Roma - La città eterna

After a five-year hiatus, Cathy and I finally returned to Rome for this year's Internazionali BNL d'Italia tennis tournament. Back in 2008, we came for the entire week's tournament but this year we decided on a five-day trip, with at least two full days at the tennis. \

I'm well aware that my blogs can sometimes go on a bit so here's the short version (note that the word "short" might not be entirely appropriate by the time I've finished writing this):
We stayed at the wonderful B&B Bio in the far north of the city. As its name suggests, it had a certain dietary theme. It's entirely vegetarian, catering for all sorts of dietary requirements over and above that. There are only three rooms, all painted using only natural paints. The couple who run it, Michel and Barbara, are utterly lovely. They couldn't do enough to help us, providing dairy-free milk and gluten-free products for our breakfast every day, and regularly giving us a lift to Piazza Mancini, saving us a 15-minute bus ride (although on one occasion, due to a very important tunnel being closed, the car journey took 40 minutes, but it was the thought that counted!) Michel runs a health food store (La Madre Terra) so of course we had plenty to talk about and, on the day that we visited his store, lots of price and product comparisons to do. The only downside to the B&B was its rather remote location. From the city centre, we had about a 35-minute walk, then a tram ride and then a bus ride to get back. On two occasions, one of which really wasn't our fault, we managed to miss the last bus (midnight - how uncivilised) and had to get a cab which, we discovered, is not an easy thing outside the main city centre. 


We arrived mid-afternoon on the Monday and headed out of the B&B at nearly 6pm. We stopped for a first little drink at Campo de'Fiori, a square that we had somehow managed to miss on previous visits. When here in 2008, we had attempted to visit the Trastevere part of town which, according to the guidebooks, is lovely and quaint and a must-see. The last time we tried, we must have taken a wrong turn somewhere because we ended up in a rather squalid, council-estate type area! This time we got it right and agreed entirely with the guidebooks. It's a lovely area with little streets, plenty of restaurants and bars, all clearly frequented by Italians - always a good sign. The B&B host had recommended Ristorante Da Augusto for dinner, but when we arrived at around 7.30pm, there were about 20 people queuing outside. Now that might be a good sign as far as quality is concerned, but when you've spent most of the day since 6.45am travelling, waiting that long for a table isn't an option. Instead we went to Osteria Margherita, a lovely little pizzeria down a side street and sat outside enjoying huge stone-baked pizzas and a well-deserved glass of wine or two. On the way back, we stopped at Mimi e Coco for another quick digestif. That decision may, of course, have been to blame for our first late-night taxi ride. 

On the Tuesday, we decided to take a side-trip. We had been tossing up between Tivoli, Ostia Antica and Orvieto. Due entirely to the contents of a well-timed article in the Easyjet in-flight magazine on the way over, we settled on Tivoli. What a great choice! An hour from Rome and only €3 each way on the train, Tivoli is a lovely little town with a splendid combination of old and new. We had a quick drink on arrival, failed to find the tabac where a passing German tourist had told us we could get a free map of the town, and headed off. After a couple of hours, we followed the brown tourist signs to Villa Gregoriana. What a find! After several devastating floods, the river Tiber was diverted in the early 1800s into this valley, creating several amazing waterfalls. There was already an ancient Acropolis there but by the early 20th century the whole thing had gone to ruin and for many years, it was a dumping ground for unwanted rubbish (including fridges, washing machines etc). Thanks to the Italian version of the National Trust, it was cleaned up and opened to the public in 2005. It took us about three hours to cover the whole thing - steep paths with lots of little diversions to panoramic views, grottoes, waterfalls, low and sometimes narrow passageways but it was a lovely way to spend the afternoon. Given that the temperature was hovering around 28 degrees in the sun, we were quite grateful for the shade of the trees and the relative coolness of the valley. We emerged at the Temples exit just in time to walk to the station and head back to town for some dinner.

