Final Days in Madrid

September 21, 2024 to September 26, 2024

Rerouted Due to Hurricane

We were due to fly into Tallahassee at 8:30 pm Thursday night - during hurricane Helene. Fortunately, the airlines rerouted us to Boston then DC. where we spent the night with our daughter and her family. Hopefully today, Friday we’ll be able to fly in. At least at this point, reports from home indicate that a pine tree fell onto the street and utility wires. Fortunately not hitting any homes and no injuries.

Bike free. Bikes labeled and handlebars and seats wrapped for pickup. Bike bags and helmets boxed. My gear back in backpack duffle and hip pack ready for high speed train back to Madrid.

Once in Madrid we finally timed our “lunch” for a paella.

Central Madrid has an abundance of beautiful buildings.

Concave buildings surround this intersection.

Returned to the Prado for a non jet lagged visit. Sorry photos not allowed. Goya’s 2nd of May and 3rd of May paintings were placed side by side.

The number of large paintings, mural sized, is amazing. Goya, Velazquez, Rembrandt, Caravaggio, El Greco produced a tremendous number of beautiful paintings.

One last visit to an anthropology museum, the Museum of Anthropology National. This museum is in Madrid ending our trek along the pathway of early man and the Visigoths. There are a ton (if I remember correctly 65) caves in Spain. Hopefully, on our next visit we’ll have a chance to explore several more caves. Spain is a rich source of Paleolithic knowledge and areas of discovery as well as ancient civilizations.

Skulls of earliest humans, pre Neanderthal.

We passed this Mural on the way to the airport.Grandma Mary Poppins?

Some closing thoughts and observations.
1. If caught in the rain, wash your riding pants before wearing again to avoid sandpapering your bottom, Bob.

2. Lots of people smoke, fortunately mostly outside. Note for my friends with asthma.

3. Subways have great informational signs and ticket machines that are multi lingual.

4. Plastic bottles have tops that twist to open but stay attached. Environmental choice?

5. Worked out well taking a folding backpack duffle that fit into our panniers with our gear in dry bags.

6. Don’t count on google for train times, hours of restaurants, and even sometimes directions.

7. Google translate was a great help. Even with some interesting food interpretations, chicken backs turned out to be 1/4 chicken baked.

8. Gas stations were great rest stops. Most had packaged food, restrooms and cold drinks. Some even had restaurants.

9. If a crosswalk figure is blinking, run. Light about to change. Look out cars will go immediately.

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