Bien gracias, y tu?

Seriously have to learn some more Spanish. Lots of people speak English quite well but we've had a couple of cab drivers who didn't, making us work hard with our hands to make sure we went in the right direction, hilarious. The flights weren't too bad, I caught about 3+ hours sleep between Toronto and Frankfurt and after a quick break there the 2.5hr flight to Madrid was pretty easy. AJ didn't get any sleep so he had to keep his eyes closed to avoid bleeding to death. We went straight to the apartment, in a very Toorak-style inner-city neighbourhood called Salamanca. The whole area is flooded with high price fashion stores, D&G, Prada, Miu Miu etc and other top-shelf stores (Jay bought one apple and a handful of blackberries from a grocer and the cost was 6EU, or $12AUD). We arrived at the apartment to find it was still being cleaned so after a quick look around we decided to go for a walk.

Jay had been to Madrid a few weeks ago as part of setting the gig up so he had a good basic mental compass for what was where. The sun was out and temp around 20 degrees so we headed towards the main city center about 4k's away. Every so often we stopped to check out food, a plate of cured ham, awesome sheeps-milk cheese and beers for all 3 of us cost 10EU, outstanding value and damn tasty. I was in Madrid in '86 but my memories were of hot mid-summer weather, back-packers hostels and a different area of the city. The streets, especially Grand Via the main drag, were very familiar but early spring gives all the trees and parks a much greener look to the one I saw with 19 year old eyes and now recall with a 41 year old brain.

First images of Madrid are the obvious ones, tight winding streets with smaller cars (easier to touch-park) and 100's of vespas, lots of people on the streets after 8pm on a Monday, old couples walking hand in hand wearing their best clothes (just strolling), fantastic architecture, statues, sculptures, gardens. Our walk was over 7k's round trip and after being cramped in the aircraft my knees started to complain (clearly getting old :-)) so I was relieved to get back to the apartment around 21:30, have a red wine and wind down.

We all hit the hay before midnight not sure what time our body clocks would wake us. In the end I hit my snooze 3-4 times before I could get moving, my body still thinking it was 2am. We were running a little late so I couldn't stop for a coffee and that made this morning a bit harsh. We attended our first client meeting which was held mostly in spanish, a sure fire way to make me nod off and I had to focus to stay awake. We had lunch at a local place were the IBM'ers are given vouchers that cost 1EU and are good for a 3 course meal. The three of us did have any vouchers but the bill was under 10EU each although the food was pretty basic, okay 'rustic' to be polite. Hopefully it wont be our regular lunchtime haunt. The plan for this evening is to take the Metro back to the apartment, rather than a cab, then shop for some essentials before we head out for tapas again. I didn't take my camera with me last night so I don't have any pictures yet but expect that to be remedied tonight.

Andy, out.