Way Out. Sortie. Salida.

It´s out last night in Madrid. Spent the day walking the other half of the city we didn´t see the first day. It was packed today as the Madrillenos return from their holiday weekend.

We walked through a part of the Rastra, the large flea market here. Most of the stuff we´d seen before, so, it was a short crowded trip. We went to plaza Mayor to eat bocadillos calamares! yummy! A stop at the Museo de Jamon to pick up some packages of wonderful Iberian jamon. Then a walk past the old banks with their rich architecture. We took our tired feet up a street known to be the hangout for the old Spanish writers, whose writing is placed into the street, but is now known for getting sloshed with free shots as people go tapas bar hopping. While the US only knows tapas as tapas, here there is a specific difference. Tapas are free with drinks, pinchos are slightly larger tapas that are served, raciones are dishes eaten with drinks.

We went through their parque de retiro which had one of two sculptures of the fallen angel. We rested our feet at a cafe my cousin likes to hang out at. The city has a way for you to walk and walk and walk and somehow you get to back to where you started. It´s all the circular plazas. We missed seeing flamenco, so we went back to our cousin´s place for snacks and for him to burn us a copy of the flamenco he had.

Their friend from the Basque region received some fresh small fish marinated in vinegar which were delicious. We also had some South American fruit I know I´ll never see in California. Kind of like a citrusy cherry tomato with light green leaves.

We have some final packing and weighing of our luggages before the plane ride tomorrow. It seems a lifetime ago we were on the flight to London. It has been wonderful! And we can´t wait to come again!

We found it funny that we were the first of the family to come and visit my cousin who has been here for 3 years now. But that´s the way it is, if you don´t put it on the calendar, don´t make it a point to go, then well, life has a way of slipping very quickly by and you just never get around to it. It seemed like forever that we had talked about going to Europe and now we´re here and now we´re going home. So what will our next great adventure be? What´s next in life? It´s never to early to get to doing the next thing.