Madrid Day 2 20 Nov, 06 - 16:14

I’m usually quite confident of my navigation skills - thats until I
got lost in Madrid during my morning jog and ended up in the
Chinese part of the city, with Chinese supermarkets and Levis
for $5. They even had an Interflora shop selling plastic flowers to
complete the realistic Beijing experience. This is not the kind of
place you could possibly find on purpose.
In my defence however, I was listening to my ipod while running, so
wasn’t paying much attention to the city as I ran thru it. To their credit, it was worth every bit of the detour just to hear them speak Spanish with a Chinese accent.
We were due to pick up our equipment at 2.00 pm from Iridium Systems, so the better part of the morning was spent jogging around in a circle from Tribunal, down Grand Via past the Templo de Debold (a 16th century Egyptian sun temple) and Palacio (the Royal
Palace, which seems more like a low budget version of the
Winter Palace in St. Petersburg), Embajadores and back to
Sol (the Piccadilly circus of Madrid). Far more scenic
run than the average session at the gym.
We turned up to collect the equipment, only to find out that only
half had arrived today and we would have to wait for the rest to
be cleared tomorrow. Customs bureaucracy at its finest. On the way back, we managed to pick up a game of street basketball, near
Embajadores, making a refreshing change from rowing.
TODAYS PHOTOS -
1. Templo de Debold

2. Chinatown

3. The Royal Palace