Our train to Madrid was a night train, not by choice this time, rather it being the only service for Lisbon to Madrid. This was fine at first, but about halfway through the journey the air con kicked into overdrive and the whole carriage was freezing. We arrived at our small guest house about 10am, the lady who ran it was very nice and let us have our room early.
After a siesta we headed out for a late lunch, beer and a Tortilla Espanol Bocadillo (potato omelet in a baguette). We spent a bit of time around La Latina, a bar and restaurant district before seeing the main squares Plaza Mayor and Puerta del Sol.
Wednesday morning we had a reservation on a walking tour of 'old Madrid', unfortunately due to being a bit slow to get out of bed, and the metro taking longer than we thought we were late and missed it. Luckily the lady at the tour office was nice enough to put us on a later tour, a general city tour. It has been surprisingly easy to get around Spain and Portugal, everyone we have met has been really helpful and friendly. Sadly, since they speak so much English, our Spanish has not developed as much as I had hoped.
The tour departed from Plaza Mayor, a big square in the middle of the city. It is very nice, has a horse statue in the middle and a building with modern (15 years old) fresco paintings on the exterior. The tour guide was ok, and we got to see many of the main sights of Madrid. The guide was particularly excited about the city walls (which no longer exist). When we saw Palacio Real (Royal Palace), the timing was good as the changing of the guards was just about to happen. The gardens in front of the palace were very nice too.
After the tour we grabbed lunch at a little cafe, where the m
enu had over 100 different types of mini bread rolls. We took the easy option and ordered a mixed plate, all were very nice, some had seafood, bacon or churizzo fillings.
Our siesta today also involved watching Futurama in Spanish on TV. It was a bit hard to follow, but amusing nonetheless.
We spent the evening at the Gallery Museo del Prado which had a really good collection of art, including many Spanish works. In particular Goya's works were impressive. We also briefly visited Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, which we didn't like as much.
The following day was a bit frustrating, just one of those days! We slept in, which was nice. We had planned to go to the post office to send some things home (including tapas cook books) but this never eventuated. We visited Templo de Debod, which is an Egyptian tomb, transported to Madrid and reconstructed brick by brick. Unfortunately, when we arrived it was closed, as the tourist info had told us the wrong times, but it was still cool from the outside. We did a bit of shopping for touristy crap on Gran Via, before returning to Museo del Prado to see the rest of the collection. 
We liked Madrid, although it is a bit of a case of 'just another nice European city'. It is still very vibrant, as everywhere in Spain seems to be. We probably didn't have enough time here either. It also rained, the first time we have seen rain since the UK, although it didn't really effect our visit. Next stop, Barcelona where we are meeting some friends from our Scotland tour!
After a siesta we headed out for a late lunch, beer and a Tortilla Espanol Bocadillo (potato omelet in a baguette). We spent a bit of time around La Latina, a bar and restaurant district before seeing the main squares Plaza Mayor and Puerta del Sol.
Wednesday morning we had a reservation on a walking tour of 'old Madrid', unfortunately due to being a bit slow to get out of bed, and the metro taking longer than we thought we were late and missed it. Luckily the lady at the tour office was nice enough to put us on a later tour, a general city tour. It has been surprisingly easy to get around Spain and Portugal, everyone we have met has been really helpful and friendly. Sadly, since they speak so much English, our Spanish has not developed as much as I had hoped.The tour departed from Plaza Mayor, a big square in the middle of the city. It is very nice, has a horse statue in the middle and a building with modern (15 years old) fresco paintings on the exterior. The tour guide was ok, and we got to see many of the main sights of Madrid. The guide was particularly excited about the city walls (which no longer exist). When we saw Palacio Real (Royal Palace), the timing was good as the changing of the guards was just about to happen. The gardens in front of the palace were very nice too.
After the tour we grabbed lunch at a little cafe, where the m
enu had over 100 different types of mini bread rolls. We took the easy option and ordered a mixed plate, all were very nice, some had seafood, bacon or churizzo fillings.Our siesta today also involved watching Futurama in Spanish on TV. It was a bit hard to follow, but amusing nonetheless.
We spent the evening at the Gallery Museo del Prado which had a really good collection of art, including many Spanish works. In particular Goya's works were impressive. We also briefly visited Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, which we didn't like as much.
The following day was a bit frustrating, just one of those days! We slept in, which was nice. We had planned to go to the post office to send some things home (including tapas cook books) but this never eventuated. We visited Templo de Debod, which is an Egyptian tomb, transported to Madrid and reconstructed brick by brick. Unfortunately, when we arrived it was closed, as the tourist info had told us the wrong times, but it was still cool from the outside. We did a bit of shopping for touristy crap on Gran Via, before returning to Museo del Prado to see the rest of the collection. We liked Madrid, although it is a bit of a case of 'just another nice European city'. It is still very vibrant, as everywhere in Spain seems to be. We probably didn't have enough time here either. It also rained, the first time we have seen rain since the UK, although it didn't really effect our visit. Next stop, Barcelona where we are meeting some friends from our Scotland tour! 
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