thoughts on madrid

madrid is a huge city....it has many beautiful old buildings....people walk everywhere here....the traffic is congested, but, not terrible....they have a metro, buses, etc....people here are very nice...when you're walking people don't really make eye contact, but, if you're at a restaurant, in a store or whatever they always stop and talk to cedar...it seems they all love babies....a girl at a store told austin that cedar is the palest person she's ever seen...i thought spain had a lot of blondes, but, it doesn't seem so...mostly dark hair....

the people really bundle up...it's cold, but, not crazy cold...but, everyone here is wearing there coats, scarves, boots etc....the sun doesn't come up until about 8 am...and sets early...the streets seem very safe...i've been walking about 3 blocks every night from kerry and austin's to my hotel and there are usually people out walking around...but, i don't feel unsafe...
store hours are different here...some stores close during the afternoon....restaurants aren't always open....for dinner restaurants don't open until 8pm....they close in the afternoon after the lunch crowd....siesta is a real thing here....people take their time here...the taxi driver that stopped at the corner and helped us out of the taxi...he wanted to make sure the stroller was ok...very nice!  not many people speak english....the restaurants all serve specific items...they love there iberian ham!  they serve it on a long baguette like a sub sandwich...but, it's only ham...nothing else...i've had one that was delicious, and one that was really tough...depends on the ham, i guess....they love eggs on everything...sandwiches, stews, omelets, whatever, they will put an egg on it....

hotels usually have pretty nice bathrooms...in the states, cheap hotels do not put anything into a bathroom...they are usually pretty gross...here, even in a cheap old hotel, the bathroom is pretty modern and nice....another interesting thing is....not a lot of people have dryers here....kerry and austin have a teeny tiny washer...then, they hang their clothes to dry...the little hotel in albarracin also did this...you could tell because the towels were pretty stiff and hard!
we went to the park...the little girls dress so cute here...little mary janes, dresses, tights, darling coats...the boys are cute too with their scarves around their necks...very east coast preppy look!