Europe - Madrid, Spain
Europe - Madrid, Spain |
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Sunday, July 22
We left Algarve and started thinking about heading home. We still had plenty of time left so we went back to Lisbon to spend some days at the longest beach in Europe. An embankment run along the coast and a small train or tram can take you down the beach to an undisturbed spot.
 Arriving at the Atlantic and the Lisbon-Beach just before sunset |
We arrived in the twilight and hurried to find a Camp and a spot to erect our tent. There are plenty of restaurants in the area and we had our favorite meal. Chicken and Spaghetti with tomato-sauce.
Monday, July 23
We spend the day at the beach and enjoyed the Cooler of that summer. A bottle of Sprite or 7-Up is mixed with a bottle of Beer in equal parts. It helps on your body-fluid-balance in the heat and gives a small buzz.
Tuesday, July 24
Late nights and getting up at midday, going to the beach. Those were the days. This was our last rest before the upcoming semester.
 Our Camp |  Lost in Lisbon looking for the station |
Wednesday, July 25
Time to depart. We had checked the train-schedule and planned to catch a train bound for Madrid right after noon. We were in a hurry and took a bus across the bridge over the Tagus river and got off in the center. There we got sort of lost, where were we and where is the nearest metro-station. Well we were quite close to the station itself, so we decided to walk. On the way we stopped at a supermarket and bought a hole bag of toast-bread each, and lots of filling. We made 15 sandwich each and packed the pile back in the bag where the bread came from. That should keep us alive most of the way back to Copenhagen since money was running low and the dining-wagons were expensive.
 Card playing in a tight space |
On the train for Madrid we shared a compartment with a group of Dutch guys. It was a sleeping-train and not much ground-space as the picture above demonstrate. A rucksack flipped over works fine as a table, for card-playing at least.
Thursday, July 26
In Madrid we tried to fit our luggage into their lockers, but there was not room enough. Kenneth volunteered to stay back and watch our stuff while Dimo and I went into the center by Metro. The metro in Madrid has the best signs of those I have seen, no chance of getting lost in the tubes. When we had driven long enough we got of, we had no idea of how Madrid is structured. We could guess in which direction the center was so we started to walk.
 The gate/entrance to Madrid |
We came past this Arch that looks a bit like the Triuphal Arch in Paris or the one in New York, but this one is also just for decoration, situated in the center of a roundabout. Beautiful though.
 The Crystal Palace of Madrid |
Later we tried to take a short cut through a park and saw this green-house. The park must have been a botanical garden of some kind. We asked for directions and were pointed towards the town-hall. On the way we passed the central Post Office, also a beautiful building.
 The Central Post Office (Correos) in Madrid |
Near the center we found a McD, prices were much lower than in Denmark, the quality the same. We went to the Royal castle, but then it was getting late and we had to get back to Kenneth. In the mean time Kenneth had booked himself reservations for train directly for Copenhagen and he had found a travelmate for a part of the trip, an Australian girl who could entertain with stories about the Australian band "Midnight Oil". She had lived in the same block as they had for the last 10 years, ever since they started playing together.
We waived him good-bye and started searching for the train to Paris. Dimo and I decided to take a detour past Amsterdam.
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