Day 27 – Leon to home via Madrid and Brussels   (30th May)

I make no secret of the fact that I always quite like coming home from a holiday. But it has to be said that the novelty wears off after 48 hours and then I get itchy feet again. This time was no different except for 2 things. Firstly, the size of the task in washing all our clothes was comparatively tiny – just 3 sets of everything. And secondly, after nearly 4 weeks of May sunshine and rain the garden looked atrocious – first world problem huh!

The train whisked us gently from Leon to Madrid in just over a couple of hours; and we were there in time for a good 4 hours of wandering. Cate had never been to the Spanish capital before, so I was keen to show her a bit of the historic centre. All of my visits to Madrid had been short and sharp, so I’d got a good idea on what we could cover in a limited amount of time.


We were in Madrid a few days earlier than we’d originally hoped to be. This was to avoid the joy that is 50,000 English football fans; and the outrageous hotel and flight costs that were being quoted. Surely a Barcelona versus Ajax final would have been better?

We emerged from Sol Metro station into Puerta del Sol. Always a busy tourist place, but is was teeming with people and taken over by various football related monstrosities erected by the corporate sponsors of the Champions League. Pretty horrible! The only positive was that there were only a handful of English fans there.


After a couple of token photo’s we headed into the narrow streets off Sol towards Plaza de la Provincia, but it was virtually closed as they were still erecting a corporate sponsored eyesore. I was not optimistic about the next place; Plaza Mayor. Usually the place where visiting football fans congregate, and often clash with the baton-happy Spanish police.


It was even worse than I’d expected, despite there being few fans in the Plaza. The place was just grossly disfigured by yet more corporate brainwashing edifices; and as in the other Plaza’s, huge numbers of police. In fairness to the authorities, the massive police presence was not just about English hooliganism; they were really genuinely concerned about potential terrorist activities.



We sneaked out the back of the Plaza Major to the relative calm of the narrow alleys and streets leading to the Mercado San Miguel – a very trendy ex-market now containing lots of fine eating places. Then onto the Plaza de la Amería that sits between the Royal Palace and the Cathedral. Fortunately, the Royal Family had not been subjected to looking out onto a load of Mastercard, Hotels.com, and Sony PlayStation touting tosh. The Plaza was nevertheless packed with tourist hordes.



Of course, it eventually dawned on me that all my previous trips to Madrid had been in the autumn and winter when the place is not over-run by tourists and holiday makers. I suspect that the seemingly frenetic feel of the place was massively accentuated by the huge contrast of our relative tranquility walking in the wide-open plains of the North. It really is a nice city, and we vowed that we’d come back at some point in the future, but not in May. I really do need to go to the new Atletico stadium after all!

Fed up with the chaos and crowds, we headed away from the Palace area to the Costanilla de San Andrés and the Plaza Paja. If any of you readers ever go to Madrid, visit this area. It’s beautiful – lots of small Plazas, Churches, narrow streets; and above all, relatively quiet.




So that was pretty much it. The efficient Madrid metro transported us out to the airport. From there it was two shortish flights (via Brussels) and we were back in reality. Massive thanks to Sheila for picking us up at Heathrow.



In a few days’ time we’ll collect our thoughts and reflections about the incredible last 4 weeks; and do one last edition of this blog




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