We are back in Madrid, Spain; not in Madrid, New Mexico or all the other locations with a city by this name.
We spent our 1st full day in Madrid wandering the streets, the beautiful parks and enjoying the gorgeous weather; if we were in the States I would call this Indian Summer. The leaves are in various colours of autumn, roses and other flowers are in bloom, and we're enjoying our time here as much as we always do.
Parque del Buen Retiro is where we spent a lot of time today. We wandered into a (free) art exhibit with some very beautiful still lifes and her portraits are wonderfully expressive. For those who are interested the artist is Marta Gómez de la Serna (www.martagomezdelaserna.com).
I've attached some photos of a European green woodpecker (Picus viridis) that may, based on my understanding of colouring, be a male; I leave it to my birding friends to determine more. There is also a standard park variety of pigeon hanging head down to get at the berries on a tree; behaviour I don't recall ever seeing from a North American pigeon. Again, birding friends, pipe-in on this one. This visit included seeing a small lizard basking on the warm concrete. Some of the park's fountains are still running and there were many, many people picnicking, bicycling, reading, and meditating in this blissful environment.
Halloween has been joyfully embraced in Spain. Shop windows and restaurants are decorated, wait-staff, many children and young adults are in full costume. We learned that sometimes they say "trick or treat" and sometimes the Spanish equivalent.
We wandered into a bicycle shop, various clothing stores, antique stores, and a tiny produce store for a bit of fruit for the day. We also were able to enter another small and beautiful church (so many are locked up when not having a service); this one seems to be where Ferdinand VI and a notable Duke are interred
We travel on the train tomorrow to Alicante and we will most likely see an assortment of how the Spanish celebrate Dia de los Muertos on the 1st and 2nd of November.
