26th April - Seville to Madrid

Another pretty good sleep. We are close to being converted to Central European Summer Time. We'd mostly packed up the night before so there was no rush - not that we have much at all to pack. We popped out to get a couple of pastries for the train, then decided to buy the makings to assemble a couple of bread rolls, as we were not going to arrive in Madrid until 2pm.

An easy walk down to Santa Justa Station, a bit of reading while we waited for the train, and a pleasant ride to Madrid. The countryside is best described as gently rolling, with a vast amount of agriculture from olives to crops. 

It's amazing how loud the Spanish can be. As the train left, and again when it was about to arrive, the carriage filled with the cacophony of multiple Spaniards talking over each other. It never ceases to amaze us, how in a small group there won't be just one speaker and many listeners, but instead there tend to be many speakers and one listener!

On arrival we swapped to the Metro and rode 3 stops to Tirso de Molina. Finding our room at the far end was easy, and we were soon heading back out into the city. We felt like a bit of a walk, so headed east to the huge Madrid park of El Retiro.

El Retiro is a vast acreage of wide paths, hedges, large trees, and a big (smelly) lake full of ducks, geese and carp, and the Palacio de Cristal. The latter is a beautiful cast-iron-built greenhouse. Unfortunately it must have structural issues, as it is closed at present with many wooden props strengthening the internal columns.

By now we were feeling a bit tired so found a tavern to have a quick drink. We had planned to have tapas again, but didn't find anywhere that took our fancy, and bought some food from a Dia supermarket to take back to our rooms to heat up for an easy dinner.

A couple of attractive buildings