                                                 


For our first few annual visits to Rome, we stayed right in the centre at a little place called Planet 29. Right opposite, was a pizza place (La Famiglia) which we frequented probably a little too often. It had given us our first taste of risotto alla ortica (nettle risotto) and we had been able to check from our hotel window for a free table and then run down the stairs to claim said table. We had promised ourselves that we would try to get back there for a meal. After our Tivoli train pulled in to Termini, it seemed logical to pop just down the road to La Famiglia. Very little had changed. We nabbed the last table outside and were treated to some very familiar somewhat surly service. They're not rude exactly. They're just, well, down-to-earth! They don't try to be your best friend, they just do their job! In a nostalgic move, we both ordered nettle risotto, with a starter of deep-fried mozzarella balls and a litre of house wine. €8 for a litre of wine - who could turn that down? Like any other wine of that price, it tastes a lot better after the first couple of glasses! 

You might think that was the end of our evening. So did we. We planned to walk back to our tram stop via the Trevi Fountain and then get a relatively early night. The one thing we certainly didn't plan to do was miss the last bus again. Just round the corner from the pizzeria, we decided to buy a couple of postcards to write and post later. The guy in the shop, however, told us that if we bought SwissPost stamps along with the postcards, we could post them from a small postbox in the shop. Standing outside the shop scribbling our postcards, we were approached by an elderly couple who we recognised from the pizzeria. The lady asked us, in French, if we knew where Via Flavia was. It didn't occur to either of us that it was a bit odd to be asked a question in French in the middle of Rome by people who couldn't possibly know where we were from. We both replied (in French) that we didn't know but we had a map and could help. We finished writing our postcards quickly and then consulted the map. Via Flavia was only about 6 streets away but there wasn't a simple route for them to memorise so we offered to walk with them at least some of the way. We chatted away (still in French) all the way to the street with their hotel. They had left the hotel earlier in the evening looking for something to eat, wandered the streets, settled randomly on the same pizzeria as us and only when they finished did they realise they had no idea where they were or how to get back! He (another Michel!) was 77 and she (whose name we failed to get) was 75. They were originally from Paris, had retired to Cannes and were gradually working their way round Europe. When we reached the right street, we attempted to head off to our bus stop but then they invited us for a drink at their hotel. Initially, we resisted but they were so sweet and so keen that we relented. Off we went to the Hotel Marcella Royal and up to the utterly fantastic seventh floor roof terrace bar. We were met by a lovely barman who clearly liked his funny French customers who showed us to a table right by the fairy-lit outer wall with its view straight over to the illuminated St Peter's Basilica at The Vatican. Wow! We were so pleased we'd accepted. They treated us to a Campari Soda and a Kahlua (which they'd never heard of until then!) and far too soon we had to leave or we were risking missing public transport. I took a quick photo of Cathy with them on the roof terrace and we headed off.

 
We got the tram OK but as we jumped off it at the bus station, we saw our last bus just starting to move. A man was hurtling across the concourse, banged on the door and the driver opened it, let him on, closed the door and moved away again. We were perhaps three steps away from the bus, Cathy managed to reach it and bang on the door but the driver just carried on and we watched our final bus disappear into the night. Grrrrrr. Getting a taxi was only a little easier than the night before. A tram driver kindly found us the number of a cab firm but he didn't know the code for Italy or for Rome, so we had to call Dade for the info! (This would all have been a lot simpler had I been able to access the internet using 3G on my mobile at all during the trip!) We finally got home around 1am again! 

Finally it was time for some tennis. Having grabbed our lunch on the go ingredients from the little supermarket down the road, we jumped on the bus to Foro Italico. We'd pre-booked tickets for Wednesday and Thursday day sessions so after the usual melée of people all trying to collect pre-paid tickets, we were in. It's certainly grown since the last time we were here. There's a whole new court! Campo Centrale (Centre Court) has gone from a somewhat temporary affair, with scaffolding and metal staircases, to a properly built concrete arena, holding probably half as many people again. The new court (SuperTennis Arena) occupies a space which, for the life of us, we can't work out what was there before. The lovely Pietrangeli court is still there though - an amphitheatre court, where you sit on marble steps, surrounded by Roman statues. Despite the forecast, only an hour of play was lost on the Thursday. The rest of the time we sat in temperatures of high 20s and glorious sunshine. Our combination of tickets meant that we didn't get to see Nadal, Djokovic or Federer but it didn't matter. Over the two days, we saw a succession of talented players, including a fairly new guy on the block - Jerzy Janowicz - he saw off players much higher up in the rankings. Our only disappointment really was that, despite having booked the tickets in mid-January, our seats on both days were in the very last row.The people who showed up on the day and rocked up to the ticket office got better seats. We weren't to know that though and we didn't want to risk getting all the way out there and finding it was sold out.

