Madrid, Spain - Final Thoughts

So that was our trip to Madrid.  In many ways the city felt a lot like Paris, with the only exception being you weren't surrounded by as much historical architecture.  Madrid has several historic sections, but you kind of have to hunt for them.  They're not out in the open like in Paris.  Overall, we enjoyed our time in the surrounding villages more.  We really wanted some old world Spanish atmosphere, and it turns out you have to go out of the city to find it.  Like I said, Madrid is nice, but it's your typical big European city with lots of modern amenities.  Also the people were nice.  Everyone we met and came in contact with was friendly and helpful.  One interesting side note, our plans were interrupted twice by large protests in the city streets.  Turns out there were organized protests all weekend against eviction practices against the people.  As you all know, Spain is in a big recession right now, and many people get kicked out of their homes when they can't afford the rent anymore.  Yet, despite the recession we didn't really notice any more beggars and homeless than any other city in Europe.  But we could tell in all the restaurants, shops, and in our hotel that every business was a little short handed of people.  So the recession is visible, with businesses not being able to afford to hire the right amount of people.  Anyway, we enjoyed Madrid, and like I said earlier, we've had a lot of snow and grey skies here in Switzerland, so it was nice to go somewhere a little warmer and see some sunshine.  We currently have a trip to Barcelona planned for August, so I will be very interested to see how the two cities compare.  One last note...I was curious how I would do with the language.  Spanish was my primary foreign language back in Texas in high school and college, but I've forgotten so much (if you don't use it...you lose it.)  And now I'm learning German so my languages are all messed up right now.  But I was surprised how quickly my Spanish came back to me.  I spoke enough to function and get by, but more importantly I realized I could still read it pretty well.  So in short, we functioned better than we expected with the language issues.  Well, that is except for the time when I asked someone a question in Spanish, and then finished the conversation in German without even realizing it.  Jenny and the kids thought that was pretty funny.  Oh well.  My brain gets confused sometimes over what language I need to speak.