How many people can fit in Madrid?

So we woke and headed out for some breakfast. Had to walk around a while before anywhere was open. Still the coffee was good when we did. The morning was quiet, with the tour groups only just beginning.



Did a bit of a walk and a bit of a shop. SIM cards in Madrid continue to be a challenge. It is the combination of me, SIM and Madrid that always seems to cause problems. This time a system outage and a recalcitrant automated SIM machine caused some stress.

Madrid is looking OK. The program to beautify older city buildings is paying dividends. But they continue to dig up every second street.

Anyway the crowds were getting crazy as the day progressed. It is a long weekend here  and lots of people away, so they managed to get half of Europe to cram in instead. Crazy crowds.

There was a queue to buy lottery tickets at least 300 metres long. Marjan and  I felt like we were driving against the tide the whole way.

We made it to Mingo for lunch. Cider and chicken of course. Why else go to Mingo? It was a chance to catch up with aunts and cousins. Paqui reminded us of Dad so much with her cheekiness.

The walk back was exhausting, they had added half the population of the Americas (both) to the streets and it was a slow single file crawl all the while. We are exhausted and are having an evening in.