"You know I don't speak Spanish!" or play football

Madrid was great and more than made up for me having to travel all day on a Holiday.
The landscape that I did see was dry, reddish in color, with lots of pine and scrub. After that I was mainly in the city. I didn't check into my hotel until about 11:00, and then I had to work for about an hour from my room. Then I went out to find dinner at Midnight - I had heard you can eat from 9:30-12:30. Mostly places were closed but I found one that let me order a full meal. I had mussel's to start, spicy pasta for dinner, and a cold apple pie for dessert.

The next morning I ate breakfast at the hotel and hopped in a cab to the office. I thought I would try to pronounce the address in Spanish, as opposed to pointing to my piece of paper. Apparently Calle de Zurbano and Calle de Surrano sound quite alike when I say it, so I ended up on the wrong street. No worries! Hopped into another cab and armed with experience, pointed at the address on the piece of paper. 5 minutes later I'm handing the cabby a 50 - all I have after paying the last cab.

This guy is all like, no way jose! "Smallest bill I have Senior, I apologize" "No - too big, no change" "Take me somewhere I can get change" .. starts yelling at me in Spanish... "Senior, I can't understand you, and it still won't make me have any smaller bills" ..yelling.. hands me change...I get out of the car while he is still yelling. I like to think that he was yelling at fate because I am just so darn sexy and he was jealous.

I worked all day, then had a couple of hours to take in the sites by my hotel before dinner (at 9:00, which is 30 minutes earlier than normal). I walked around the Palace and the Cathedral de Madrid and took lots of pictures.

We went to see X-Men 3 Friday night in Greenwich to watch it with Myke and Drew. We don't know how it ends - the film caught and melted during the last 20 minutes. Bummer. They gave us free passes and refunded our money, so it worked out.

Summer finally arrived! At least it is here on holiday.. T-shirt and Jeans weather. We took our neighbors to the Greenwich market yesterday and spent the rest of the day in Greenwich park with Myke an Drew. It was amazing. We had Subway Subs (no oil & vinegar - not even an option! crazy English), beer, wine, cheese, meat, olives - you get the idea. Regular lazy day gorging yourself.

Our neighbor Andy was feeling punchy, so he borrowed a football (soccerball) from some guys and we kicked it around. Myke had an errant pass into the face of some French lady. She wasn't happy, understandably. So we move further away. I tried to juggle a little and the ball got away from me too. Straight at the French lady. "Heads UP!" I say. "Ah, Jesus Christ!" She says.
I chased the ball in an effort to stop it. I managed to pop it up over her head and leap across her body. Didn't even touch her. That was my most athletic moment of the year.

The we got the Aerobe stuck in a tree, which provided much entertainment as we tried to get it down with our empty jug of sangria. I actually managed to get this 1 gallon thing stuck in the tree. We did finally get the Aerobe.

After, we walked to a riverside pub and enjoyed some refreshing drinks and food. On our way home, we passed under the Prime Meridian - there is a laser that shoots from the Greenwich Observatory marking 0 degrees. At one point we were in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Pretty cool. A lot cooler than being in New Jersey and New York when going through the Lincoln.