DAY 8 - FRIDAY 13TH SEPTEMBER 2019 - GETTING TO KNOW MADRID.    I've got one of those mattresses like a board and boy does my back know it this morning. So after a couple of vitamin I tablets (Ibroprofen) I set off on foot to the Puerta Del Sol, which is acknowledged as being the epicentre of Madrid, although I have to say I was somewhat underwhelmed by it's appearance, surrounded as it was with pleasant enough buildings, but nothing with the real wow factor! I guess the most interesting thing about it was the bronze statue of a bear leaning against a strawberry tree. Apparently it's a fairly iconic image as it dates back hundreds of years and represents a time when the landed gentry (the bear) began to co operate with the local authorities (the strawberry bush). Anyway lots of people were queuing to have their picture taken with it, so I did too!

I continued on past the square and on to Spain’s version of John Lewis, El Corte Ingles, which incidently means, The English Court. This had been recommended to me by the receptionist as somewhere I may be able to buy an adaptor lead to replace the one I’d somehow left back in Zaragoza. After being personally escorted up to the 2nd floor where I showed the computer geek my laptop and faster than you could say,”Dave you were an idiot to leave a computer cable behind in Zaragoza” I was the proud owner of a new adaptor and £28 poorer!

After taking the laptop and cable back to my hotel I returned to Puerta Del Sol, where I purchased a hop-on hop-off two-day bus tour ticket for 26 euros. Thankfully I was first on the bus and was able to sit at the front upstairs. This meant I had commanding views of all the sights and when it started to rain heavily, due to the windscreen in front of me and the retractable vinyl roof above, I stayed nice and dry while those behind me began to resemble semi-drowned rats!

The miserable weather persisted until around 4pm by which time I had completed both routes that the tour buses plied. Of course, you’re bombarded with a million facts on these tours, but you only ever remember one or two, and in my case, it was one! Madrid is the highest capital city in Europe, standing on a plateau at around 2,000 feet above sea level. That’s 300 feet higher than my walk up to Dunkery Beacon! (see beginning of my blog).

Mercifully the rain had stopped and once off the bus I wanted a decent-sized cup of coffee, as all you ever get in the street cafes is a small cup which I find I’ve quaffed within a couple of minutes! Thankfully I spotted a Starbucks across the way where I was able to ‘fill my boots’ well my tummy, with an El Café Grande con leche, mind you I had to pay £5 for the privilege.

Caffeine injection complete, I then walked back past many of the sights I had been shown whilst on the bus, one of which was the ex-headquarters of the Spanish Post Office, a beautiful grand white building, now converted to a modern art gallery and as it was free, I thought, why not? I tried to enter with an open mind, but it was soon firmly closed again when I saw the tosh that was on display. The best piece of art in that building was the lovely white marble staircase with beautiful green-patterned ceramic tiles that lined the walls between the floors, obviously part of the original fabric of the building; or is it me? Maybe I’m too stupid to understand? Or is it a case of ‘The Emperors New Clothes’? I’ll leave you to ponder that one!