eBay: One Madrid Sewer system; unused

Just got back from Madrid, Spain, lovely place, beautiful architechture. It has great tasting food and the people are quite charming.

I few observations however:

1. Everyone smokes.
Really now, I think if Spain wanted to cut its carbon foot print just stop people smoking. The inner city is easy to get around and there isn't much congestion so they won't have much of a carbon foot print through cars. Smoking however must constitute most of their emissions! Whatever it is they smoke also smells about ten times as strong as what they have in the UK, it smells like pipe tobacco. Lovely... I also think maybe this ties in with number 2 which is:

2. Everyone is about 6" shorter than me.
Is this to do with genetics or smoking or something else? I don't know. What I do know is that wondering around I was about 6" taller than the average male. Back in the UK I'm about 2/3" taller but over there I was a giant.

3. The Madrid sewer system is presumably superfluous.
I don't know how any Spaniard has ever passed a single stool. For breakfast they have coffee. For lunch they have great tasting food, but none of it, really contains any fibre! The ratio of bread, rice etc to meat and cheese was about 60/40 meat. The result; great tasting food, and presumably a completely unused sewer system.

4. Very few people actually speak English... or should I say hable inglés.
This isn't a criticism, it is just an observation. I am sure that many have gone to Barcelona and found that everyone speaks English and expects Madrid to be the same. It isn't. Not even slightly. However, I actually prefer this to an extent. It forces me to get off my lazy English speaking back end and learn some of the lingo. It also means I know the magic of instantly, without thought, rememebering; 'one minute, please' when the cleaner starts walking into your room while you're still naked.

5. La Finca de Susana, if you're in Madrid and you can get to it, go.
Restaurant opening time 8:30, time I arrived 8:32... just managed to catch the last tables before it was full. Passing the next day twenty minutes before the place opened, there was a quene stretching down the street. This queue was there for good reason. When you can eat a stunning veal steak for under €10 and a bottle of wine costs the same as a glass over here in the UK you can hardly believe you're eyes. All this in a capital city. Can you imagine having a bill for two people come to about £35 in London? A bill for one maybe... Oh and it tasted ambrosial, just in case you were wondering.

6. Freemarket capitalists, they are not.
I was on my way to park Retiro when I couldn't cross a road. Unfortunately 200,000 people had turned out to support the workers Union the OOCC. At first this was all very interesting and a bit like a festival. There were lots of people drums and banners. Things seemed less friendly with the helicopters flying over head all the time and someone setting off fireworks that sounded like bombs going off. While I took the opportunity to pick up a leaflet and read about the protection of public jobs and so on, strangely I didn't take the time to explain to the crowd the benefits of free market capitalism. Strangely I didn't think it was the ideal time, unless I was in the mood for taking on 200,000 Spaniards in a Matrix revolutions tyle fight. Although one does see a strong correlationg between countries with economies that could do with a bit of a kick and a strong socialist contingent. I mean even before the recession Spain had 10% enemployment and so it isn't a surprise that people aren't happy about it. Although I am not sure what they think socialism is going to do for them.

7. The weather man was wrong.
One day of sunshine and the rest cloudy... that is what you think Mr Weatherman...