Mad Madrid

As Zach starts to get worse we decide to spend the morning at the apartment chilling out and hoping Zach gets better.  We headed off in the late afternoon to Thyssen-Bornemisza and the collection is spectacular and doesn’t disappoint.  As we walk through the years, the kids are picking up the changes in the art that reflect the changes in attitude, religion and culture of the times.  

Realising this is probably our last day to get to Retiro park we make our way over to see all it has to offer.  In these big cities you get to notice the real lack of green spaces and how they compensate by having big park areas concentrated in the edges of the city.  And the parks are very well used with multiple areas to suit everyone.  If you want to sit on park benches under old trees that look like a cousin of the Kohwai that circle a water fountain - it has it.  If you want a combo of a big water area you can row boats, train in kayaks and ogle at massive momentums built to honour historical figures, it's here too. 

Green areas to throw a ball, adult exercise stations, and cafes also can be located in the park.  Unfortunately all this expanse is adding up and now our chill day of not walking too far has been undone and we are all over it.  All hot and shitty at each other we make our way home to eat food, can’t find anything we all like, try to intro the kids to Greek food (massive fail) and go home to no one being able to sleep.

On our last full day in Madrid we make our way to the Real Palacio and as we have pre purchased our 10am tickets, we manage to be the 2nd group of people in and have this amazing experience of having our self tour of the palace with almost no one else around.  Having toured a few palaces now in 3 countries, the French for me will always be the most extravagant and over the top, but the Spanish have the style factor, with each room being decorated differently so you would never get bored looking at the same interior.

The armoury is something to see.  It's not something we have come across in all the other places, but pride in the collection can be seen in how they have displayed everything from the battle armour for the young Ferdinand through to his horses throughout the years as he grew.  The detail on the armour is exceptional, but for me - it's the giant muskets that are on display.  I have so many questions on the size, in what situations you would roll out these things, how long they took to load and the kick back, or what the consequences of a misfire would be for the operator.

The next morning we are leaving early for the train station as we are off to Barcelona with the train leaving at 9am.  The instructions are to leave the keys in the apartment on our way out which we do.  Unfortunately someone has locked the front door of the apartment building, so we are locked out of the apartment and locked inside the stairwell unable to get out, a train that won’t wait for us, and A SHIT AIRBNB OWNER who won’t help us as she is RESTING??!!!  In an act of desperation I start knocking on neighbours doors and eventually an older gentleman on the second floor takes pity on me and brings a key to unlock the door for us, we decide to order an uber instead of walking now to get to the train station in time.  The uber won’t arrive to get us there any faster but will charge us for the privilege so we pony up, and walk like turbo bunnies to the station.  We managed to get to the station, through security on our train in time, but this was an omen for how the rest of our day would go…….