Madrid

Madrid is not our favorite European city. We have tried. Our first visit, 3 years ago, was marred by the weather and a miserable campground experience. This time the weather was much improving and the campground experience, at Camping Osuna, was just fine. A 10 minute walk and you're at the Metro and maybe 20 minutes more to the Plaza del Sol. But then you get there and after walking a bit realize there is little of real interest. For us, anyway. We did a 2 hour walk--Fodor's, and, I add, the worst walk description we have yet endured. It got interesting in the last block or so. See below. We go to Madrid for the Prado, which is marvelous, but that's the next post. Or not.

The interestingly signed entrance to Camping Osuna

We had a nice lunch at Finca de la Susana

And browsed a few pig stores, wondering whether the
color-coding was similar to that of the candles at Montserrat

And here we are, now on Fodor's walk, at the Plaza de la
Whatever; note the matador trying to stir up business;
there was also a grossly over-weight Spider Man; we
proceeded on

City Hall, the original city hall, or possibly some other
structure

Things got interesting only near the end of the walk, at the
music school, with its semi-Nabokovian assertion of "no
aesthetics without ethics" and "no ethics without
aesthetics"

And then really interesting with the Calle de Lepanto and
its remembrance of...

Cervantes' loss of (use of?) an arm in "the Naval"

And then, Velasquez' apartment across from

The Royal Palace (another Versailles imitation)

And its equestrian pose of Phil 4, from a
sketch by Velasquez

And then the Opera

We even tried the churros and chocolate sampler at Valor; I
am so done with churros and chocolate now