Day 13

 This morning we met Corinna at 9:30 to wander down into the town square. It was a square that originally was the main centre of Madrid but has since seen Madrid grow well and truely around it and away from it. We had breakfast in the square and then wandered down to the palace gardens. We could walk through them freely. 

We then headed to the Temple of Debod. The temple was given to Madrid/Spain from Egypt back in 1970 but the tomb itself dates back 2,200 years. It is on top of a hill that looks out of the palace of Madrid and the city. 

We then headed down the hundreds of steps again to a cafe for lunch. After lunch we had our guided tour of the palace.

The palace has over 3,400 rooms! It is the 2nd largest palace in Europe. The tour took us to 30 rooms including the dining room, lunch room, dressing rooms, kings bedroom, queens bedroom and waiting rooms. The decorations were incredible. We also saw the crown which is only worn by the king at his funeral and weighs 1.2kg.

After the tour we headed back to our room for a shower. At 5 we all headed across to the bullring to get tapas prior to the fight. It was very busy with all the locals eating prior to the fight also. We headed into the ring 30mins early to find our seat and hire a cushion as we had heard the seats are concrete and very uncomfortable! 

The stadium ended up being absolutely packed to the brim. The capacity was 24,000 and it would have been close to that! The seating squeezes you in, you have someone sitting essentially on your feet and someone with their knees in your back. Regardless it was ok for the 6 rounds. The locals explained the bull fighters and rounds to us prior to the start and then it was all go! You aren’t allowed up during the fights and there is only 2mins between rounds to get out if you want. 

The first 2 rounds were good but the 3rd was incredible. The bull fighter was known to be the best and the crowd atmosphere was crazy when he came in. He was very skilled and elegant and managed to kill the bull clean and as soon as the knife round began. He also did round 6 and managed the same again yet the others took a lot to kill it. Round 5, the bull came in alittle too excited and slipped his tendon so they had to swap him out for another. The fight finished at 9:30pm and we were glad to get out to some fresh air. The Spanish all smoke and it was allowed in the stadium so our lungs were burning. We then waited in a very long queue for a taxi and made it back to our room at 10:30. 

Belle arrived tonight and her and Corinna met up for drinks but we were too late and not up to it after the fight. We have our tour tomorrow to Toledo and Segovia leaving at 8:30 but will be catching up with Belle and Corinna when back around 4. 

We both enjoyed the bull fight, it was no way near as confronting as I was expecting and great to experience the tradition surrounded by locals. 

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