Madrid and the Mystery Nuns

Our host, Lorenzo, was nice enough to pick us up from the station when we arrived in Madrid. He didn't speak much english but we managed to throw together enough with some spanish and french to pass the time in the car. Turns out he works for the military so we'd better behave. We've rented a studio flat just outside the centre of the city, too far to walk but an easy trip on the underground. Unfortunately its not the best of places; no internet, no TV, no radio, no door on the washing machine, only 1 of 2 hob rings working and a high pitched screech from the meter every time the hot water was on. At least it had a roof because its a miserable day so we make do with getting some supplies in, and enduring some time in a pretentious arty bar to use their Wi-Fi!

Day 2 is looking better. We're joining a free tour and Madrid is our classroom, thankfully a sunny one. Our guide seems to know everything about the history of the city, he's so enthusiastic about everything and fills the time with great stories about the city's past. We couldn't remember them all now but at least we still know valuable info like who the stinky queen was, why horse statues shouldn't have open mouths, what happened to the inbred royal family, how a telephone wire saved a king and why no-one likes the theme park built in the park at the edge of the city. We even got to see the first proper 'king on a horse' statue with its front feet up which Galileo got roped into designing, ooh! We decide to have a proper night out so after catching the second half of the Madrid game with some locals in an Irish bar we decide to try some of the bars recommended on our tour. They're a bit pants and the music is awful but we manage to get a couple of free drinks out of them before heading to a place that is much more fun. No surprise it's a Irish bar! The music is good, the drinks are cheap and the people are having fun so we dance the night away and even miss the last metro home, oops!

Madrid's mascot, but who knows why!

The statue that ate pigeons - lesson: don't give a hollow statue an open mouth

A lie in and a day to walk around a park today. A quick trip on the metro brings us out into Parque de El Retiro, a lovely place to get some much needed air and have a nice slow recovery stroll! It even gave us enough energy to make it into the city for some food, although the metros were so packed we probably shouldn't have bothered. Turns out the world and his friend had gone into the city to protest government cuts, good for them, bad for our personal space on the metro!

The oldest square in Madrid and the only medieval buildings

By now we've decided we're not that fond of Madrid, it's a bit big and not really a pretty enough place but we want to make sure there's nothing important that we've missed. James drags Christine to the first stop, Santiago Bernabeu but we're both a bit disappointed as it looks like a multi storey car park from the outside. We decide against doing the tour (after all, Real have enough money already) and head to the next stop, The Temple of Dobod, a present from Egypt to Spain of an ancient temple and it looks a little out of place in the middle of Madrid. It's just our luck that it closed for the ultra annoying 'siesta time' about 10 minutes before we arrived so we can't even go in. We run round a bit more of the city getting a few more photos in and then decide to take up a tip from our tour guide and try to buy some sweets from nuns, bear with us on this... Basically there's a plain doorway in a back street with a tiny sign saying Dolce and some opening hours. We ring the bell and hear a voice say something in Spanish (possibly asking for a password we were told) and James replies "dolce por favor" in a hopeful voice. It works because the door mysteriously opens and we walk down a deserted corridor eventually getting to a small revolving door in a wall. A voice rings out again from behind it; "Hola!" and we repeat our request. Then as if by magic the door spins and a selection of sweets/biscuits appears on a tray so we pick the ones that look like the best souvenirs and replace them with money. The ,mysterious hidden nun sings again from behind the door "Adiooooos!" and we make our way back out again. It was probably the most interesting thing we did in Madrid, and even though they were a bit expensive (9 euros for biscuits!) the money goes to a good cause and Christine can enjoy singing Adioooos for the rest of the trip!

"I was built over water, my walls are fire" - the city's medieval motto because of the underground river system and the old flint city walls that sparked when attacked (shame they're not there now)