Madrid

The trip over was easy compared to the long haul flights we take to NZ although American Airlines has some seriously old and dumpy planes. We have definitely been spoiled by Quantas. But hey, we flew for free so we won't complain. We barely made the connection in Dallas for Madrid and had to sprint though.
I am doing this blog entry from my phone so bear with me plus I have jet lag.
The first pic is for Kevin, a beer aficionado. This cerveceria had all sorts of varieties and hundreds of caps. Beer tends to be quite budweiserish here but the Rioja red wines are dry, deep-flavored, and best of all cheap.
The second pic is my menu del dia second dish. It was the skin, hair, and gristle of a pig's elbow. There was no recognizable meat, but the gravy was tasty with rosemary, so I dipped my potatoes in that. I like to pick things I don't know from menus but this time it did not turn out well. I couldn't stomach the bristly hair! Next is a pic of Scott standing in a square quite close to our hotel. We are in the oldest section of Madrid near the royal palace, where the streets are narrow and cobble-stoned.
The paella pic shows what Scott ate for lunch. Delicious except he didn't know if he was supposed to eat the 6 baby-fist sized crabs mixed in. "Es possible a comer Los cangrejos enteros?" I asked. "No, solamente para sabor," the waiter said. The shrimp were cooked with their heads attached too so Scott had quite the pile of dead sea life on his plate when he was through.
It is semana santa (Easter week holidays) here. In the square was a levitating Christ street performer, along with an old goat street performer chewing a sprig of rosemary. The symbols for Easter are quite different here. Wish I knew what they all mean. Lots of shops and museums are closed but we were happy to just walk around and take in the balmy spring air and listen to the distinctive castellano Spanish with its lovely lisp. We have one more day here before we head north.
The pic of Scotty on a bench is him resting his eyes for a moment after not sleeping much for 2 nights.
The staircase pic is of our b&b - the wood is deeply grooved from use, so much so that you could easily trip. Five rooms and the owner's living quarters are in the same space as our downstairs living area at home. Cozy!
A post script...this morning at breakfast we found out that everyone else here had been pick pocketed on the metro on their way here from the airport. Two had wallets swiped from backpack pockets and the other from a fanny pack. Apparently it is a huge problem these days. Eeks.