Well . . . an interesting day. We had a plan for the day in Madrid. Ton and I were going to explore the city on foot, while Kit and Stephen were going to take a tour of the Palace. But sometimes the best plans don’t happen.
We walked to the Metro station and rode into the center of the city, the trip was smooth. We emerged at the Opera and around the corner was the palace with a giant statue. We agreed to meet at 4pm at the giant statue.
Since we had some time until Kit and Stephens tour we decided to go together to the market. On the way to the market we found the meeting point for Kit and Stephens tour.
We spent about 30 minutes in the market. It was a nice market but a bit expensive for our tastes. In truth it is no longer a market, but a restaurant hall. The food looked good but it was clearly intended primarily for consumption by tourists, so Ton and I decided to eat later.
Stephen and Kit stayed with us while we walked to the Plaza Mayor, and another plaza where the Madrid government building was located. Both squares were nice and there were plenty of tourists like us enjoying the beautiful unseasonably warm day.
At this point Kit and Stephen headed off to find some lunch before their tour, and Ton and I continued on our walk of the city. Ton wanted to go to the writers quarter. In the writers quarter we found a block on a square with a row of old restaurants offering different kinds of regional Spanish foods. The only down side was the square was undergoing a major rebuild, but we were intrigued with the food. We walked the row of restaurants two times and settled on one that offered a nice 3 course Menu of the Day.
We were seated and had picked our courses when the waitress told us they didn’t serve the Menu of the Day until 1pm at the time it was 12:25. Ton and I talked it over and we told the waitress that we would return at 1pm. On our way out we used the restroom, and as we were about to walk out of the restaurant the power went out with a pop that startled everyone.
Once everyone got over the shock there was some giggling and we told the staff we would be back at 1pm. When we stepped onto the street we could see the power was out everywhere on the block and I told Ton someone must have cut a power line in the construction area.
We walked around the neighborhood for a while and watched as the wait staff and cooks from restaurants, clerks from stores, and the construction workers all stood around and tried to figure out was going on. I noticed that our access to wifi had stopped so one of our key tools for getting around was not working. By 1pm the power was still out in the writers quarter so we decided to expand our search for food.
I noticed that we were only a quarter mile or so from the Prado Museum which is one of the biggest attractions in Spain so I suggested we go there to look for food. I also figured that it would be far enough away from the construction to be out of the black out zone.
As we walked I noticed that all of the traffic lights were out. When we got to the Prado we saw that they were closing the museum so the black out was more widespread than we thought. At this point we figured that it was more than a local problem. We saw a cafe serving drinks and sandwiches, but when we sat down the waiter told us the food they had left was chips and we would have to pay with cash. So we had a very light lunch. The whole time we were not able to access our phones and I was a little frustrated, but suddenly I received a text from Stephen saying their tour was cancelled. But I was unable to reply.
We decided after our “lunch” to head towards the palace figuring that Kit and Stephen would be there. As we walked we noticed that more and more police were appearing on the streets. Some in plain clothes with just their high visibility jackets. Several of the main intersections were having traffic directed by a mix of different police forces in Spain. We also saw people standing on the streets holding old fashioned portable radios to get news. It was a good day for analog.
As we walked towards meet up point we received two more texts from Kit and Stephen but were not able to respond. But just as we saw the big statue we saw Kit and Stephen sitting at a cafe next to it so we were back together. This cafe had some cold Tapas available so we had a quick meal while we figured next steps.
The problem was we could not access the internet to see the news. We heard conversations that the power was out in Spain, Portugal, and parts of France, but no one was sure why.
While we were eating I began to play with the phone, I could still get the map of Madrid on it, and was even able to scroll in and out to get closer views. After a while I was able to locate the campground, and by scrolling in and out discovered that one of the main avenues leaving downtown went straight to the campground. Since the Metro was closed walking might be our option.
I told everyone that I thought we could walk back to the campground as a last resort. I also thought once we got down the avenue we might be able to figure out what bus line to get on to get to the campground. That became the plan.
So we set off looking for Calle Alicante which fortunately for me started at a big monument. It turns out we were about 8 miles from the campground on foot. As we walked we saw the metro stops we had passed in the morning taped off to prevent entry.
Mostly I was impressed with the attitude of the people. On the entire walk I didn’t see anyone behaving badly. The police were calm and professional, those that weren’t busy directing traffic were helping people with directions or information. Twice on the trip when I was checking my bearings people asked me if I needed any help.
Our idea of taking a bus was quickly forgotten when we saw the first bus stops on the road. There were hundreds of people waiting for busses, and the busses that went by were packed like sardine cans. We kept walking down the Calle Alicante for 2 hours until I noticed that the last couple of busses were only crowded, not packed, and the crowds at the bus stop were much smaller.
We headed over to the next bus stop and a nice young lady told us we wanted bus 77 and even told me which stop to get off at. She was very helpful. We squeezed on to the bus and covered the next mile and a half in 10 minutes. The young lady even went out of her way to make sure we got off at the right station.
We arrived at the campground around 7pm after a big adventure. When I checked my fitbit I saw that we had covered over 10.4 miles today, some of it as tourists and most of it as foot mobile commuters. Everyone was tired but we enjoyed sitting around until dark, and just before sunset the street lights around the campground came on.
