A second day in Alcala de Henares

Despite going to bed at a reasonable time, it was well past 9am when I finally woke up and I was kicking myself as I had not yet updated my blog for a few days now and not only would my memory start to confuse things, with all the new things that are happening to me, but of course any readership following that I that gained will quickly get bored and start to read something else if I do not keep at least a little up to date with my entries.

Also gone until Monday was the chance to post home a package of receipts and brochures that I have been carrying around with me for at least a week now.

A quick light breakfast was followed with a nice cool refreshing glass of milk and then we were off to the town to look around a bit before a trip to Madrid, where I wanted to visit the Royal Palace and also we had a previous engagement at a small party for her mothers Peruvian dancing group members.

Alcala de Henares is not famous for that many things, but one thing it is fiercely proud of is the author Cervantes and his creation Don Quijote, and every year to mark the anniversary they hold a series of live street performances, where they all get dressed up and just go out into the main square and act out the play, or parts at least.

I remember that the last time I was here the city, I passed a cafe where there was a cartoon of Don Quijote showing on the television, but it was nowhere near as entertaining as seeing a group of actors actually perform live in front of you and all for free. I could not help but take some photos, and had we not been in a hurry I would have been more than happy to watch them perform al day, despite it being in Spanish. However, just when I was beginning to regret leaving the show my friend made me very happy by informing me that these mini shows would be ongoing for the next three weeks and so far from missing it, I had just given myself a taster of what was to follow and that if I really wanted to watch them perform I would have many more opportunities before heading off to Brazil on Wednesday.

Shortly after we left the show with its growing audience of locals, we passed my friends favourite shop in the city, a nice retro shop where the clothes and joss sticks all hark back to decades ago and I was more than happy to oblige her a quick window shop when I heard some great guitar riffs coming from a speaker somewhere deep in the shop. As luck would have it, we were not in the store more than a minute when the music changed subtly and I realised that we listening to a Jethro Tull concert, recorded live from Italy at least ten years ago, and they were playing some of my most favourite tracks.

With this and the live street performance I had a really hard job of dragging myself away enough to reach the coach station and I doubted that anything else today could top the already impressive morning. I was right, but only just as the walk around Madrid with my friend was very pleasant and offered me plenty of photo opportunities and the mini party was held at the current headquarters of the Spanish Communist Party, or to call it by its proper name the "Partido Comunista de Espana".

The place was very minimal, with only a few posters of Che Guevarra and slogans around, but it was their W.C. that made me laugh as they had done a typical DIY bodge job, installing the base of a corner unit without properly giving it enough room and so they ended up having to cut a slice section out of the toilet seat lid in order them to allow them to lift it up!

All the travelling must have really taken its toll on me, as I was yawning and falling asleep at the very early time of 7pm and I am almost glad that I had nothing else planned for the night, as it gave me a chance to catch up on my blog and get a truly early night so that I will be more fresh for the following week to come.

I am quite lucky in that despite it being only a medium size district of Madrid I have another contact / potential friend who lives in Alcala and I am hoping that we can also meet up in the next few days, especially as up until now we have only been in contact via emails and so it would be our first proper face to face meeting.