Our first ´UPDATE´ from the road.

  Madrid, Spain and Canary Islands
Monday, April 9, 2001

Here it is - What you have all been waiting for ... our first ´UPDATE´

Virgin´s $55 flight from Heathrow to Madrid seemed like a good deal - but here´s the catch ... it took 10 hours and resulted in us having an afternoon to see Brussels. Our itenerary went out the window on day 1. That will teach us not to read the small print on the ticket.

We wandered through the greyness that is Brussels and stumbled upon the Grand Place, Cathederal & Manneken Pis. The Belgians must have a sense of humour to have a young boy having a pee as their main attraction!

We almost didn´t make it to Madrid, thanks to a crazy Señora who freaked out and tried to fight her way into the cockpit just as we were taxi-ing along the runway. She wanted to tell the pilot to stop and let her out as she was too scared to fly.

Madrid was a marked improvement over Brussels ... for a start, it was warm at 10pm. Having spent two months in London waiting for Paul, Tonya had forgotten what "warm" felt like.

Found an excellent place to stay: Hostal Lopez, Calle de las Huertas, 54. Immaculately clean and just a few minutes walk from the Prado Museum and in the most happening street in Madrid. (Take your ear plugs if you want to sleep before 4am)

Paul loves Spain - firstly Leeds seem to be able to beat any Spainish team; and more importantly you can get a three course meal, complete with a litre of red wine, for less than $5. Plus, with the traditional Siesta, you can drink loads at lunchtime, sleep it off in the afternoon then wake up and do it all again.

Highlights of Madrid include:

- Plaza Major, a 17th century arcaded square.
- Palacio Real & Gardens (Wed free for EU passport holders). The guided tour was informative but in broken English, Blackadder came to mind!
- Rastro Market (Sun Mornings). Alledgedly the largest market in the world. There were some real charaters around, so ladies hold on to your handbags.
- Retiro Park, nice boating lake and Crystal Palace. Good place for a picnic.

The Prado Museum (free Sat afternoon and all day Sun) is one of the great art collections in Europe, but it wasn´t our cup of tea ... loads of dark oil paintings, plenty of crucifictions - all doom and gloom. They even had a special exhibition entitled "Goya´s Black Paintings".

We had the special treat of seeing the Semana Santa Palm Sunday procession, but can anyone explain why the wear the same outfits as the Klu Klux Klan?




Hasta la Vista, Baby.
Paul n Tonya