Day 19 - 21: Sahagún to Madrid and sight seeing

Date	Jun 27 - 29
Total This Camino:	219 miles.
Total All Caminos:	1619 miles
Lodging:	Hostel Rober @ $ 85
Total Lodging:	$ 530
Buses / Trains:	$ 55
Total Buses / Trains:	$ 105
Food:	$ 90
Total Food:	$ 410

Meaningful Moment

Made it to the hostel in Madrid. We are on a pedestrian and shopping street which should be a pleasing experience.

Just visited the Queen Sophia National Museum of Art for my fourth time in order to see Picasso's Guernica. This time though, instead of being alone with my thoughts, I saw it with Deb. 

Every time I've tried to explain to someone my reaction to the painting, I seem to not be able to finish the sentence. 

I wanted to tell Deb the history behind the painting but couldn't do it without looking away for a moment and choking back the intense feelings this painting evokes. 

" The story behind Guernica is that the Nazis, in support of Franco, carpet bombed the town of Guernica." And this is where I choked up. All I wanted to say was " and Picasso painted it in memory of the people. " But it must have taken me a minute, or so it seemed, to finish the sentence.

Random Thought of the Day

Easy start to the day. Grabbed a coffee in Sahagún and caught the bus to Leon where we are waiting now to transfer to the bus to Madrid.

On the Road / Notable memories

While riding the bus to Leon, we saw about 20 or 25 Pilgrims on the Camino frances.

In our entire time on the Camino madrid, Deb and I saw only two other pilgrims, the Australian ladies, Jackie and Lynn.

Madrid

Day 1

Arrived at Estación de Sur and took a cab ride to Hostel Rober. Calle del Arenal is a pedestrian only street, making it beautiful to walk along.

Queen Sophia National Museum of Art to see Picasso's Guernica.

Mixed salad dinner for me and paella for Deb.

Street side churrería for churros dipped in hot, melted chocolate.

Day 2

Started the day with a breakfast of cafe con leche and churros.

Deb and I did a walking tour of Madrid center to include Puerta del Sol, Kilometer 0 (the center of Spain), the royal palace, Cathedral of Madrid, other local places of interest and Plaza Mayor.

Lunch at Restaurante Madroña. Traditional Spanish food. 

Checked out the Metro system if we need it to get to the airport on Thursday.

Starting tomorrow the leaders of NATO are meeting in Madrid for two days to discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine and admission of Sweden and Finland to NATO. Expect random street and block closures all over Madrid. They are meeting less than a mile from where we are staying.

There is a major NATO conference in Madrid. Deb and I ran into it when we could not get to our dinner reservation because we could not cross a major street which had been closed because the world leaders are arriving. The only advice we got was to take the subway to another station and exit there. We're staying less than half a mile from the meeting site. Not that we will be invited lol 

Had a good meal of shrimp fried in garlic and fried peppers, but it was at the Opera plaza which is just kind of touristy. With the exception of one young man, the rest of the staff was standoffish. And the bill was higher than it was supposed to have been according to the menu, but I was too tired to argue about it.

Day 3

Deb went to the stylist this morning, so I just walked around Santo Domingo which appears to be Chinatown. Made it to Plaza de Espana, and decided to try the subway just for the experience. 

Took a few minutes of map studying just to figure out how to go one station. I did this studying at a street side Metro map, so that I would not cause a huge queue of people inside the metro station.

Figured it out, bought a ticket and navigated the metro station to get to the right track. And as soon as you could say abracadabra, the train arrived, which I took it to my destination and made it back to the street at Plaza Callao. Good practice for our fancy dinner tonight at a paella restaurant, just in case the streets get closed again due to the NATO conference and it becomes difficult to navigate on the street.

Evening

Deb wanted really good paella and she found a restaurant earlier in our stay which we could not make last night due to the ongoing NATO conference.

However tonight we made it. It was an outstanding meal.

Photos of our Madrid stay

	Deb gave me this bracelet for my 2019 Camino. It made it all the way through my Camino Madrid with her but it met its life cycle. :-)
	Sahagun train station
	View from the bus window as we head to Madrid, thinking how it took a 16 days to cross all this land.
	About one half hour from Madrid. We crossed this mountain chain on day four.
	View from our r&j balcony of the hostel
	Street life
	Our barrio at night
Day 2
	The National Police were out in force around the Opera theater. Not sure what it's significance was to the ongoing NATO summit.
	Tonight's dinner at the Opera plaza
Day 3 - Some random walking around
	Barrio Santo Domingo ( Chinatown )
	Plaza de España
	Just walking now around Plaza del Callao
	Plaza de San Martin
Last night in Madrid
Paella on our final night in Madrid