More Rain in Spain

"Shop til you drop..." We lived that motto today! After a very pleasant and uneventful train ride to Madrid, we found a taxi to take us to our hotel. By the looks of it, we thought we might have mistakenly been booked in a hostel - but, no, it is a hotel. Tiny, outdated room, but warm and quiet, so we'll take it.

While in Barcelona, we were enamored with the fact that every woman here is in boots. It was the same in Morocco - boots everywhere! We are so obviously Americans - walking around in our comfy sneakers. We decided to scope out all the boots around us and make our own purchase while in Madrid. During our train ride, we checked our tour book and decided we would shop along the Gran Via. How pleased were we to find that our hotel was one block from Gran Via! It seems to be the equivalent to Times Square with shopping in all directions.

We walked and walked, and checked out all of the shoe stores. I can't even imagine how many boots we looked at. We shopped for seven hours. Nothing. We didn't buy ONE thing!!! And, to top it all off, it was raining the whole time. We were soaked and cold, and still no boots. We've decided not to settle for anything less than the perfect boots. So, tomorrow, we will jump back in.

We did take one quick break this afternoon to escape the cold rain for a few minutes. Don't be mad - but we stopped at Starbucks!! Just like in the states, there is one on every corner. We couldn't resist the comfy chairs in the window, and the warm, sweet goodness that is the cafe mocha. So we indulged. Ahhh...

(don't judge - we were in the rain ALL day!)