| We watched the mist from the fountain blow with the wind. The fountain is located in Parque de Retiro.. |
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| Glenn's Madrid Journals 06-14-02 (Continued) Upon our arrival about 15 minutes later (and sweating from the heat and the slight uphill walk to the place) we found the Plaza Santa Ana under construction along with the basement of the building we were staying in. We asked about both but not to worry as the construction crews stop at 6:30 pm every day and they wouldn't be working on the weekend anyway. We dropped our loads and sat in the room for a while while we cooled off. We ended up staying in for the afternoon after meeting our neighbors from the room next door (A Canadian couple traveling for 3 months who had just arrived in Spain the day before and didn't speak much Spanish) and chatting with them for better than an hour. Erin then studied up on Madrid, which I had done earlier, and provided me a list of places she wanted to see while we were here. (Of course this was after she and the young man from Canada had gone to get beers to enjoy in the room while we relaxed.). We finally got going around 7:30 pm when we headed out to see some of Madrid. We walked towards Plaza Mayor and on the way there we ran across a movie theater playing movies in English with Spanish subtitles. Erin is a big movie buff and has been deprived on this trip extensively (We have only seen two movies so far). We then planned to be back for the 10:40 pm showing of Infidelity. At the Plaza Mayor we strolled around checking out the crowds along with the buildings and restaurants (outdoor seating for over 500 people). There were a few entertainers in the plaza with most of them being musicians (with the occassional dancers). We stopped for Tapas and sangria at one of the outdoor restaurants (expensive to sit in Plaza Mayor) but enjoyed watching the crowds. At 10:30 pm we quickly returned to the theater to catch the 10:40 pm showing. The interesting thing about movie start times in Spain is that the previews are actually before the movie start time and the movie actually starts on time as listed, so don't be late. After the movie we walked back to our hotel. As we approached our hotel we saw that the street we were located on was packed with people so we continued to stroll through the neighborhood to see why. Most people were dressed nicely (more business casual than jeans) and that neighborhood was packed with bars and restaurants. We quickly learnt on our first night in the hotel that just outside our window the neighborhood stayed hopping until the wee hours of the morning (4 a.m. or so and it was Friday night). We did fall asleep through it all but awoke occasionally to the sounds below. |