Lluvia...
Cumpleaños Felíz Domingo!
Our 1st real day in Madrid. After a late diner + night walk yesterday, we were pretty exhauted and ended up in bed at 1.30am. So today we got up at 12.30. It was so good to sleep and not have to worry about flat or plane or any other thing.
We got up, took a shower and then we where on our way to town. It was nice and sunny outside! We stopped at Antonio's bar. It is small but It looks cosy, and fairly empty... I guess it was too early.
We walked from the center to Lavapiez, and then from Lavapiez to Plaza Mayor. We don't really have an itinary we are just wandering around the street, enjoying the architecture and a bit of sun.
Then we got a bit hungry so we decided to stop at EL MERCADO SAN MIGUEL. It was delicious and a really nice place to go and see.
After a great lunch, we decided to follow one of the walk suggested by my book taking place in the old town, where we were.
We walked pass Plaza de la Villa with the Town hall and la Casa de Cisneros
Then wandered near the Basílica Pontificia de San Miguel, which was unfortunately closed.
We end up at the bottom od Arco de Cuchilleros, which brought us to...
....Plaza Mayor, which reminded me a bit of Piazza San Marco in Venice, Italy.
One of the wall is completely recovered of allogorical paintings (picture on the left).
Finally back to square 1, la Puerta del Sol, which is a starting point everyday.
It started raining, and we had no coats with us... luckily we were near "home" and decided to go back and lie down for a bit until the rain stops. Unfortunately the weather decided otherwise, and because it was still raining at 7pm, we decided to take out coats and brave the rain direction Atocha. It is a train station known for its tropical garden, that can be interesting!! We jumped in the tube at Atón Martin for 2 stops.
Unfortunately we took the wrong exit and ended up on the other side of a huge roudabout under the rain. Being adventurous we decided to find a place to cross rather than go back underground. Which was actually a good thing because that way we realised that we were near the museum Reina Sophia, which is more an Art Gallery.
We managed to cross to see the beautiful station half buried compare to the rest of the surroundings. I love the colours of the building, and the details are exquisit (but too much rain to stop, photos will be for another day).
Before entering the Station we can see accros the road El Ministerio de Agricultura.
Once in the station, we are a bit disappointed, first of all it is really gloomy and dark, due to the bad weather but also the "Tropical Garden" is nothing like the pictures we have seen from it and there is a international fair with lighted stall inside it (it killed the buzz...). The fair finishes on the 15th of April, hopefully after that it will be beautiful!
On the ther side of the tropical garden, facing the departures and arrivals, there is a pond with fish and turtles. We wander for a while in the Station and hunger reminds us of the time (8.45pm). We walk back the way we arrived because we saw a place that seems nice for dinner, plus tonight they have an offer!
100 Montaditos, a place where friends meets for a nice gathering, with some football on (which is apparently THE national sport here in Spain, every single places we have been to have the TV on with some football). Quite intrigued by this new place, we found a table and stared at the menu for a while and we look around us to see how it works and what are people ordering. Beers are at 1€ as well as Bocadillos (small sandwiches), any for 1€. So we ordered a few and we also had home made crips to go with them.
After diner, we went to my future flat to meet Tyler, the American flatemate. we arrived at 10.15pm (which is not late for Spaniards apparently) and we spent a good hour discussing, he is really friendly. We head "home" around 11.30pm but it took us a good hour to go home due to wrong directions given by the cashier of the tube and the scarse number of tube at this hour (even though tube is open until 1.30am!!).
Once at home, we don't linger and go straight to bed!
Buenas noches!
