May 20, 2011

We left Seville today to travel by train to Madrid.  We had decided to get first class so we could rest as we knew by this time, we would be super tired.  We shared the car with a couple, the grandmother and a baby who is overall terms was well-behaved.  She was noisy and towards the end of the ride needed to sleep.  We did not rest really on the train.  The grandmother brought the fussy baby back to our area and sat next to Mario so the baby's parents could rest.  Mario was very excited about that as you can imagine!

We checked into our hotel which is in the "old" Madrid-beautiful old buildings in the downtown area.  There is activity here 24-7.  We went out and walked over to the Tourism office and it was a sea of people...all kinds...working folks, kids, goths, some homeless, a few that looked like addicts living on the street and lots of tourists like us.  It looked like any other big city in terms of the people.  We are located near the two main squares where there are massive protests taking place, mostly by the young and well-educated who are unemployed and frustrated by the government's ability to create opportunities and career growth.  The local elections are Sunday and we will be steering clear of the conflicted areas.  There is a heavy police presence.

In the evening, our friend Pepe Cajigas, AKA "el pasito"  met us at the hotel and we did an extensive walking and eating tour. [Pepe (and Rocio) were our neighbors in Mexico City and were the first to see Mario when we brought him home from the hospital.]   It was wonderful having someone who really knows the history and developments explain all that we were seeing.  We walked down to the cathedral, the palace and many of the historical landmarks. We even found a Mexican restaurant-bar and we all cracked up as we saw the "Chapulin Colorado" flanking the entrance.  Inside there was a display of all the wrestler's masks.  We had a beer and moved on.  We ate in a restaurant called "Los Huevos de Lucio." Pepe knows a lot of the people there and got us a nice table and we ate like kings.  Saturday we will do the Tour-Bus and Sunday we will do the Prado and Queen Sophia Museums. This is a fabulous city with so much culture and history and we feel very safe here.