Madrid and Segovia, Spain

We arrived in Madrid after a very long train ride from Bayonne. At our hostel, in the old town center of Puerta del Sol, we found that they had moved us to their brand new hostel a few blocks away. It was quite nice with free internet and a clean kitchen we could use, woo hoo!

We spent about an entire day finding Mike´s insulin pump company branch on the outskirts of town, talking security into letting us in, and having the receptionist help us track down a guy Mike´d emailed a few times. It was a mess, but he did get more diabetes supplies in the end, so a success in the end. That evening, we went with a group from the hostel out for beers and tapas. We didn't know what the tapas that we chose was, we just knew that it had garlic in it. It was called garlic gula. When it arrived, it looked like little worms on toasted bread but we gave it a go and it was really good. We found out later that it is made of Alaskan cod, and is a substitute for much more expensive baby eel. We talked with our dorm mate, a PhD student at Cambridge (originally from Virginia) studying molecular biology. Nice guy, but a complete dork, he earned the (between us) nickname of Bio-Geek.

We tried to go to the world renowned Prado Museum, but with the Christmas/New Years holiday, the lines to get in were about 2 hours long. Since the weather was warm and the sun shining we found ourselves on a park bench for several hours that afternoon, soaking up the sun. Later, wandering around the plaza near the hostel, we did some people watching. For some reason, everyone was buying crazy wigs (think rainbow mullets down to the waist crazy). Young and old, looking silly in the streets.

One of the days in Madrid, we took a train to Segovia for a daytrip. We had no map and wandered around the city for a while, which at first glance appeared to be dead. We finally found the Roman aqueduct from the 1st century AD, which the city is famous for. The aqueduct runs through the center of the city and used to provide fresh drinking water for the people. We also checked out the city's palace and the main cathedral. It was a really neat little city with a lot of character. The aqueduct is amazing; there is no mortar used in the arches, just shaped stones.

At some point, we also checked out the Madrid palace and Cathedral, and ate grilled sweet potatoes and corn on the cob from a street vendor. The final day, we ended up back at the park we´d been to earlier, this time to nap on the grass. It was Sunday, and the park was packed full of locals and tourists, so we fit in. We left Madrid that evening at about 10:30 pm on a night train bound for Portugal.

Photos, HERE.