DAY 7 -THURSDAY 12TH SEPTEMBER 2019  (210 miles approx.)

 All packed up I was on the road by 9.30am, 30 minutes earlier than usual. I must be getting more efficient with my packing, or so I thought (see later!). Once more, perfect conditions for motorcycling and I made good progress westwards towards Madrid. During my second fill up I became concerned over a text from BT stating I’d reached my data limit, and indeed when I tried to retrieve the details of my Madrid hotel on Hotels.com it just wouldn’t load and I couldn’t remember the name of the hotel. I only new it was right in the centre of the city! Initially I managed to get the details of my hotel by using a wifi hotspot in the petrol station and luckily I’d downloaded the route on to my phone earlier. Anyway after initial panic and making contact with Isaac our IT tech wizard at work (my S4H mobile is a job phone which is normally resricted to the UK, but I had got special permission to use it for my big trip) all was restored and I continued my journey as normal.(this was a problem that that repeated itself several times throughout my trip, resolved only once I'd found a wifi hotspot) By the time I reached Madrid I reckon the temperature was nudging towards 80 degrees Fahrenheit  and I was starting to melt as I approached my destination, which was along a quiet side street. However the entrance to my little hotel was, as I only discovered later, right opposite the back gate to the Spanish Parliament building! So the moment I stopped one of the policemen guarding the gate came across to me very smartishly and told me, politely but firmly, under no account could I stop there and I’d have to move to the top of the street. Thankfully this was only a further 100 metres up the road just round the corner. It just meant I had to make 2 trips back and forth in the stifling heat with all my motorbike gear on, to the hotel in order to lug all my panniers and bags into the lobby of the hotel.

Once unloaded and changed I went back to the hotel lobby to chat with the receptionist just to get my bearings and ask about the open-top bus tours. She suggested I get this out the way tomorrow or Saturday as The big cycle race was in town on Sunday. I explained that was one of the reasons I was here and she said,”Well you’re in luck, the race passes by at the very bottom of this street about a hundred metres away!” RESULT!!

On a down note, on unpacking everything I realise I have left my laptop power cable back at my last hotel, so this is being typed on reserve battery power at the moment! So that’s my second really ‘senior moment’ of this trip, the first being that I left my fleece at home ☹. As well as sightseeing tomorrow I will try and source a new power cable otherwise folks that’s the end of Dave’s Distinctly Downgraded Adventure’ blog!