An Insomniac is attacked by Montezuma

Some nights I just can't sleep.  At all.  That was the case with Thursday night.  I even went out on the sofa bed in the living room to escape Fernando's snoring and that didn't work.  That evening I hadn't had any expresso and even had two beers!  So in the morning I was dragging myself around and then had an attack of La Turista.  I don't know if was the sandwich Fernando and I shared at the Marrakesh airport, or the fat tuna belly I had for dinner, or the tap water I drank here in Madrid (it should be safe, right?).  In any case this all put a crimp in our plans to explore Madrid and most of the morning I spent hunting for bottled water and napping.

We finally got off around noon, with a little help from Immodium, and took the Metro into Madrid.  First stop was the Museum of America, slightly north of the city center.  Fortunately I had bought a large map of Madrid because the normal tourist map doesn't cover that area and there are no signs for the Museum.  I think they need a Sophie Masloff for mayor, someone who would put in directional signs for the walking tourist.  All their directional signs are for cars and you have to search for the street signs which are placed on the sides of buildings, as in Mexico.  I think Fernando was slightly disappointed in the Museum but it was only 3 euros so not a big loss.  Afterwards Fernando wanted to see the Ciudad Universitaria nearby, thinking he could pick up a cheap ethnic lunch like in the U.S.  But again, there were only large buildings and not much in the way of small stores.

Since we bought the all day Metro card for convenience, we hopped on the metro (although it took us some time to find the station -- again no directional signs pointing the way to a metro station) back to the center of town and began exploring the tourist shops around the Plaza Mayor.  The place was hopping with tourists -- mainly Spanish tourists I swear, but we did enjoy a beer and some bread, cheese and salami at one of the tables in the square.  You say that's not great for La Turista?  Unfortunately there wasn't much of a healthy selection at the Museo del Jamon where we ate!

The rest of the afternoon we spent trying to follow a Frommer's walking tour of the older sections of Madrid which turned out to be quite uninteresting, following major thoroughfares with lots of cars.  It's hard to wander through Madrid streets and not get hopelessly disoriented.  Maybe I do like smaller towns like Burgos and Logrono.  I try to like Madrid but it isn't easy.

One thing I'll say about Madrid:  the air is quite clear so that the sky is very blue and the yellow and orange colors of the buildings are quite vivid.  The mornings and evenings are chilly but the sun gets quite hot at midday.  I should stare at the blue sky for some time before we leave because for sure there won't be much of that in Pittsburgh.  On the other hand, there will be rain and greenery.