Never trust the BBC weather or Spanish men

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Beautiful, sunny lunchtime arrival. Quick transfer to the hotel to discover I had been upgraded to a suite complete with dining room, living room and a bathroom with two showers. Got the metro down to Sol and hopped on the open top tourist bus and did a full loop of the historical route taking lots of photos of the gorgeous grand buildings. Everything inMadridis on a grand scale; even the roads are wide and majestic. Having got my bearings (and remembered more than I thought from a previous visit years ago) I walked from Sol to Plaza Major taking in lots of little streets with shops. I then followed the road all the way up to theRealPalaceand the Cathedral. Amazing buildings – so white and well looked after, the photos will be stunning against the blue sky. Took time to walk through the gardens and look at the statues leading to the opera.






12th April








The following day was equally as hot but a real wind at times which probably explains why I resemble a lobster as I didn’t think to put sun cream on as the report for the weather wasn’t so promising. Started my day with a walk round the outside of the Bernebau stadium which is only a short walk from the hotel, stunning stadium. Picked up the second line of the tourist bus route which goes through residential and business areas and then into the major shopping districts which I haven't seen before. Got off the bus at the Prado museum and walked round the outside of it and up to the cathedral nearby and then into the Retiro park which has a lovely lake and sculpture at the centre. A couple of hours spent in the park to recover for being stung for $16 for a ham baguette and coffee and I then walked to see Plaza de la Inepenencia before getting the tourist bus down to Plaza Espania. Walked around there and followed the road up to the Senate buildings and into the Sabatini gardens and back to theRealPalace. A Spanish man latched himself onto me and kept chattering away despite me not understanding a word he said and him not understanding my brush offs. He kept following me so I jumped on the metro to the shopping district of Gran Via to get rid of him.

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Sounds like a great trip
We'd love to see your photos

[JLYtravels]

photos
I plan on putting photos up but the blog is very much slow work in progress. Thanks for your comment