MMMMMMMadrid

Over the weekend of 17-19 March we were in Madrid.

The contacts:

Roxy, a "friend" of John's, a student from Cambridge Uni doing a year out in Madrid. Simon, used to be part of Open Heaven Loughborough and is now planting church in Madrid.

The digs:

Roxy's house with Quini, Fonso and Ruben. Roxy is a most excellent host doing lots of cleaning, providing nice biscuits and a pigs leg sitting on the kitchen table.

The sights:

The monastry in El Escorial where John posed like this:



The Kings Palace in Madrid where we played cricket with a copy of The Economist and an Orange.

The Cathedral where we sheltered from the rain.

The Parrot Bar where I saw the parrot do a poo.

The Bull Bar where we saw footage of a Bull jumping into the stands.

The language:

Previously all i could say in spanish was "donde esta la supermerciado?"
Here are some phrases i picked up
"Hola"
"Si"
"Soy Ingles"
"Tengo biente dos anos"

You may or may not notice i cant really spell good in spanish!!!

The food:

Beautiful chorizo, pigs ears, croquettes, pimientos de padron (little spicy chillis), paella, natillas, pollo (chicken)

The drinks:

Sangria and Cerveza, nuff said!

The bear:



"El Oso y El Madroño"

We have two stories that you can choose to believe:

a) The bear is the source of all knowledge and Roxy has gone on a pilgrimage to touch the bears hind paws.

b) The bear is the source of a lot of controversy. There are a variety of suggestions as to what the bear is eating, probably strawberries. No one really knows why the bear is there. This begs the question:

Would you dare to stare at the bear with no hair?

Roxy says bears used to live in Madrid but now they have all moved to Malaga where there is more sun. QED!

Hasta Luego! Pronunciation: Asta Loowaygo!