After a month in the UK to see family, stock up on Steve’s medication and for him to have the blood tests to confirm that his liver was tolerating said meds (it is thankfully), and attempt to plan/organise our next 3 month stint, it was time to resume our adventure and set off on our most adventurous trip so far – destination South America.

We couldn’t fly directly from the UK to Medellin (Colombia), needing to transit in either Bogota or Madrid, and wanting the easiest possible option we decided on Madrid and an even more relaxed plan was to have a couple of days there beforehand.

Our friends Jayne & Graham, who had again kindly put us up during our time ‘home’ (our house is rented out, remember?) got us to Paignton railway station and waved us off as we made our way to London and onwards to Luton Airport. An overnight stay at the Holiday Inn brought back memories of when Debbie was a worker and spent many nights at that hotel, and a very early morning Wizz Air flight got us to Madrid before lunchtime. Well actually late-breakfast time as ‘lunch’ in Madrid is late afternoon!

Debbie had been to Madrid several times on business but never actually seen the city, and Steve found on TripIt that he’d been too but didn’t remember, so it was a bit of an adventure for us both.

One of us had wanted to stay at the Intercontinental to take advantage of the suite upgrade voucher that was still burning a hole in her pocket, but Steve had reverted to tightwad-mode and wasn’t prepared to be that flash with the cash, instead choosing the funky-looking DormirDCine Hotel in the Salamanca district, just outside the city centre. It was certainly a fun design of hotel, cinema-themed with every bedroom based on a movie (ours was based on House of Flying Daggers apparently – we’ve never heard of it though) and a popcorn machine in the lobby.

Having had a very early start we snoozed before heading out for ‘lunch’ (at almost 5pm) of ham croquettes, garlic king prawns, a seafood and chicken paella to share and obviously a couple of glasses of wine, at a pavement cafe near our hotel. With decent wine at only 4 Euros/glass we quickly realised just how expensive the UK has become.

After being selective about where we would visit/transit, especially considering the altitude due to Steve’s lung condition – Sod’s Law kicked in. We hadn’t for one minute anticipated any issues in Madrid, but we were taken back to the the Yiddish saying ‘Mann Tracht, Un Gott Lacht‘ (Man plans and God laughs) – Steve was struggling a bit and we discovered that the air quality in Madrid was ‘unhealthy’ and impacting his breathing and the high Carbon Monoxide levels will have set him back a bit too as it takes time to recover. Luckily, the air was nearer to normal the following day so we were able to explore.

The day was grey and a little chilly – ideal to walk around but not conducive to capturing the nicest photos. Madrid was apparently not a city to tick off the sights but rather somewhere to wander, absorb the atmosphere, people watch and eat tapas. We took the Metro to Opera and wandered past the magnificent Royal Palace and Cathedral (complete with giant people in animal costumes to ‘entertain’ the tourists for some reason!).

Onwards towards the spectacular Plaza Mayor, we stumbled across Mercado de San Miguel – a fabulous iron and glass structure housing a foodie haven of over 40 tapas stalls, including Debbie’s favourite albondigas alongside various takes on tortilla, the famous chestnut-fed Jamon Iberico de Ballota (too fatty for Debbie to try), and beautiful-looking seafood.

Nearby in the La Latina district, Calle De La Cava Baja was lined with more authentic tapas joints (we returned there for dinner) and pensioners were dancing in the square – if only we were so elegant! Naturally we stopped for beer and cava!!

The city centre (Centro) has imposing buildings, magnificent squares and wide, stately avenues – obviously not bombed in WW2 and elegant in a similar way to Paris or parts of Rome, but not as polished as Paris or as chaotic as Rome. The shopping did look to be excellent but Debbie restrained herself!

Retiro Park is a calm green space just to the East of Centro – complete with turtles in the boating lake, and just to the North, the main part of Salamanca is gorgeous and ultra posh and with restaurants far too upmarket for us to visit in our casual travelling clothes.

Overall, Madrid is a city for ‘being in’ rather than seeing things. Honest opinion – it was nice enough, would’ve been nicer if we’d seen some sun and not had the air pollution, but it’s not Barcelona!