September 10

After a delightful 14-hour sleep, I went for a run in the park.

   Down my street.

Past the lake . . .

And the glass palace, built in the 1880's to display tropical plants.













And the happy people lying in the grass. No big deal, really. This is just what you see when you go for a run in Madrid.

There is a lot of stuff in the world, but most of it ends up at El Rastro, the massive open market that takes place on Sundays in Madrid. It's supposedly been going on for several hundred years, but I'm guessing that what they sell there has changed quite a bit over time. Like, "I'm an ass man" t-shirts probably wouldn't have sold very well in the 1700's.






Finally, La Vuelta, one of the top three bike races that includes the Tour de France, happened to end this evening in downtown Madrid. The winner, british rider Chris Froome is the first rider in 20 years to win both the Tour de France and La Vuelta in the same year, which has caused quite a buzz in the biking world. You can read more about it here. Anyway, I got to watch some of the final rides through Madrid. I managed to stand at a 180-degree curve where everyone had to slow down a little. Thus, no blur.