Spain Road Trip: Days 18-19 (Madrid)

     The Madrid Open is not the French Open or Wimbledon.  But it is a professional tennis tournament and El Generalisimo is tennis-crazy.  All the big names were going to be there:  Nadal, Federer, Djokovich, and others, and the top women players too, like Azarenka and Serena Williams.  (It's not a coincidence that we happen to be in Madrid when the tournament is going on.)  And on Tuesday we went (by Metro) to see almost six hours of tennis at the "Caja Magica" tennis stadium.  We saw all or part of four matches since, unlike other sporting events, you can go from court to court and see whatever matches are being played.  These were the early rounds of the tournament, so the stadiums were not full (we have tickets for the quarterfinals on Thursday night).  Here is proof of our presence at the Madrid Open:

#2 seed Sharapova awaits service- she wins easily in 2 sets

#1 Seed Victoria Azarenka - she has a little more pressure, forced to win her second set in a tie-break against Czech Andrea Hlavackova, unseeded, who took an injury time out but still held her ground against the imposing Azarenka

The Frenchman Monfils- he lost a 2nd set tiebreak and had to win the 3rd set (in this tournament, the men play best of 3); most impressive shot was one between his legs that saved the point for him!  We watched this on a smaller (more intimate) court and Monfils was a hoot, talking to the crowd.  Beat German Kohlschreiber-- good fight!

The Umbrellas Came in Handy . . . and Not Because it Was Raining!

And here's some commentary from the cracker-eating tennis nut:

Our fourth and last match of the day was another close one between Feliciano Lopez, a hometown favorite, and Melzer from Austria, who finally took it in the third and final set after Lopez let it get away from him in the second set and lost the 2nd set tie-break to Melzer, whose momentum grew.

After getting back from tennis we had an early dinner (9:30 p.m. -- they opened the kitchen for us) and then it was time for bed.

     On Wednesday Ed got up and went to his new Madrid gym -- "V-35."  Everyone is friendly and welcoming there, and they keep letting him in for free.  Then he came home and got everyone up (as is the pattern).  Then it was time for breakfast at the counter of a bar where we got to throw our napkins on the floor.  Then we headed off to Madrid's big park:  Parque Retiro.  (We took a taxi . . . we have taken many taxis in Barcelona and Madrid, and we find that about half of them will accept a dog).  Here are pictures of our time at the park:

We walked home from the park in 80-degree weather.  Yummy!

     After "chillin" at the apartment for a while, we went out again about 6:00 p.m.  We took the metro to a stop near the Plaza Mayor, which is sort of the main square of Madrid.  We had tons of fun sitting and drinking drinks and watching the street performers, which included a man with no head, a man with only a head but no body, a scary baby, a fireman painted all gold, and a goat with flashy fur.  We laughed when the goat man went to take a cigarette break on the side of the plaza, leaving his costume lying on the ground next to his money cup . . . some silly person went up and put money in the cup not realizing it was simply a costume lying on the ground!  Here's Plaza Mayor:

Asha Walks Past the Goat

Dinner was all sorts of delicious tapas at the Mercado de San Miguel near the Plaza Mayor.  That was fun.  Then to the metro, back home, and bed (late as usual).