On the Wednesday evening, we walked back to our old stomping ground from our 2008 trip, the little area on the north side of Ponte Milvio. Even though we ate there almost every evening for a week back then, we couldn't really remember much about anything. The main thing we'd forgotten was that there were really only two restaurants! We ate at La Pallotta, which has a massive outside area (which was lovely until it started to rain on the pizzas - I was OK because I was under an umbrella but the waiters came over and moved our table - and Cathy - under the umbrella too!) It was very busy and there were plenty of Italians in there. Very tasty food and house wine that was almost as cheap as the night before! Even better news - we managed to get the bus back!!! Mind you, spotting where to get off on a residential street with no streetlights, whilst being whisked along by a bus driver who was the reincarnation of Mario Andretti. Cathy managed to spot a building just along the road from our street so we managed to leap up to ding the bell and got off not too far past the right place! 

On the Thursday evening, the tennis went on quite late so we ventured even less far! We crossed the road from the tennis stadium and went into a funny little pizza place that looks almost temporary. It's more like a pizza shack! We sat in the plastic-sided "outside" area. It might have looked cheap and nasty, but they made mean pizzas! Despite it being our last night, it was also our earliest and we were back at the B&B before midnight. 

Friday morning rolled around far too soon and it was time to pack up our stuff and decide what to do with our day. We had contemplated going to the tennis again and just buying a ground pass. However, the tournament had reached the quarter-finals stage so all the interesting matches were on the two show courts, not covered by a ground pass. That made our minds up! Tourism day it is! After a lift from Michel and a nose around his health food shop, we walked through the local market where there was some kind of TV show being filmed. No matter how much we darted or dodged, we kept finding ourselves in the camera's line of sight. Who knows? Maybe we're Italian TV stars now!
From there, we headed to the lovely Pantheon:

From there, we jumped on the tram down to Piazza de Popolo and walked to the Trevi Fountain. We bought a delicious ice-cream (pistachio and stracciatella for me) from the lovely gelateria overlooking the fountain. Then we made our way down to the fountain and threw the obligatory coins backwards over our shoulder into the water. If you don't know why, look here. 

and then on to Piazza Navona. It was buzzing with people, the sun was shining so we did the perfectly obvious thing - we stopped at a bar and treated ourselves to a glass of Prosecco. It was so nice (the sun, the atmosphere and the drink), that we were obliged to stay for a second one! As we left, we spotted these fetching portraits of a couple of Popes, some archbishop or other and ... er ... Obi Wan Kenobi:

We had a last wander through the little cobbled streets nearby and then headed to the Metro up to where Michel was picking us up to take us to the airport, and before we knew it we were waving goodbye to the Eternal City. 

It had been an utterly wonderful five days and we remembered why this used to be an annual trip! Roll on Rome 2014. 

If you want to see all my photos from the trip, click HERE.

Foraging - free food from nature!

A few months ago, Cathy suggested that we sign up to a short foraging course at Woods Mill, near Henfield. It's the HQ of the Sussex Wildlife Trust yet I'd never been there, despite it being only 20 minutes from home. 

Today was the day. Our tutors for the day were Millie and Mark, both avid foragers. Millie had also studied herbalism and nutritional therapy and was particularly interested in the medicinal side of plants. Mark is a qualified "bushcraft"instructor. The 8 participants met in the small main building and we started with a a cup of herbal tea, made from herbs dried over the winter by Millie - dandelion, nettle and cleavers - delicious. 

