DAY 9  - SATURDAY 14TH SEPTEMBER 2019.  Firstly I'd like to apologize as todays blog is written in a state of semi-inebriation. I have just returned to the hotel from the James Joyce Irish Sports Bar almost opposite that modern art building I was telling you about yesterday. However before retiring here for the afternoon, I did earn my beer by doing some exercises in my room first thing this morning and venturing out in my sports gear to do a slow jog up to the main park in Madrid, completing a circuit of the boating lake and struggling back to the hotel all before 10am in the morning. After showering I Googled the top 10 free things to do in Madrid. At the head of the list was a free walking tour from a square about a 15 minute walk away. By now it was 10.50am, so with a sprightly spring in my step I arrived just in time to be allocated into the English speaking group guided by Miguel, a born and bred Madridian, but having spent a couple of years living in London, his command of the English language was fantastic and his history knowledge was second to none. Unfortunately, after a couple of hours of being given an in depth appreciation of all that was around us, the heavens opened and we were forced to retire to a proper Spanish Tapas bar for a wee and refreshments. We then continued the tour in the drizzle ending up at the Spanish Parliament building, which was very handy for me knowing that my hotel was just round the back! Slowly everyone drifted away after paying what they felt Miguel's worth had been, including myself, but as he was a passionate Real Madrid supporter we stayed behind, chatting about all things football and Brexit. He was genuinely sad to see the UK leaving as he believed it will, in the future, cause instability in Spain with the Catalunya and the Basque regions also vying for some kind of independence.

Anyway after a sojourn to my hotel, I once more set out on foot to the bar mentioned at the beginning of my piece today. Upon entering, my intention was to drink coffee for the afternoon, but as soon as I walked in, the atmosphere was so convivial that I ended up staying for the next 4 hours and quaffing a similar number of pints of Murphys Red! Besides watching the football, I got chatting to a couple of guys who were teaching English, one of whom had been here for nearly 30 years! Also, another fella from New England in The States who was a passionate Chelsea supporter! The only downer on the afternoon was that Reading were beaten by Middlesbrough away ☹. As I left the bar I was treated to the sight of a kind of pre-Vuelta peleton passing by. A real mixture of custom built bicycles of all sorts of weird and wonderful sizes and shapes! (Note the Raleigh Chopper in the foreground!) 

So here I am back at the hotel getting the blog up to date, and about to venture out to a Galician(northern Spain) restaurant recommended by Miguel, mainly for the reason it’s pretty close and with the unpredictability of the weather here at the moment, hopefully it’ll prove to be a wise choice.