Madrid day two - Flea Market

Dear Family and Friends,

Last night Brenda told Chuck and I about a flea market that is held every Sunday here in Madrid.  She asked if we would be interested in going. We accepted enthusiastically. She told us to be ready to go by 8:45am.  They would knock on our door as they were leaving.

We went to bed at a decent time so no need to set a clock.  I woke up this morning and looked at my watch. It was 8:35am!  We had to tell Clarke and Brenda to go on without us and we would do the flea market later. 

Before leaving to go to the flea market we had to repack our luggage.  Chuck and I brought one large suitcase each and one carry-on each.  For the next couple of weeks or so we will be touring the south of Spain in a small rental car. Then we are going by boat to Morocco.  In Morocco we will be going to various cities by train. All four of us agreed before we came on the trip that we should limit ourselves to one carry-on size bag each for this portion of our trip. The large bags are too big for that much schlepping around.

What about our large suit cases?  They will be left at the hotel we are staying in when we return to Madrid.  We fly back to Madrid toward the end of October to catch a flight to Mallorca, where we board the cruise ship.

Now...back to the flea market adventure.

Chuck and I took the metro to Plaza del Sol.  We walked to Plaza Mayor where the market begins.  On the way we decided to stop for breakfast.

We found a coffee/tea shop that served a Spanish breakfast and an English breakfast.  I ordered the English style and Chuck ordered the Spanish style breakfast.

Chuck's breakfast.  Chuck's toast has a tomato spread on it.

 

and my breakfast.

 

That glob in the middle of my plate is bacon.  Not too bad, but my comment to Chuck was "I sure miss the Kookaburra and the California Kitchen about now."

After breakfast we walked on to Plaza Mayor. This picture is of the entrance.

When we went through the archway the plaza opened up.  It is surrounded on all four sides by buildings.  Chuck (my favorite tour guide) told me that when they first moved the capital to Madrid this was where all the government buildings were built.

We went though another archway to get to the flea market.  It was sooooo crowded.  The market went on for blocks and blocks and it was shoulder to shoulder people.  It was much to crowded to do any serious shopping.  We inched our way along...partly carried by the crowd...to the other end.  We did not buy a thing.  As Clarke said in his blog post...this venue is perfect for being pick pocketed.  I brought my camera out once to take the photo below just to give you an idea of the humanity.

 

It was just this crowded from beginning to end!!

It took us a couple of hours to walk the entire market.  Luckily, getting to the end paid off.  We found more outdoor seating.  We sat for awhile, enjoyed a nice cool one and people watched.

After we got back to our hotel, Clarke and Brenda came to tell us they were going to get something to eat.  We tagged along and had a fun time catching up with each other. 

 

AND, just in case you are wondering, those are the same clothes Chuck wore yesterday.  They are most likely the same clothes he will wear tomorrow.  We figure about three days per outfit to try and make the clothes last a little longer between laundering.  We talked about this before we left on our trip.  We said except for Clarke and Brenda, no one will know we are wearing the same clothes. But, I forgot about blogging pictures.  Now everyone who follows this blog will know. Aren't you glad these aren't "scratch and sniff " pictures?

Tomorrow, we get our rental car and start our southern Spain adventure.  Chuck and I had a very short stay here in Madrid, but I have a little secret that I will share with you a little later about that.

It is 7:00pm here in Madrid. As I look on my computer clock, I see it is about noon in Cuenca. If we were home we would be enjoying Mixx ice cream with Rich and Nancy about now.  

Love,

Nancy