I think this was hubby’s #1 favorite thing we did in Madrid, or even in Europe.  What a hoot!  You drive around in a very loud motorcyle converted into a car, the GPS leads you along a journey of your choosing…we followed Cosmopolitan Madrid, since we had already seen the Sights in the Center of town, on our own.  Within our hour ride we drove around the whole course, which took us past more of the real Madrid, the famous shopping street and past a lot of really cool buildings.  Due to the noise of our GoCar, and possibly the volume of our speakers, we got a lot of stares from pedestrians, and a few thumbs up.  I guess the locals still haven’t seen too many GoCars cruising around outside of the touristy area, but I am sure that will change over time. 

today we are going to the prado museum, and then maybe a gocar madrid ride, its a special car for tourists, we saw people drive by when we were waiting on line at the palacio real (royal palace) and it looked like fun.  hopefully we can see flamenco tonight.  went to a club last nite but they had jazz not flamenco.  finnish guy told me about a place he went to called callero moorelino or sumthin like that, we’ll try there tonight, if time and energy permit.  we did go to the renie sofia museum last night and saw picasso’s guernica, a film on the spanish revolution, and an exhibit of newspapers from around the world from Sepember 12, 2001.

what a nice city!  people are warm, welcoming and friendly and very happy.  no one here is pushy, aggressive or snooty like people in the US can be.  on the first day we saw the Palacio Real from the outside, it was a cold rainy day.  we then walked into the cathedral nearby where a mass was going on.  we went  back to our hotel to get hubby some dry shoes.  our hotel is hisperia madrid and its very nice, and the staff is very professional and very nice.  being a member of the leaders club, we were treated to lots of special goodies upon arrival.  an upgraded room…we had a very nice suite on the top floor which had an outdoor terrace with a hot tub…they welcomed us with a tray of nuts, bottle of red wine, bottles of water, bottle of champagne and a beautiful fruit assortment.

that’s it for now…going to eat and go see picssso’s famous painting in the museum.