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Ditched Sierre for the week and went to Madrid to see Ash. (Here is his blog) At first i was resenting Swiss Air for having such pricey flights but once they started offering free baguettes apple strudels and chocolate on board i forgave them. Also they had looney tunes as the inflight entertainment on the return journey, so all sins forgiven 

There’s no need to mention how cheap food and other things are in Spain compared to Switzerland, I think i put on several pounds at least in an attempt to stuff myself before returning back to “frozen pizza for 6 franc” land. (I do love it here really just feeling nostalgic for reasonably affordable food)

We went to a lot of places whilst there, but the most memorable would have to be the visit to the Guadarrama mountain range in northern Madrid in an attempt to reach the highest peak of the region - Peñalara. After much sim-swapping, map reading and bus taking, we arrived there in time to watch the sunset from one of the lower peaks. Then it dawned on us that there were no more buses, no more trains, to get back down the nearest town with a metro. This is where the hitchhiking came in! Sadly didn’t actually get to stick our thumbs out as we asked some people who were already parked, and after much Spanish spoken debate between the couple they decided to help us. Dropping us off at burger king back down in civilisation, we waved goodbye and thanked the lord (the burger king himself) that we didn’t have to spend the whole night freezing to death in the wilderness.

We also took a visit to the Faro de Moncloa, a viewing tower over 100 metres high, and had a momentary feeling of vertigo whilst travelling up in their lovely glass lift. El Rastro, a flea market held in the centre every Sunday, was another one already on my list to visit

Templo de Debod. Ash had class so thought i’d take a hike. Whilst here i purchased the travelcard, with which you have access to free travel on all buses and trains (i think) and only 20€ for the month! It’s extremely handy *cough* Switzerland sort it out *cough* and i only needed it for the week.

Overall the week trip was over far too quickly and next time we need to get down to art student business and visit some galleries, the city itself is not short of art though, on the streets, stalls, etc.