Madrid
Well, here we are back at Carmen's place in Madrid. The bikes are boxed up, we did a tour of the Prado museum and old town Madrid yesterday. The last Camino day was Monday, we rode from Burgos, mudville, to Castroguerriz on Sunday, with Carmen along, then to Fromista, approximately midway on the trip to Santiago. Never fear, or, for Spain, be very afraid...The Russell's will return! Monday we rode about 25 miles south towards Madrid along the old Spanish canal system. This sounds more interesting than it turned out...very flat, yes, this was nice, but almost no wildlife could be seen, we did hear some raucous bird, but never saw it. The canal system was built between the 1750's & 1850's, and was finished just in time for the train systems to roll in. All the old neglected buildings, locks, decrepid canals, I found it sad and depressing. All that energy, talent, money, time.....unused.
That's Progress!
About 3pm on Tuesday Brian met us with Carmens car, he went to Burgos on the bus from Fromista to pick it up. We schtuffed 4 bikes and 3 people into it, Carmen, Ann, & Tom. They headed off to Madrid, while Dad, Brian, and I caught a train. I love trains! It was quite fun, but Dad and I had to jump up and move bikes from in front of one door to the other, depending on what side the station's exits were on. We will be taking the train up to Fromista instead of renting cars on our return. Tomorrow we get the bikes to the airport, our departure is 7am Saturday. Madrid is a fun city, but still a city. Today is Columbus Day, a Big Deal here, everything is closed, and thousands of people walking about in the parks. One of the wonderful things about Spain is the obvious love and care for the children. The streets explode with people about 8pm, before then it is dead. There are kids running around everywhere, most attended, but lots just playing with each other. You can really tell the Spanish influence on Mexico in lots of ways, but this was a very pleasant sight.
Thanks for reading my ramblings!
David

David Russell