the very charming La Cocina de Neptuno. We ordered tapas mixta - two very greasy, hot meats on bread and two cold. The two cold were, fresh tuna & the other proscuitto with butter. However we had a fantastic piece of fish with garlic and hot red peppers.
We were out walking the first day without sleep from 10:30 am until 10:00 pm (the time the rest of the town got going)
John woke early to look for coffee perhaps at Starbucks on the corner. He was greeted by thousands of young people pouring out of bars and clubs headed for the subway home. Nothing was open for coffee, he finally woke me, so we could go down to the hotel restaurant for our free breakfast. What a sweet treat, the coffee much, much better than a chain and the locals were eating here as well. Breakfast consisted of buttered toast and jam and your choice of homemade pastry, with coffee. After our morning treat we were off again for some early sightseeing before our noon train to Malaga. On our walk we found ourselves below the beautiful cathedral and castle we had seen yesterday, in Parque del Campo del Moro, another beautiful woodland park and formal garden. We wound our way back to the old city, to take photos of the painted tile street signs
Observations
The cross walks in Spain are away from the intersections so they have time to stop and the pedestrians have time to cross before they are smashed.
The children are dressed so cute in little smocked dresses and boys in little pressed shirts and shorts. The old people walk arm in arm and the young sing to the old and care for them.

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