Poisoned Octopus

---

The gap that I need to fit through between the shower screen and the wall to get into the shower in our apartment is very narrow. I wonder how wide it is, so I decide to measure it. I don't know how I'm going to do this because I don't have a tape measure. I get some toilet paper and tear off a piece that's the width of the gap. I then measure how long the piece is with the ruler app that I've downloaded on my iPad. The gap is 30.8 centimetres wide. I don't think that most adults would be able to fit through this front on, and I know quite a few who would struggle to fit through it side on. I also think that I should probably find some more productive ways of filling my time.

As we usually do, we catch the hop on hop off bus to get a feel for what we need to see more of here in Madrid. First cab off the rank is Templo de Debod, which is a reconstructed temple from ancient Egypt. It was given to Spain as a gift for helping the Egyptians save the Abu Simbel temples when they needed to move them to build the Aswan Dam. We hear that this is a good place to watch the sunset from. We pass the Royal Palace, the Cathedral, the Palacio de Cibeles, the Prado Museum, and Retiro Park, and then change onto another bus which takes us through the northern business section of Madrid. The buildings here are all taller and more modern. The audio guide tells us that this area includes a two kilometre long car park, with gates operated by electronic tags. They're apparently so efficient that you don't even need to slow down when you drive into it. We pass Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, which is where Real Madrid plays soccer. In contrast to Camp Nou in Barcelona, this does look very big. It apparently used to hold 110,000 people but new safety regulations mean that its capacity has now been reduced to 80,000, all seated. The audio guide tells us that until the stadium was built in 1947, the capacity of the "stadium" that Real Madrid played at was 700. Issy and I look at each other. We didn't mishear this. I'm sure that if you got a group of people to stand shoulder to shoulder in a single row you'd fit more than 700 of them around the outside of a soccer pitch. That's not a stadium at all. I try to check this fact on Google but it's not much help. I think that the audio guide might need a bit of adjustment. I wonder what other untruths it might have told us.

We get off the bus and wander through the massive and very green fountain and statue-filled Retiro Park, which has a large lake in the middle of it full of people rowing boats. The Monument to Alfonso XII on the edge of the lake is particularly spectacular. We have a snack lunch in a cafe on the edge of the lake before moving on to Cibeles Palace. We read that this was built in 1909, and is now the Madrid Town Hall. We get excellent views over the city from the viewing platform on the eighth floor.

Issy is amazed by the parking skills of the average Spaniard. Most of them seem to have no trouble at all parallel parking in spaces with about 20 centimetres to spare at either end, and we've seen this in evidence in all the cities and towns that we've visited in Spain. Most of the cars don't seem to have parking sensors. They also don't seem to have badly dented bumper bars. Issy says that if she had a car in Spain she'd catch a lot of public transport.

All the nearby restaurants were full when we went out at 10 o'clock last night, so we decide that tonight we'll go out an hour earlier. This cunning ploy doesn't seem to be all that successful; they're all full again, so we need to venture further afield. We start to wonder if anyone in Madrid ever eats at home. Again we order grilled octopus, and again it is magnificent. It comes with black aoli sauce. Issy says that they colour it black with the ink from the octopus, and that if she eats any of it she'll die. She says that when she used to prepare octopus with her mother, she was told that if any of the ink touched the octopus it would be poisoned, and the whole thing would need to thrown away. Our waiter is Peruvian and very friendly. We finish eating and walk back to the hotel. We both feel quite healthy. Maybe octopus ink is a slow acting poison.

---

Comments

[COG]

You look very comfortable Issy!