Marrakech to Madrid

Morocco was a wonderful experience for me. I love visiting countries that are so different in terms of culture, landscape and architecture.  Once we left Morocco we headed to Madrid for a couple of days. We arrived mid afternoon and it was such a gong show. The airport there is brutal for signage and no one was willing to help us because they didn't understand us. Needless to say it took quite a while to find our bags. That was the only incident we encountered our whole trip and thinking about it, it was pretty minor.

Once we arrived at our hotel, we walked around trying to find something to eat. We ended up at an awesome pizza place! Soooo good! The next day we took the New Madrid free walking tour. Our tour guide Eddie was very informative and super sarcastic. In my opinion I was a bit bored on this 4 hour tour. I am not really a history buff and I have a really short attention span, so combine the two and I was out of it! Thank god Eddie's smart ass sense of humour kept me interested every now and than.

Madrid is a beautiful city, but in my opinion I think it lacked that obvious cultural something ? we experienced in Portugal and Madrid. If you blindfolded me and took me to Madrid, took off the blindfold and asked me where I was, I would probably say somewhere in the States.

I hope this isn't coming across as a bash Madrid entry because that is not my intention. I guess what I am trying to say is it wasn't what I thought it would be like. Thus, I didn't take that many photoz. Plus it was flippin' freezing!

New Year's Eve is often celebrated in the square next to the Sol station

Following a dispute in the 13th century over hunting rights on the land which was owned by the church, agreement was reached that the church owned the soil, but Madrilenos owned everything above the ground - namely game. Hence the symbol of Madrid was born - a Bear (the church's emblem) sniffing a tree. This bear can be seen across the city today, emblazened on taxis, buses, pavements, bins and almost everything belonging to "the city".

This statue weighs almost 20 tons!  This statue is sometimes translated as the Bear and the Strawberry Tree.  The Madroño tree (which sounds like Madrid) is not native to Madrid.  And it is not a strawberry tree.  The berries of the Madroño tree are red like strawberries.  However they are very sweet and are really not good eaten raw (unlike strawberries), but are only good to eat when made into a jam.

That is Eddie on the left telling us about the Royal Palace

This pub is super cool. You have a choice of 101 different sandwiches on toasted mini baguettes for 1 euro. You get your sandwiches with a handful of chips. What a great idea! They are sooooo tasty and my mom and I were thinking that opening up something very similar would be a great idea!

This is the oldest restaurant in the world. It is still open and Ernest Hemingway used to frequent here. The menu is insanely $$$$$!

Plaza Mayor has been the scene of multitudinous events: markets, bullfights, soccer games, public executions, and, during the Spanish Inquistion "autos de fe" against supposed heretics and the executions of those condemned to death.

Madrid is a pretty trendy city and the music scene is nuts! I would be broke if I lived here!

The next day mom and I did our own thing. She went out and about and made a trip to the Prado Museum. I stayed back at the hotel and rested as I was super sick with a nasty cold and my back was killing me from the long walking tour the day before. That night we made our way to the train station to take an overnight train back to Lisbon.

I have only been on an overnight train once and that was from Beijing to Xian. That was an experience in its own right! This wasn't bad. The cabin was a TIGHT squeeze, but we were just there to sleep, right? well, we tried but since we were the last cabin in the last car, every time the train took a corner it felt like we were going to derail!! We both felt pretty car sick and slept for maybe a few hours if that.

Well, if you have kept up with our journey thus far. THANKS! I have a few more entries to go, so thanks for keeping up :-)