We then had a talk on foraging generally, the rules and environmental concerns and, of course, a warning not to pick anything you're not absolutely sure about! The consequences of getting it wrong can be fatal. 

So - the rules. You can't pick anything from a designated National Nature Reserve or from an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) unless you have permission. You can't pick from private land without the permission of the landowner (though of course, if you're on private land, you're already trespassing!) Foraging is covered by the Theft Act and the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

The environmental impact - you shouldn't just help yourself to armfuls of plants just because they're there in front of you. A general rule of thumb is to take no more than 20% of the leaves from any one plant. Some plants can only withstand light "grazing" - perhaps 5% of the plant. 

The dangers - many and varied. For example, if you pick from near water, you could pick up the "liver fluke parasite" which lives in cattle and other grazing mammals. So if there are cows or sheep around who drink from the river/stream/pond, give it a miss. Another lovely possibility is Weil's Disease - passed on through the urine of rats, cattle and pigs. Again, if infected urine is present in or around the area and you have any cuts on your skin, it can get into your system. A non-animal related problem is "phytophotodermatitis". Some plants can leave a substance on the skin which, when the sun hits it, causes severe blistering. Another good reason to be careful when picking anything with your bare hands. Bizarrely, some of the plants which cause the worst blistering topically on the skin are incredibly beneficial when ingested. 

So - what can you pick? Well, "The Four F's" - foliage, fruit, flowers, fungi. This course concentrated on foliage, mainly because of the time of year. Fruit and flowers are covered on different courses and fungi-picking is a very specialised area. 

After the talk, it was time to venture out into the April sunshine (yes, sunshine finally happened in the UK!). Almost as soon as we walked out of the door, Mark spotted our first few edible specimens and for the next hour, we discovered just how much food is literally right there under our feet and our noses. Apologies for the state of the pictures, I only had my phone with me:

Hawthorn - eating the baby leaves early in the season is best but the berries can be dried. Great for the heart and the circulation: 

Cleavers - they have tiny hooks so if you throw them against your clothing, they'll stick! Must be cooked before eating. Good lymphatic system cleanser:

Daisy leaves - light flavour, good in salads:

Plantain (not the exotic fruit) - the ribbing pattern under the leaves tells you you have the right plant. It can grow on very compacted soil and it's sometimes the only plant on what otherwise appears to be dead ground. It can draw out toxins so if you have an insect bite or something with pus (mmm, lovely), chew up a leaf to soften it and then wrap it around the problem area:

Ox-eye daisy:

Yarrow:

Wild chives - pungent and very tasty:

Ground elder - a cross between a herb and a vegetable. Very tasty:

Meadowsweet - only to be picked in small quantities as it can't withstand over-grazing:

Bitter cress - a little like mustard and cress. Peppery flavour. Voracious grower so OK to pick quite a lot. Best picked with small scissors:

Ground ivy - part of the mint family but tastes a little more bitter:

Common sorrel - tiny leaves at this time of year (resembles dock leaves). Fascinating taste - almost like apple skin:

The main edible plants of the day were wild garlic and nettles. I think we all know what nettles look like so I didn't bother photographing them. They can be picked with bare hands but it's not the most comfortable thing in the world. Always pick nettles before they flower. Leaves with purple tinges can be very bitter and older leaves can damage the kidneys. There's some evidence that nettle stings can be good for rheumatism because the sting brings blood to the affected area. Once upon a time, being covered in nettles was a common medical treatment. April is the best month to pick them when they are young and tender. It is possible to eat them raw - rub the leaf hard between the fingers to destroy the little hairs which cause the stinging sensation and you can then pop them in your mouth. However, they're probably better either cooked or mixed raw with other foods. 

