(Mis)Adventures in Madrid by Caprilicious Jewellery

Hello folks, how are you? I hope you've fared better than I have this week gone by. Mike and I went to Madrid on a short pre winter city break, but unfortunately I couldn't enjoy too much of it as one of my knees gave me so much trouble, I sat most of the holiday out. We got back after four days and I'm off to the hospital to have my knees checked out, having seen my GP this afternoon.

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 Perforce, I spent the whole of the first day relaxing on the roof terrace, soaking up the late summer sun and resting my poorly knee. Fortunately it was a nice place to sit and I wasn't confined to the hotel bedroom, which would have been terrible.

After a couple of days resting on the rooftop and getting a feel for the city in a car driven by a really nice man who spoke perfect English and was able to show us around the city, the knee was marginally better, and we managed to do a bit of sightseeing, with many pit stops in between. Fortunately there were loads of taxis in the city and we flagged them down to ferry us from one place to the next. I even managed a bit of shopping at El Cortes Ingles, which is my favourite place to shop in Spain. 

We went to Retiro Park and had churros and hot chocolate at a little kiosk- it was too warm to do much else but I managed a couple of pictures of people enjoying themselves, before we left. We went to the Museo Reina Sofia to see Picasso's Guernica and a couple of Kandinsky's they had hanging there. I couldn't do too much more walking so we ended up at the Westin Palace Hotel for afternoon tea. I'd read so much about the beautiful rotunda in the central dining room that I just had to go and take a look at it.

We went to Les Cafe Chinitas to watch the flamenco dancers, and Cafe Central to listen to a Spanish Brass band, as well as a little place in the Chueca district called El Despertar for some jazz. All the apartments in Madrid seem to have their lights switched off all evening - everyone is out on the streets till late at night - we stayed up every night till about 2am and there were still people walking about on the streets and sitting at the various bars and cafes where food is served till late.

And just as my knee was getting less painful (or, I was managing it better), it was time to come back home, to the GPs surgery and an Xray tomorrow morning. Who knows what's in store - the GP was talking about cortisone injections and I will see an orthopaedic surgeon tomorrow once the X Rays are available.
I'm keeping everything crossed and hopefully things will settle down. Have a fabulous week folks, and I'll catch you next weekend, at the usual time.
Until then
​xx