Madrid

I'm really impressed with Madrid as a city after our cycle tour today. Madrid has more parks and the largest park in Europe. Campo del Moro goes way back to the days of the Moor's when they tried unsuccessfully to breech the city walls. Campo del Moro means camp of the Moor. The Moor's would come right up to the city walls on the west side and camp before commencing their battles. In much later years Franco used a much great area in the same vacinity to attack and quell the revolutionaries. Now this whole area is available as a park for the city. To get some idea of its size its 5 x bigger than Central Park in New York. The other fantastic park we rode through was the Jardin del la Retiro, meaning a place of relaxation. This park too was built out side the city walls and as the city spread has had some of its land taken. The park while covering a huge area is enclosed by a huge fence. Huge well established trees gave some idea as to the age and established nature of the park. I found it fascinating to know that every night at midnight the park is closed to the public and a team of cleaners come in expressly to clean the park such is its esteemed value as a place of relaxation. Speaking of cleaning we rode passed the main palace of King Juan Carlos which has 2800 rooms. Built of course well before modern technology and modern cleaning techniques. Imagine cleaning that! D

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