We didn't see wild garlic during our walk but the guides had picked a huge basket of it beforehand. It is a fantastic food to forage though - incredible garlic flavour so if you can find it, get some. Here's what you're looking for:

And now for the warnings! Hogweed is one of the plants which can cause phytophotodermatitis so avoid this:

Many plants of the carrot family (umbelifferae) must not be eaten. Avoid anything which looks like those fluffy carrot tops you occasionally see still attached to carrots when you buy them. The family includes cow parsley, wild chervil but, surprisingly, cumin, coriander and dill. However, the main issue with this family is that it includes hemlock which is a poison. Here is hemlock water dropwort and yes, it will kill you:

Wild arum absolutely must not be eaten . It can be confused with sorrel (when sorrel has bigger leaves) so be very careful. If it looks like this, don't pick it:

So those were our plants for the day! We headed back to the classroom/impromptu kitchen with our basket of goodies and started making lunch. Mark was in charge of nettle pakoras - ridiculously simple: a colander full of washed nettles, roughly chopped, 100g of gram (chickpea flour), a spoon of baking powder, a chopped onion and some of the wild garlic, all mixed together and shallow fried. Delicious. Millie made wild garlic pesto - two good handfuls of wild garlic (which I happily chopped), a small amount of chopped nettle, crushed pine kernels, olive oil and parmesan. All simply mashed together in a pestle and mortar and served raw with some plain crackers. Divine!

Interesting fact (I hope I get this right or Cathy will have words): some plants like spinach or rhubarb contain oxalic acid. This acid can hinder the absorption of the calcium which is also contained in the plant. However, this problem can be overcome in a very handy way. If you combine the foodstuff with another source of calcium, the acid doesn't affect the calcium in that food. So what do we eat with rhubarb? Yup - custard! Generally made with milk. And with spinach? Indeed - cheese. So whether we know it or not, we're combining the right foods when we have a bowl of rhubarb and custard or a lovely spinach and feta salad.

All in all, it was a fascinating three hours and I'm seriously contemplating signing up for the autumn foraging course too. 

Easter Egg Hunt 2013

I woke up this morning to find this cryptic message on the bathroom mirror:

Which led me to this one:

So I did:

Off to the living room with me:

I sat down but this is all I could see ...

So I stood up and ...

Aha! Once rescued, this is what it looked like:

Bet it doesn't look like that for long.

Thanks Dade!

More moments in Madrid

I finally made it back for a long weekend in Madrid, after nearly 15 months away. Unlike my last trip, when I was picking up my belongings from my time living there, this trip was fun and relaxation all the way. 

Once I'd sorted myself out at my hostal on Friday afternoon, I met up with Julie, my first good friend when I arrived there in 2009  - we hit the Mercado San Miguel for the early part of the evening. We chatted away over far too many vermut grifos. It was good to catch up and it was particularly interesting to hear about how much Madrid has changed since I left, but especially in the last year since the recession really hit. 

After the multiple vermuts with Julie, I went on to meet Eve, my first and best flatmate when I lived on Banana Street! She took me to a secret bar, on the sixth floor of what appears to be a residential building. A couple of beers and a huge plate of asparagus and pimientos al padron followed, accompanied by lots and lots of chat! 

I was staying at my regular haunt, a hostal at the top of Calle de la Montera (commonly known as Prostitute Street) and once back there, around 1am, I flung the windows of my sixth floor room open and fell asleep to the sounds of late-night/early morning Madrid. It's weird that the sounds of the occasional bus and a few drunkards going past my flat at home drive me insane, yet I can sleep in Madrid with dozens of people chatting, singing and generally having fun in the street outside, and with the non-stop traffic on Gran Via just feet away. 

Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny and after meeting up with Julie for a miniature breakfast, it was time for Cathy to arrive and join me. Once she was settled in to the hostal, we went out for lunch at FrescCo, still an absolute bargain "Eat As Much As You Like (with a free drink) for €10.95". Stuffed, we headed down towards Atocha train station, as I'd discovered Cathy had never seen the rainforest and terrapin pool in there! After gazing at the terrapins and booking our train to Segovia for Sunday, we went to La Caixa Forum where we saw no less than three exhibitions. One was, as Cathy put it, "arty bollocks", the second was an educational display about food shortages around the world, and the third was a somewhat weird exhibition of various real and fictitious circus and voodoo-type icons. We spotted a poster announcing that the 2013 Carnaval celebrations were due to start that day with a parade from Plaza Mayor to Cibeles. 7pm found us on Calle de Sevilla with several thousand other people awaiting the arrival of the parade. It was pretty spectacular - floats, music, fire-breathers, dancers and a gigantic inflatable dinosaur. We had to battle our way through the crowds back across Sol to meet Eve again in the evening, before heading off for a pre-dinner drink at Bar Ave Fenix (the old location of the famous Friday night English-practice meet-up). Then it was time for dinner at La Isla del Tesoro - possible the loveliest vegetarian restaurant I've been to anywhere in the world! I'd forgotten how tasty the (free) pre-starter of chickpeas, caramelised onions and mayo with a variety of home-made bread was. We shared mixed croquetas and then enjoyed an Energy Wok, a Barley Beach and a Jungle Burger! We walked off our delicious meal by wandering to Casa Patas, a bar recommended by Eve. Rather disconcertingly for a vegetarian, we were sat directly under a mass of jamon! It regularly hosts traditional bands and flamenco, though there was nothing on while we were there - initially I thought we might be just too early as it was barely midnight when we arrived, but they were putting the chairs on the tables when we left after two beers and two gigantic Drambuies - it was fun ordering those as it's clearly not something the barman (Oscar) had been asked for again and none of us could work out how on earth it would be pronounced in Spanish! How could I forget how enormous Spanish shots are! It had been another fabulous evening of chat, food and drink. 

After a long and tiring day and perhaps just a little too much alcohol, it was a bit of a struggle to get up Sunday morning but we had train tickets to Segovia booked and had to get up to the north part of the city to catch the train from Estacion Chamartin. We made it with a few minutes to spare, grabbed another morning-after-repair tortilla baguette and headed to the train. I had believed my guidebook which said it takes 90-120 minutes to get to Segovia by train. However, that guidebook was written before the "AV" (Avant) trains were brought in. These are the high-speed trains and it turned out our journey took less than half an hour! The train station really is in the middle of nowhere and it takes another 20 minutes on a bus to actually get to the town but it's great to be dropped off directly under the famous aqueduct. Segovia is a rather weird city - the ancient part is being subsumed on all sides by new buildings, and not attractive ones at that. We spent the day wandering the cobbled winding streets, climbing the ancient city walls, marvelling at the height of the cathedral and watching yet another Carnaval parade in a different Plaza Mayor! We also listened to Spain's answer to The Flying Pickets - Tutto Voce - who were great. Eight male a capella singers, with a guy with a voice so low it was like the beginnings of an earthquake. We caught them rehearsing when we first arrived and then watched their main performance after the parade. It was clear from a lyrics sheet that was handed out and from the reaction of the audience that many of the lyrics were satirical. The Segovia Carnaval has a different theme every year - this year's was 1920s and prohibition. The costumes relating to that theme were mixed up with classic carnival outfits, worthy of a Venetian masked ball. During the stage show it started to snow but it wasn't to last. After more wandering around the Jewish Quarter, we treated ourselves to yet more croquetas and a white bean and egg mix at a local bar with pretensions (!) before heading back to take a closer look at the aqueduct. Even though I had been there before, I had honestly forgotten what an incredible feat of engineering the aqueduct actually is. We climbed the wide shallow stairs up the walls almost at the top of it, and marvelled at how something so tall and long could be held together by, well, nothing. There is no cement or anything similar - the blocks are held together solely by their own pressure. Cathy had a go at pushing it over but, surprisingly, without success! Another high-speed train whisked us back to Madrid, we walked some of the way back, past the area where I used to live, which has barely changed, but then the rain set in and we hopped on the Metro back to the hostal. We treated ourselves to a little siesta before heading off to Eve and Pedro's place, as they had kindly invited us to come for dinner. We had a lovely evening - Eve had made absolutely delicious food, we had a tour of their cute flat, chatted about nonsense as usual, I caught up with Pedro (again, one of my first friends when I arrived in Madrid) and generally put the world to rights! The Metro carried us back to our cosy hostal room for our final night. 

