Madrid Day 3

Crossing the motorway (on a pedestrian overbridge) on our way to the camp ground to get the truck, after our night at the museum

After our very noisy and long night amongst the trucks we were ready to go into town early, but our first stop came early as we were in dreadful need of coffee. We stopped at a cute little cafe where the young man served up cafe con leche as below.

We made our way through different streets from our usual bus stop, following vaguely a route described in the DK book which would get us to the Plaza Mayor, via some historic monuments and past old interesting buildings.

Scenes at Plaza Mayor

There were all sorts of activities taking place at the plaza this morning. People dressed as anything you could imagine, from a very rotund Spiderman, to a skinny Obelisk, a woman dressed up as a fruit bowl, an Elvis, people without heads, ..... I can't remember them all, but anything goes, the aim being you pose for a photo with them or else just take a photo of them for a fee, we were hassled by Charlie Chapman who didn't seem to comprehend "no" or "non" or any other politely muttered indication that we didn't want any photos.  There was a crowd gathered in one spot so we went to check out what was happening, there was about to be a live broadcast to the USA for the "Today Show" about "where in the world am I?" They were practising for the spot to be broadcast, including flamenco and music so we stayed and watched for quite a while until it was all over and the crowds disipated.

Filming for the "Today Show"

We consulted our DK tour map and decided to exit the plaza and go to a market which was next door. It was a very clean and tidy market with a visually stunning (and they smelt pretty good too) display of hundreds of tapas/portions of food of all types. The aim being you cruise around the market picking out little morsels from the stalls to nibble on for lunch, with wine or beer or coffee .......

A selection of morsals

A piece of chocolate mousse we all shared

After browsing through the markets we continued our exploration of the streets of Old Madrid, discovering more statues of interest (see below), the line on the footpath outside the main post office which is point zero for all roads from Madrid,

 and a cafe that served good coffee and tostada for a very late lunch.

More dress ups for photos, no I didn't pay.


We headed back to the truck and drove a few hundred metres away from where we had spent the night, ever hopeful that things would be quieter in our new spot which thankfully they were. Later we discovered it was yet another public holiday in Madrid which is why our night had been quiet and why the next day, buses were on a limited schedule.
Tonight though, once we had battoned down the hatches, we all tucked in and slept through until morning, waking mightily refreshed.