I want to thank Robyn for taking on the weekend blog update. She did a great job. Not much happened the first part of the week. Robyn and the BBVA gang are working long, hard hours. I did some walking around our area to roads I had not yet explored. Robyn and I had found a cookie shop last weekend but we did not buy anything so I stopped there and got an assortment of cookies for Robyn to enjoy at work. I put one in her backpack every day as a little surprise. They are really good. Wednesday we planned to see a flemenco show which is half price on Tuesday & Wednesday. There were 9 of us going and we decided to have a party at our house before going since the show is only 5 minutes from our apartment. We made tapas and had libations for all. We filled our bellies and then headed to the show. I didn't really know what to expect even though I had seen a flamenco show in Tampa. The performers did a mix of ballet dance as well as flamenco and they were amazing. The show lasted over an hour and the dancing and music that accompanied the dance were remarkable. At 15 euros we got a real bargain for the show they put on. We may go again when our friends Tracie & Randy come in a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, I did not bring my camera because they frown on the flash of a camera while dancing. If we go back, I will just turn the flash off and see if I can get some pictures. The next day I planned to meet Vickie to get 2 mobile phones that we could use in Spain. Joey and Vickie found cheap phones near their apartment so I met Vickie at their stop and got the phones without any problem. I planned next to go the Atocha railway station to get tickets for our adventure to Toledo on Saturday. Vickie decided to join me so we took the metro to the station and after getting the tickets, we decided to take a walk through Retiro Park which is right behind the Prado museum. This park was built in the 17th century during the reign of Philip IV and is the most important (historically and artistically speaking) of all the parks in Madrid and is one of the most beautiful city parks in the world. The park was originally home to a set of buildings that comprised of a large palace, a garden, hermitages, grottos. ponds, etc. The park is 350 acres large and we only saw a fraction of it this day but what we saw lived up to the reputation. The park is beautiful as the pictures will show. We walked around for a while and then stumbled across a building that hosts exhibits during the year. We went inside and found one of the most unusual exhibits I have ever seen. There was a tribute to the wheat festival that happened in Kansas back in the 70's, a replica of a persons hip, a wall of mouths with tongues sticking out, toy soldiers used in different ways, a table with molded foods representing important dinners throughout history, and more odd things some of which were inappropriate for our blog. We saw the whole exhibit and then went in search of food. it was about 3:00 and we had walked a lot. We ended up walking all the back to Puerta del Sol and ate at a restaurant just down the street from our apartment. The food was really good and so was the sangria. We said our goodbyes and headed home exhausted but satisfied with our day. Vickie is a great sightseeing companion so we plan to do it again in the near future. Joey and Vickie are going to join us on our trip to Toledo so it should be a fun day. Robyn and I plan to go to Retiro park on Sunday and explore some more. There is so much more to see and Vickie and I just scratched the surface. Unfortunately, I have come down with a cold and Robyn's allergies aare acting up. I went to a pharmacy down the street and got some medicine. Hopefully we will get better soon. The picture at the top of the blog is a picture of one of the two gateways to Madrid.
Adios!!
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