Boxing Day (5)

Churros in the Opera Cafe with a movie-star-worthy elderly lady in a mink coat is a good start to the day.  She absolutely had to be a regular, because all the staff seemed to know her.  :)

Parentals and Kingi with the churros.

Also good (amusement) value was the arrival of what I guess were the beer suppliers.  See photo below: talk about 'roll out the barrel!'

Keg...

So, we decide to do make a second attempt at visiting the Palacio Real.  Are we doomed not to visit the Palace?  I think so, as we are not blessed with sufficient patience to wait in that queue.  So, once again, we wandered the nearby area, checked out the square nearby, looked at the Palace from the outside, and sat in the Sabatini Gardens.  Given that Dad had a horrible cold at this stage, it wasn't such a bad thing to just 'chill' for a bit.  We had several dogs, and the mounted Police, passing through for our entertainment.  I also tried to feed Mum and Dad mantecados: a type of biscuit which seems to be especially popular around Christmas time.  They have a very weird texture... could be due to the lard in them?  (Not sure if I told Mum and Dad that at the time, but they still didn't really like them anyway.

Mantecados (but not our ones).

We had a bit of time to fill in, so checked out the Paraíso de Jamón.  Yes, I think it's only in Spain that you will find food places called 'Ham Paradise.'  In fact, that's probably the unofficial second name for Spain?

After a quick geeze in the Corte Inglés, and some purchases in a dangerously-tempting Swedish lolly shop just across the road, we headed off to the Plaza Mayor to meet one of my friends for tapas.  Hooray for aceitunas (olives), patatas bravas (fried potatoes with a spicy sauce) and... yes, other things, which I can't quite remember.  Oops.

Anyway, do you know how you can tell whether a Spanish tapas bar is a good place?  You look at the floor.  See this floor below?

Floor in a Spanish tapas bar.

This doesn't mean that the place is in such dire straits that it can't afford a cleaner.  No, far from it.  It means that they've had many happy punters, who have eaten tapa after tapa, and thrown a serviette on the floor for each one.

Yes, takes a bit of getting used to, doesn't it?

Today, it was Dad's turn for a siesta.  Mum and I decided that we were going to attempt this Navibus thing again, so we went considerably earlier.  And the queue... it was insane.  We decided we didn't want to wait behind half a block full of people, so got gelato and then went shopping for a bit.  When we got back, eventually, the queue had gone down a lot.  Oh hooray!  We went to join it, and were told by two council staff members that it wasn't worth it, as there wasn't enough time for anyone past the current end of the queue to get on the bus.  Oh no. :(

So, for the second night in a row, we failed at seeing the Christmas lights on the bus.  Instead, we had a quick cafe visit, and went home to check up on Dad - who woke up with a 'where's the juice?' (that had been his one request before we went out).