Out and about in Madrid

Thought we’d post a few pics of Madrid for your viewing pleasure. Weather has been pretty good here, occasional rain but nothing heavy. Temps have been around low 60’s so pretty good walking weather.

Some observations about Spaniards: Weekends are for strolling. From Friday afternoon to Sunday night the plazas fill with people walking, window-shopping or just sitting and talking. Lots of street performers are out, even some that dress up in Disney character costumes and charge a fee for a photo. Others play instruments, sing, dance or do acrobatic shows with balls and rings. Pretty good free entertainment.

The Spanish don’t appear to be big shoppers. The streets may be packed with people but the stores aren’t. Lots of window-shopping and strolling, occasionally someone with a small bag will go by, but mostly people are just outside.

Lots of counterfeit goods being peddled by illegal immigrants. How can I say this? Well, there are numerous articles you can research that describe the problem, in detail. But besides doing research, I don’t think a Rolex goes for 100EUR. Immigrants from Senegal and Dakar are common here, selling everything you can imagine. Rolex, Prada, Nike, and even some plain old junk is bundled in a sheet and displayed on the ground. The sheets have a rope tied to them for a quick grab and run by the seller. It is illegal to sell this way in Spain but enforcement seems to be lax.

Eating out is an everyday event. Restaurants fill up around 1230 and stay that way until 3pm or so when they close. They re-open for dinner any time after 6pm. Favorite foods seem to be seafood, beef, pork and lots of tapas, small bites of hot or cold foods. Kind of fun to make a meal of tapas where you can try different foods. One of our favorite places has become El Cortes Ingles restaurant at Plaza del Sol. Great food, great views and great service. Another Madrid staple is hot chocolate and churros. The hot chocolate is not for drinking, it’s a dip made from different types of chocolate, depending on your taste. Although we did see one little boy finishing off his chocolate by drinking it!

Housing in the city is predominantly apartments and condos. We’ve walked a considerable amount of Madrid and a few other cities and have found individual homes to be pretty scarce.

Driving is closer to our style, not as forgiving and certainly not cordial to drivers trying to cut in or change lanes. Although we haven’t driven here, watching street traffic is a must for walkers. If you attempt to cross the road and you’re not in a crosswalk, better be fast! In a crosswalk, cars must stop, no question. But outside a crosswalk, it’s open game. Traffic can be a nightmare. Major streets fill-up at the usual hours with people going to work.  We actually got out of our Uber and walked to a store because the traffic wasn’t moving at all. Subways, buses all seem to be plentiful but they can get packed during rush hour as well. Just life in the big city!

That’s enough blabbing for now. Lindsay and Leo arrive Saturday so the touring starts all over.