If you’re going to be a tourist, Madrid is a beautiful city to visit. With the Prado and Reina Sophia museums as the flagships of an endless stream of amazing cultural treats, a nightlife that stretches on to the mid- morning hours of the day, with castles and palaces and libraries and monuments … it is worth the visit!

We stayed about 50 meters off the heart of the city, the Sol plaza.  From this vantage, we can confirm that: 1) Tourists love Madrid, with tens of thousands wandering about, and 2) Madrid never sleeps … really, they never sleep!

One of the major radio stations sponsored an all- weekend series of concerts on the Sol plaza, which added to the festivities, fun and crowds.

Amongst the crowd were ‘informal’ vendors, typically immigrants who would spread out their wares on a blanket to sell them. Now, because they had no vendors license, the police would show up with some frequency to stop and/or arrest them. Now, these vendors are pretty savvy. In the photo, below, you will note that the blanket has strings attached to all four corners. The vendors always are holding onto the four strings. At the slightest sign of police, they pull upward, lifting the whole blanket (and wares) in order to make a hasty retreat. As soon as the cops are gone, the blanket is spread back out again.

The next photo shows several of these vendors ‘under way’, after the police showed up. How many can you spot in the photo?

Okay, on the continuing quest for Diane’s heritage, we found in France that they associate PINSON with a bird. Well, here in Spain, her heritage is more noble. It seems that the Captains of the Niña and the Pinta (Columbus captained the Santa Maria), were the Pinson brothers (okay, Pinzon). Here’s Diane pointing out her heritage at the Columbus monument in Madrid. 

(You’ll need to expand the photo to see the names. )

And on a final note from Europe, under the category of “I don’t think it means what they think it means”, or “somethings don’t translate”, here’s today’s entry: 

It’s a toilet paper brand with a rather peculiar name!

That’s all for now. See you stateside!