Madrid

School finished June 30 so July 2 we headed to Madrid for a week.  This entry will be about the city and we'll do a separate one for the day trips. 

Madrid was excellent, it reminded me of Fremantle but a city version.  It was great to wander around the streets, seeing great architecture, sculpture, people, eating wonderful food and the warmth!  We were staying on Gran Via which is the main road through the old part of the city.  It was a great location, we could walk almost anywhere (and we did) and there was also a metro stop near the hotel for when I was just too tired/hot.  The hotel had a rooftop pool with views over the old part of the city and I loved to look out at the Palace Real.  

The lifestyle seems very relaxed and we were definitely in the holiday frame of mind, up late, lunch at 3, dinner at 10 as the sun is finally going down.  We walked many of the streets of Madrid and followed Lonely Planet's walking tour and eating guides.  We also met up with Susanne a couple of times, a friend from school who used to live in Madrid, who took us to a few tapas bars as well as suggest a few places.

Madrid is known as the gay capital of Europe but what we didn't realise was that we had arrived during the biggest European Gay Pride Festival.  There were people everywhere and stages set up all around the city.  We had mojitos and watched part of a drag show.

On the Saturday night we went for a walk around the Latina barrio and had dinner at a great place in a piazza whilst Spain played in the quarter final for the World Cup.  Lots of people glued to tvs and walking back to our hotel we noticed that the streets had been blocked off, we thought it was soccer celebrations but when we got near our hotel we got to see the Pride parade going down Gran Via.  Their was loud music and lots of dancing and a carnival atmosphere.  We watched for a while and unfortunately did not find out until the next day that at the end of the parade just down the road was a free Kylie Minogue concert!!

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