Madrid-Lisbon Day 21

April 20, 2010

Day 21 Madrid-Lisbon

We woke up the next morning and by accident realized that we had had free internet all night and didn't use it.  So Trevor quickly tried to take advantage of some of the internet.  We then headed to breakfast at a nearby café that served really good food.  It was off to find an info place next to see what the must do's in Madrid were.  There was one in Plaza Mayor, a popular square in Madrid.  After finding out that seeing a Flamenco show would be a pretty big must do, we went in search of a place to make reservations.  Along the way we walked by the Royal palace and saw some cute Spanish streets and alleys, though cleaner and less narrow than Barcelona's.  We made it to one of the places that have Flamenco shows, but they weren't open so we tried to find a pay phone to call.  Heading to a pay phone, we found a little market where Trevor finally bought himself sunglasses and I got myself churros while making our phone calls.  After reserving a spot at one of the places, we went back to the Royal Palace to do a tour there.  The palace had an amazing courtyard and inside the actual palace we got to see some armor, which was cool.  We also saw a peacock that had opened its tail and was trying to impress 3 females (to no avail, it appeared).  The palace had some beautiful rooms and amazing art on the ceilings, but it was similar to those in Poland.  Another cool part of the palace was the Royal Pharmacy full of all kinds of bottles labeled with different plant names.  It was neat.  After the Palace tour we headed back towards our hotel and stopped to eat at a pub that felt like we had been dropped in to Ireland for an hour.  We had a less than tasty Greek salad and some pasta and then headed towards Plaza Mayor where we did a little bit of people watching.  Along the way we went to buy some juice and found chocolate covered Oreos!!!  I was so amazed, I had to buy them.  We then headed back to the hostel but made a pit stop in Plaza del Sol where we watched some Spanish singers.  In the square there were a bunch of characters walking around including Winnie-the-Pooh, Tigger, Mickey and Minnie.  It was like a thing of nightmares when I saw Mickey take his head off!  We also watched a man making huge bubbles.  Then it was off to the hotel to pick up our bags and off to our Flamenco show.  The café that the Flamenco show happened was quite nice.  To stay and see the show you had to purchase at least a drink so Trevor ordered a beer and I ordered Sangria.  When it came, I was astounded how much Sangria I got.  It was basically a pitcher!  Very tasty!  The Flamenco show was super cool.  They had a live band singing while a bunch of women danced, young and old.  There was even a guy who danced.  The best part, Trevor and I agreed, was when one of the guitar players played a solo.  I can't even believe how fast his fingers moved.  It was amazing!  And the music was beautiful!  It was a lot of fun and it was a bit sad that we had to leave early to catch our train.  Thankfully we made our train.  We had stayed at the show later than we originally had planned and practically ran to the metro.  This train ride was a 10 hour train so we had to get comfortable cause we would be in our seats for a while.