Madrid

We were ferried back to Lisbon where we spent one last night before flying to Madrid on Air Europa. That was the one flight which I had found using Expedia and we didn't know much about the airline except that it was a bargain at CAN$70 each for the flight.  Everything worked like a charm however until we tried to navigate out of the Madrid airport following my walking diagram.  There didn't seem to be any logical way of finding the path and, after much frustration and wandering, we deduced the nearest Metro stop to our hotel and opted to take the Metro in a long loop downtown and then back on another line.  This involved travelling about 12km in order to reach something that was 2km away.

But we finally got to the Maydrit hotel and were very happy with the results.

I took a walk through the park to the north of our hotel and wandered until I found a Metro stop.

Unlike Lisbon, Madrid is geared to bicycle traffic as seen in these excellent paths.

Scenes in Retiro Park

Cat Sanctuary in Retiro Park

Retiro Fountain & Falls (Ray's Visit)

I took the Metro to the Pyramides stop and walked down the river park which has some very striking features.

A very long bench

Bike and Pedestrian Bridge

Slides (they are called toboggans)

Later on, another park, nothing spectacular.

Scenes from the Railway Museum

Back to the Retiro Botanical Garden

Alfonso XII through the pillars

Madrid Airport Ceiling

We flew from Madrid to Heathrow and then onwards to Ottawa.  My MacBook Air was revived by the Apple Store at no charge in about three minutes.  The bronchitis is notably abating very day, the cats are happy, and I'm starting to think about next year's tour.

Jim