Madrid Day 4

We had a much better sleep last night, it was virtually silent with very little traffic, mostly the security guards driving around checking everything was as it should be. The weather though was still cold, grey and threatening with rain, so we piled on our merino and coats and headed out for the bus. As usual the bus didn't arrive when we expected it, the schedule doesn't seem to mean much at all around here, but eventually it arrived and we caught it into our usual stop. Just at the roundabout where the bus stops is a genuine churro bar so we stopped for coffee/hot chocolate and churros. At some point we realised why it had been so quiet during the night, with no trucks, and why the bus hadn't come when we expected it (not that it ever is "on time") it was another PUBLIC HOLIDAY!!!!!! What with siesta time, and public holidays it is a wonder anything ever happens around here, and if it weren't for the coffee bars and restaurants which are always full, I think the economy of Spain would be even worse than it is!!!!!

A great pile of churros and hot chocolate. See the floor?, they just throw their rubbish on the floor in here and it gets swept up periodically!!

We took the metro today as we were going quite a long way, uphill past areas we had already walked a few times. We alighted up near The Temple of Debod, which is a gift from Aswan to the people of Spain, because when it was at risk from flooding, Spanish engineers went over to help sort out the problem. Apparently when it was sent over it arrived in crates/ piles of rocks with no instructions on how to rebuild it, so it was like a giant 3D jigsaw puzzle which kept the experts busy for some time!!
The picture below is not the temple, it is just a beautiful building nearby with a lovely coloured mosaic dome on top.

The Temple of Debod

One of the reliefs carved into the entrance way of the temple in the background

A view looking back over part of Madrid from behind the temple

Another shot of Madrid in autumn

The Palace in front and Cathedral in the background

We stopped off at Plaza Espana to admire the statue and building behind on our way to the Palace and Cathedral.

There was a group of food stalls doing business at the Plaza, imagine having this barbeque in the backyard??

Policemen in funny hats outside the Palace

The dome on the building featured earlier

Guards outside the Palace

Locals busking

We didn't realise but when we headed up towards the Palace and Cathedral the area was thronging with people, I mean tens if not hundreds of thousands, many carrying bunches of flowers, all headed towards the Cathedral. We decided to go and see what was happening. Our timing was impeccable, we got ringside (almost) seats to a wonderful display of religious fervour by the Madridians. Unbeknownst to us, it was their patron saint's day, and they had a wild procession of people dressed in their special gears, followed by the patron saint herself atop a flower bedecked float. They were building a huge wall of flowers with all the flowers people were bringing, and the whole area was buzzing. The only drawback was that the Cathedral was off limits, and the Palace closed, one of the very few days of the year that this occurs. We were treated to a different spectacle however that only happens once a year and boy was it spectacular.

The crowd in front of the cathedral, lining the processional route

A group in the procession

More of the procession

The flower wall in the background

The empty palace

Building the wall of flowers

A selection from the procession.

Once the procession was finished we walked back through Old Madrid a way and had some quick lunch before metroing back to the bus stop and bussing back to the truck.

A streetside puppet show

Another pretty building.

Once back at the truck we had a hot drink before deciding we might as well head north towards Zaragoza on our way back to Barcelona as it was not very pleasant weatherwise in Madrid and we felt we had seen enough for this time. So we drove about 150kms or so, expecting to find a stop which was in our camperstop book. We couldn't find it but instead settled for a stop at a service station, and settled in for the night, hunkered down against the rain and cold.