Dateline Madrid

Madrid. Spain



The 767 on the trip over had a new seatback entertainment system. I watched three episodes of "Breaking Bad" and the new Jim Carey flick, "Yesman" and "The Day the World Stood Still"...even so nine hours is a long flight. We took a taxi to the hotel and the driver turned off the meter at the destination. It read 31 Euros, but somehow I owed him 45 euros anyway. We had read that the taxi drivers rip you off. The Metro ride would have been two Euros, but I was tired.



We took a nap and then reconoitered the Metro to the Atocha train station.


This morninig when we got up at 6:30 and dressed for our train ride to Toledo, we were surprised to find that the tickets are for tomorrow. Breakfast at the hotel was fantasticismo...croussants, ham, cheeses, jelly, butter, Cafe con leche, fruit and yogurt and hard-boiled eggs. We went to the El Prada art museum, primarily to see Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights"



Double-click on the photo above to get a better view of something really twisted...After that we strolled the big park to the East of the El Prada...


This is a building in the park called the Crystal Palace.



We wandered around last night looking for the tapas we had heard so much about. No luck on those but we did find a place that had a lot of pig legs hanging on the ceiling...we ordered red wine and an Iberian platter of pig things...they were very tasty...we're a little jet lagged and slept last night from 9-12 and then 4-6...tonight should do the trick...Mrs. Phred is taking an afternoon nap right now...tomorrow Toledo.





The plazza next to our hotel has a nice statue of Don Quijote (Quixote), his horse (Racinote?) and his buddy (Pancho?) and mule. Maybe I'm thinking of Zorro? Our hotel is on the Grand Via...it seems to be a shoe shopping district...the room electricity only works when a card is inserted in a slot...the shower is poorly designed and runs all over the floor...its a 4 star...we're on the eighth floor...I smoke on the balcony and consider head shots with my M-1 on the pedestrians far below...wind and elevation complicate things...my admiration for Whitman's work in the Texas Tower goes up several notches...