We allowed ourselves a bit of a lie-in on Monday morning as we had to check out but we then had the whole day ahead of us before flying home. We dumped our bags behind reception, paid our bill and headed to Chocolateria San Gines for an obligatory breakfast of chocolate and churros. Delicious, of course, but very filling and just a little sickly! Then it was another trip to the Mercado San Miguel for a wander round the food stalls. I managed to forget to buy the lovely veggie croquetas though. From there, we headed into the little back streets behind the market to try and find the Convent de las Carboneras - this is a "closed" convent (the nuns have no actual contact with the outside world) but in order to raise money, they make cakes and biscuits which they sell to the public via a rotating drum system. We stood in the right square, not quite sure which building we needed, when a smiley homeless lady came up to us saying "Dulces?" ("Sweet things?") We said yes and she led us to the building we were actually standing next to and rang a bell on the wall. When a voice answered, she said "Dos señoras aqui" ("Two women here") and the door opened. We followed signs to the "Torn" down two dark corridors and across a courtyard. In a darkened lobby we found the dark wood of a revolving drum with a price list next to it. A disembodied voice then reiterated the cakes, the amounts and the prices. We went for half a kilo of small almond cakes for €9. We put our money on the wooden tray and then it was whisked away on the revolving drum, replaced by our box of cakes! (If you click on the link above, you can see pictures of the whole procedure.) We thanked the invisible nun and off we went. When we exited back into the daylight, the homeless lady was waiting for us, looking very pleased with herself! We thanked her and offered her some cakes but she shook her head and said she would rather have money! Honest, if nothing else. We gave her a few Euros and a couple of little cakes anyway. 

At this point, my sense of direction which had been standing me in quite good stead up until now, completely deserted me and I led us off in totally the wrong direction. We ended up walking to Lavapies which I couldn't have found if I wanted to, before I gave in and followed the map. From there, we planned to have a quick drink in Circulo de Bellas Artes café which had been Debbie's regular haunt when we lived there. The main door was closed due to some kind of incident with a falling sign and when we got to the alternative door we found a sign saying that there was an entrance fee of €1 just to get into the café. In all honesty, we weren't that bothered so we left again! We went back to Cibeles to check on the times of the newly-discovered airport bus (thanks Julie). Since we were right outside the Correos (main post office) we went into the incredibly impressive building to get stamps for our postcards. No physical stamps any more, apparently. We handed over our money and postcards and the lady used an ink stamp on them. Saves paper, I guess. From there, we headed back to the centre and to Bar La Catedral which I had always planned to visit. It was eventually time for a spot of lunch so we went to El Buscon, a regular haunt when I lived there. It had been tarted up a bit but was still busy and had a great buzz. The waiter was seemingly on his own, dealing with a full room of diners but he was great - he whizzed around, smiling constantly, putting up with my terrible Spanish and practicing his English on us and, as the afternoon went on, started to pinch Cathy's cheek each time he passed the table! The most impressive thing was that as a result of one of our questions, he popped back to the table and said "Do you not eat meat?" We confirmed that we didn't and he brought us a veggie tapas (everyone else seemed to have bread and sausage). We both had an absolutely delicious vegetable soup to start, then I had my favourite dish when I regularly ate there - huevos rotos con patatas fritas (in my case, sin chistora). Yes, it's egg and chips but yet somehow, it's not! Our attempts to leave were thwarted by the fact that every time we asked the smiley waiter for the bill, he pinched Cathy's cheek, stroked my chin and brought us two free shots, but no bill! We eventually managed to pay and headed to Plaza Mayor for a last little tourist bit! Finally, we had to admit it was time to leave, retrieved our luggage from the hostal and walked down to Cibeles  for the airport bus. For the second time in one trip, we had completely misunderstood/misread travel time and a trip which we thought would take 50 minutes actually only took 15. We were at the airport extremely early but managed to kill time till our flight home.

It was a really lovely weekend with great company, lots of food and drink, and I remembered once more just why I loved living there! 

I'm sure I'll be back again soon. 

A selection of my photos can be found HERE.