Galiano Madrid

My leg has been bothering me for about 4 weeks now, and after noticing me still limping, Nuria and Eva decided it was time they made me a doctors appointment. And thus begins my saga with the Spanish medical system. The appointment wasn't for another week, and they kept trying to convince me to go to the ER before then, but, as a classic American, I told them that it's been constant pain for so long that going to ER seems silly. More on this later. I had been doing some ...

... turn.

When I finally got to my cabin, I was on the top bunk and it was boiling hot. My other trains had had a very light air conditioning, but it felt like this one didn’t. And it got up to 95 F in Madrid today. So it took me a very long time to fall asleep. Especially since the Spanish family in my cabin continued to talk in normal voices after I put my sleep mask on and tried to sleep. But I managed it eventually.

... room if a little spooky. Nearby were the caskets of many other royals who were not monarchs. Throughout much of the interior of L'Escorial were huge, vivid paintings, early maps of the world and many other treasures, A rich place indeed and one once considered to be the eighth wonder of the world. The second site we visited was "The Valley of the Fallen". After General Franco won the Spanish Civil War and became a dictator for the remainder of his ...

... a very brief zzz, it was time to expect our fellow travellers as we had agreed to meet chez nous at 8:30am. That's the wrong language isn't it? We agreed to meet at our casa! Andrea was first to arrive, punctual as ever, followed by Pete and Rich (Steve's brother and cousin respectively) and yes, as expected we waited for Melbers. After some car manoevring the six of us set off for Liverpool Airport in Andrea's car (girls' car) and Pete's car (boys' car). We parked really far away from ...

... Jamón ibérico. We had a fantastic evening chatting about work of all things, reminiscing about South Africa and chuckling at the similarities we experienced when we relocated to Dubai. We had such a great time that we only got home some time after 2am. (Thanks Frank for the wonderful evening and showing us around your lovely city!) Madrid is very different to Barcelona in many ways it seems. Firstly Madrid is said to be a better ...

... with a long sword at the back of the neck, having been forced all the way in. It slid all the way out and fell on the ground...the matador picked it up and again and gave one final stab to the bull, this time sticking. Blood started pouring out of its nose and mouth and it staggered to the ground in death, it's head still raised in struggle. They cut off the bulls ears and threw them into the crowd. A rope was tied ...

... whis keee´ and a true gladiator type battle! The bull comes raging out into the arena. From there several matadors lure the bull around the arena, tiring him out for later. Then the bull is lured over next to a guy with a long spear siting atop a horse covered in kevlar. The man puts the spear into the bulls neck area to weaken him with the severe loss of blood. From there other matadors place flags in the bulls back. Then the main event; the matador ...

... is dedicated to San Lorenzo , who was martyred on a barbeque. All the saints were killed in different weird ways, so there are different symbols for them. Santa Barbara was locked up in a tower, so she is always shown in artwork holding a tower in her hand. Since San Lorenzo is symbolized by a grill, there are grill designs worked into the architecture, including the actual grid-style layout of the building itself.

... to get 3 tickets. When I checked at the ticket counter, the guy told me that he did not know if the tickets were real. They apparently looked real, but he would not confirm that I purchased real tickets from the street. What a butt head!!! We made it into the fights with no problems and what a show it was. This is definitely not a place for animal lovers.... ahem.... Jen....!!! For those that are interested, we got some good video and will show it to ...

Finally, I visited the Prado. It is big. And crowded. And has a lot of amazing art. I wandered through it and thought about all the places I had visited, all of the people I had said goodbye to, and of course, about all of the art surrounding me. As usual, I spent a lot of time with the Flemish painters. I like the style and well, having to be ...