Madrid

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Madrid

Ok, I’ll confess right now…. I made a bit of a mistake about the weather. Its wonderfully hot in Madrid - after Ireland being unusually hot. A bit hot for Lucy. Sarah and Kate have bought 3 summer dresses between them (one each and a third Ken said they could have if they’d share it). Don’t even need cardy’s in the evenings and I have a suitcase full of them (lots of layers, merino singlets and cardy’s, bla, bla bla).

Have told the girls that I think we’ll go shopping in Granada for a few more summer clothes. Lucy now has a glorious red and black flamenco dress with matching shoes ( a perfect match to her lady bug Sarah) - but neither summery nor “real clothes”.

Madrid has been wonderful, but very busy. There is so much that we wanted to do and we have fitted in a lot. Museums- Prado (we all loved it at the start but after a coffee break the girls all stayed in the café and played cards), Thessen -(wonderful, lots of French, Dutch and Fleming, everyone liked it but we only had an hour as it was closing) and Reina Sofia (Picassos Guernica and a lot of stuff that the girls and I didn’t like but that Ken was quite interested in) which was in a great building that we returned to photograph on our way to Toledo.

Toledo for the day was worth it (lots of mucking around getting train tickets but the train was easy). Great Cathedral and lots of interesting lollies and tourist shops for Lucy.

We managed “an evening at a Spanish supermarket when we were all tired on our first night” which is a story that starts with enthusiasm and ends in a long slow queue…

Had some typical “menu del dia” meals which are working well with us choosing a selection of food and then all sharing. Late starts for dinner, as is very Spanish but we can’t seem to follow up with getting up at a reasonable time.

We were going to be getting an early train to Granada but I couldn’t book it on the net and when we booked at the station we could only get the late one. Thank goodness. Gave us extra time in Madrid and no early start (being as we’re so hopeless in the mornings early starts are no fun in the Collins family.) Meant that we could spend the morning going to the Royal palace, which after a long queue to get in was interesting - better than Dublin Castle but similar, more palatial.

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