After the bus ride we finally arrived in Madrid late afternoon. It was sweltering. Hot, hot, hot. No wonder people have seista's here. It is generally cool in the Mornings, heats up by about 12 and then stays hot till about 11pm. The first night, aka my Birthday, we went to check out a flamenco show. We got hooked in when we booked the accommodation as it came up as one of those added extra's. It was one of the best around apparently so it was good to see. In true Spanish style it didn't start till 10pm which was fine because we didn't really want to venture outdoors and we had dinner from 8-10pm in the same place. The following are some clips from the night. It is about 7mins long so it is up to you how much dancing you can put up with.

If had finally cooled down on the way back so was a nice 20min walk home through the streets.

We even came across one of the main squares that had a bunch of flamenco guitar players jamming in the centre.

The next day we again decided to take another bus tour after it being semi worthwhile in NY. This one wasn't so worth it with just a recording you listen to that sounds a bit like - ".... and on left we have the BBVA bank. This is beginning of the street, we will soon be moving through the middle and finally down the end of the street where we will find a plaza. As you can see, there are many shops on the street...". There were little episodes of it being quite informative but you would have to wait a while. On the first day we didn't really get on till about 1pm which was a mistake because it was hot inside the cabin and also in the direct sunlight on top of the bus. We learnt our lesson the next day and started at 9:30am for the alternative route and it was just right. We were also pretty much the only people on it at that time.

Apart from the bus trip, we pretty much just chilled out, wandered about a bit and ate. As I remember, the food was great. There was a perfect place called the 'Museo de Jamon', which means 'Ham Museum' in Spanish. It just had a whole bunch of cured ham so you could get cured ham baguettes, cheese and best of all a damn cold beer to cool down.

The next couple of nights we just ventured out for a bit of tapas or paella. Here is a another square we came across with a lot of beer cafes and flamenco dance buskers.

The last night we tried the paella in a cute little corner restaurant.

It had ham in it as well? Pig hooves and all.

The following are just some general photos of some architecture around Madrid which really is magnifico. The corner near our hotel.

Some random fountain near plaza mayor.

Plaza Mayor with a evil panda wandering around!

Exit to Plaza Mayor.

General random photo with me in it.

The San Miguel market which resembles a beer hall. This was at 10pm at night.

On the way home.

We leave for Amalfi tomorrow, the destination we have been looking forward to the most. Don't know if they have internet as we are just staying in smaller B&B's and an apartment. Will still see if I can post something half way though.

Adios!