Madrid. Beer, fags and riots.

Continuing  on from my last post about myself and Mrs FE’s trip to Madrid, I thought I’d just touch on a couple of topics close to my heart.

Everywhere as always in countries with a warmer clime, there are open air pavement bars. Usually in the limited space they can occupy, the tables are placed as close together as possible for obvious reasons. Now Mrs FE and myself spent a fair amount of times in these bars in order to heed the Chief Medical Officer’s advice to ensure our fluid intake was commensurate with the climate. To our surprise we found that in many of the bars, the price of a small beer could be as low as 1 Euro. (Before you call me a woos for imbibing small beers, the logic is that if you order a large beer it ends up warm before you’re finished. Better two small cold ones rather than one warm one).

Smoking was never a problem even in close proximity of the other tables. In Spain they don’t seem to have been brainwashed by the anti-smoking brigade that you find in the UK. They just accept that some people smoke and some people don’t. It used to be like that in the UK before 2007. One problem I did find was where to buy cigarettes? Outlets were almost non existent, however if you are a local you’d know where it was, so no problem. In fact when I did find one, it was refreshingly like the old tobacconist of yore in the UK.

The demonstrations. We finally worked out why they were targeted in our street. Silly really. The Spanish Parliament building was across the road about 50 metres away!

And finally. The hotel bar. Mrs FE suggested we have a night cap or two in the bar when we got back from our meanderings late on the first night. I should have smelt a rat when we were given our own personal waitress to service our needs. Without looking at the price list I ordered a large whisky for me and a large G & T for Mrs FE. I will admit that they were super large. (My throat nearly burned out with the first swig, forcing me to disappear out for a remedial cigarette). The mistake of course was that we didn’t quit and gone to our room. Oh no we repeated the order.

Eventually after Mrs FE has finished her final drink, she decided to call it a night and head for the room, leaving yours truly to pay the bill.

Cheap at half the price? You must be F*****g joking! 82 sodding Euros.

I do think that we were lucky to leave when we did, as the situation that is not being reported in the UK MSM, is getting quite dangerous.

Would I go back? Assuredly yes.

Sun, beer, culture, and disorder.

Mrs FE and myself touched down safely in Madrid early on Monday morning. having looked at all the options of getting to our hotel (Westin Palace), we decided to catch a ride on the Metro. On emerging from the final stop with blinking eyes from the bright sunlight we were met with a strange but worrying sight. There were Police and Police vans everywhere you looked. (In the UK you are lucky to see one let alone hundreds). After a few seconds we realised why. There were thousands of Spaniards coming down the road behind us. At first I thought that somehow my Spanish readers had got word of my trip and were coming to meet me. However one look at the signs they were carrying made me think that a lynching of this blogger might be their real aim. The placards all had one word on them. NO.

Anyhow Mrs FE and myself, decided we’d best scuttle off (Best describes the action of a person with a small wheelie case) in the direction of our hotel. Worryingly it soon became apparent that where we went, the mob seemed to follow. As we approached the road in which our hotel was situated we noticed that the police presence was increasing by leaps and bounds and we redoubled our efforts to obtain sanctuary in our monastery Hotel.

This was not to be. With a baying mob on our heels we arrived at the hotel’s road to be confronted with metal barriers and three lines of police in riot gear blocking the thoroughfare. Ooh err. Unfortunately my Spanish is only good for Hallo (Hola), Two beers please (Dos cervesa pour favor), and thankyou (Gracias), so needless to say the police didn’t want to lets us through. (Did they think we were some activist fifth column? You tell me?).

Of course Mrs FE, being fairly organised, managed to produce from her Portmanteau handbag, a map of the area, and we found a back route which would take us to the entrance of the hotel. Luck was now on our side as the back was only lightly defended by the police and we managed to blag our way through the barricades and finally checked into the hotel.

After we checked in we nipped outside to see what was going on. The demonstrators were doing their best to pull down the barriers but were dissuaded from doing so by the occasional baton strike from the odd annoyed member of the Policia.

Anyway we got bored with this and decided to head of into various areas to see what the city was like.

One thing we never found out that day was why had that street been targeted?

Do you want to know why? Do you want to know what happened on day two?

You tell me, and I’ll tell you the cost of cigarettes and how much, two gin and tonics and two large whiskeys cost me in the hotel bar.

The Sun The Sun

Your Blog host and Mrs FE are off to the sun at O’crack sparrowfart  tomorrow morning, so posting will be light to non existent for a few days. (I’m sure the readers of this blog will find that they can live a useful existence with out  resorting to reading my usual drivel).

The reason we’re off to Madrid is that it’s been organised by my Son in Law and my Daughter, in thanks for the organisation of their wedding last week.

We’re being treated to a three day break in Madrid and can be expected to immerse ourselves in the culture of that grand old city. However due to the high temperatures at this time of year, we will have to keep hydrated at all times.

I have now downloaded to my phone an App that not only steers me to all the culture you would expect, but more importantly, gives me every bar that exists in the city.

We intend, in the bar breaks, to absorb as much culture as is possible in the time. I’m hoping to see a cultural riot if at all possible, if not it’s going to have to be the Prado museum or some such.

Anyhoo. Don’t expect a blog post till Thursday. Keep yourselves amused in the rain.