As I'm writing this, Hannah and I have just finished our highlights tour of Madrid with our own personal tour guide, Phil Lucas, and we're now just waiting for their church service to start.
Seeing the highlights of Spain today were made all the more exciting because we got to see them while riding a scooter around between each one! Phil suggested we get around that way because it'd be quicker and more conventional for all the stopping and parking etc and I jumped at the chance to ride a bike again, especially through the streets of Madrid! So 10 min later we were geared up and ready to go, Hannah riding pillion on the back of my bike and me following Phil like a hawk through the crazy traffic and complicated intersections. What a way to travel!
One of the stops was outside the mecca of Spanish football, Estadio Santiago, home of Real Madrid FC and players such as Ronald and Kaka. In a word, amazing! What was even more amazing was that when we got there we saw that they were selling tickets for a game that night and guess what teams would be playing? Real Madrid vs Barcelona! Biggest grudge match of the country! How could we miss that? So we lined up for tickets, stood in a queue for about half an hour, sent some bragging texts to various mates about how we would be seeing these two teams play, only to find out that the tickets selling for 75 euro were all only single seat tickets spread out randomly throughout the stadium and if you wanted to buy 2 tickets next to each other it would cost 275 Euro per ticket, over 700 Aussie dollars for Hannah and I to go... :-( I was super bummed but as keen as I was to see it, but I couldn't justify paying that much (and neither could Han). So we had to settle for a cozy pub with lots of passionate Spaniards yelling at the Barcelona players on the TV and some warm drinks to keep out the cold, it made for a pretty good atmosphere and a good consolation for the real thing.
After a disappointing loss for the locals we headed back home, me following Phil again but a little more carefully this time because of the wet roads from earlier rainfall. Hannah was a very brave pillion passenger all day, especially since she was frozen half the time! Riding home that night the temp was about 5 degrees!
Well jet-lag is beginning to set in so I'm gonna wrap it up now, need to get some rest before a 3 hour MTB ride with Phil tomorrow... and that's at HIS speed!
P.S. We're no later longer at Phil and Lydia's church, in case u were wondering about the confusing mix up of event orders, I'm writing the last part in the evening after church
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| A nice river in Spain |
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| My attractive pillion passenger! |
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Sitting on the donkey of a famous statue in Plaza de Espana
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| The home ground stadium of Real Madrid F.C. |
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