4 nights in Madrid

Jamie had to go to Madrid for a couple of days for work, so I tagged along. Neither of us had been there before - our only visits to Spain were a couple of days in Barcelona (separately). Had the feeling with Barcelona, and again with Madrid, that Spain really needs a good dose of visiting time to get into the swing of the place.

Weather was very hot, high 30's, so I spent Friday arvo in the Museo del Prado away from the sun. Some fantastic pieces of work there. I really LOVED Bosch. Only made it through half of the gallery, rushing at the end, so Jamie and I returned Saturday afternoon.

The trip reminded me a bit of my first trip to Italy. That was my first experience of a strong mono culture (for want of a better term, I know there are lots of regional cultural variations etc etc). In Australia everything seems to go in tides - fashion, foods, housing and so on. In Italy there was just this strong Italian feel. They ate Italian. Someone said if you were having an affair in Italy you met them in a Chinese restaurant as you would never run into anyone. Guess it really brought home the diversity back home. Madrid was similar. So many Spanish skirts (and not on tourists!). Guess I expected those things that have become a cliche/stereotype to be distant from any real source.

But anyway, enough nonsensical babble... We didn't take many pictures, but will put up what we have soon...