Madrid

Friday, July 8^th

We slept until about 8:00.  We had three things planned.  Todd needed to get his phone situation worked out.  He bought a pay as you go phone to use while here.  That was a good bargain. 

Todd bought some stamps and tobacco for his pipe.  We then headed to Altair, the school with whom USM has an exchange.  We met with the director, Carmen, and took a short tour of the school.  There are about 450 students from age 3 thru grade 12.  We also met a few teachers, one of whom will be coming to Milwaukee in August.

Since we were near the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu where Real Madrid played, we decided to take a tour.  Fabulous place.   Real Madrid has so much history and the Spanish, especially the Madrilenos, take pride in the club.  The stadium is about ten years old and is already undergoing a small expansion to add about a thousand seats.  That would bring its capacity to more than 85,000.

Lunch near the stadium; pipa shopping; siesta; out with Todd’s friends for tapas (Santa Barbara/Alonso Martinez).

We had lunch near the stadium and later we met up with a friend of Todd’s from when they were here in ’81.  David, his friend and Gloria, David’s wife, were kind enough to show us some local spots that they love.  We had more tapas and enjoyed a dark beer, which is not easy to find in Madrid.