Last day in Spain

Tuesday 8 May 2012  - Returning to our starting spot; Madrid

Day 22 and 132 to go

With the last day sleeping in our van behind us it was time to pack up all of our things and organise ourselves for returning to Madrid.

Paul, as usual, was up and eager to get started. He went off for a shower while I sorted the bed and breakfast.

I had my shower after Paul had returned and when I got back to the van our bags were packed. We had breakfast before doing a final clean out of the van with a quick wipe down inside and an oiling of the roof in our attempt to disguise the scratches in the Perspex pop top. I was hoping we would get some rain when we returned it and that would hide it completely.

By 930am we were beginning the last 100km of our Spanish journey.

For the most part it was like the rest of our trip smooth and easy until we reached peak hour and things came to a stand still, but it didn’t affect us too badly and by 11 we were pulling into the camper parking lot and returning the van.

As I had wished for, the rain had started and this hid the outside blemishes. The inside was given the all-clear as was the missing hubcap and the mudflap that had fallen off. Our money for damages was returned in full, a taxi was called and we were ferried back to the train station at midday.

The train ride was uneventful and by 1pm we were at the main terminal swapping to the metro and getting to our stop Callao.

With bags in hand we walked the final 500m to our hotel being greeted by the super friendly staff who were interested to find out where we had been over the past 3 weeks.

We found our way to our room (not the same as before) and dumped our bags. This time our room faced out over the centre square. It was decorated in a similar style as the first.

We made our way out into the streets again to find ourselves lunch at 230pm. We stopped at one of the small restaurants nearby and had the daily special before returning to the hotel to tackle the cases.

We sorted the 2 cases into warm and cold clothing so we should only have to open one while we are in Egypt. We also created a pile of things to send home.  Once we were sorted it was back out and in search of the post office in the basement of the local department store.

We bought a box and packed our 6.5kg into it before organising for it to be sent home. 50 Euros later, it was labelled and on its way and we returned to the tangle of streets managing to get lost before finding our hotel once again.

We got comfy on the couch watching TV and checking the Internet. It was nice to have time to just sit back and not have to think about what next.

At 8pm Paul got hungry so we organised ourselves and went out again. We found a Thai restaurant that was upstairs and looking over the street. The food was delicious and a window seat kept us entertained as we watched the locals and tourists wandering by.

When we finished we became one of the wanders. We checked out the street performers. 2 sinbads, one sitting above the other in mid air were particularly good. I am still scratching my head as to how they did it. We meandered back to the hotel and got ready for our last night in Madrid.