Madrid es mi corazón.

sadly, a fair amount of photographs from madrid have agatha, oonagh, or oonagh's wee babe in them, so for the sake of, you know, not showing agatha, oonagh, or oonagh's wee babe, some generic photos from madrid taken by inga, thus no inga in any of these photograph either. above please see a typical building in madrid perched along the side of typical little plaze one comes across while out walking the city.
and here please note the beautiful and dazzling stairwell of the hotel petit palace posada del peine, located near the plaza de(l?) sol. according cid and his sister, this was a very famous place back in their grandfather's time. he stayed there, apparently, but there was some question on the part of the proprietors about the kind of people they let to - everything was chained down. the combs in the baths. the plates. the silverware. the cups. hmm. we're skeptical, but with cid, you never know. perhaps his grandfather was a thief.
here please note the tiny senorita, perched where she can see all in the bar. this is a typical spanish cafe where we stopped for lunch one afternoon. lunch consisted of a bottle of vino tinto (of course), a tiny plate of olives and assorted meats, a salad with tuna, and a tortilla de patatas.
ah, yes, and here we have a typical street in madrid. hello lovely buidlings, hello lots of people out walking, hello non-generic architecture!
admittedly, this photo is not very good, but i was trying to be all sneaky, and those of you who know inga know how effective that can be. but this man was the tops. we especially love his fellini-like fedora and dark glasses. and his dogs, who we later found out were chica (the mom dog) and chico (her puppy). the man wandered in, dogs trailing behind him, and found a table. he pulled out two chairs and motioned. the dogs happily jumped up and sat down. then he sat. he ordered a coffee. he pulled out his newspaper and started a game of suduko.

at one point oonagh's wee babe made, under her breath, a 'come here, dog' noise and lo' and behold, chico jumped down, trotted over, and demanded much petting and cooing. later, when we prepared to leave, our cafe con leches finished, the man came over. we admired his dogs. he thanked us and told us their names. apparently, i could have taken a better photograph.

on a side note: dude in the silver jacket is a Japanese tourist. he ordered coffee and a pizza. the pizza arrived on its own little cutting board, complete with its own tiny machete-like pizza cutter. from our table we reveled in its cuteness. he did, too, taking out both his digital camera and his phone and taking photos.

and, finally, taken in a friend's apartment in madrid, behold the photograph of the cured ham. yep, it's even got its own handy holder! i love the jamon in spain, i really, really, really do. but this did cause me some pause. for a minute. then i totally got over it. the only thing i still haven't accepted? blood sausage. tried it once. that was more than enough.