Easter Sunday

We had planned a trip to the mountains today, to Cercedilla, which lies a little way north of Madrid, in the Sierra Guadarrama. We thought we'd take a long walk (for us!) and a picnic. Then yesterday, we had a small hailstorm. Hmm. Habibi checked the weather forecast, and discovered that we could expect temperatures of between 3 and -4C, and snow.

So we wrapped up warm, picked up our sunglasses, and headed for Plaza Mayor and the drum parade instead. Note the glorious blue sky and fluffy white clouds. What you can't see is the wind, which blows those clouds past the sun like a policeman directing traffic across a junction. With no clouds in the way, and the sun shining directly down on you, it's a beautiful warm day, and you can feel the glow on your face, or back. Thirty seconds and a few clouds later, it's freezing! And then the sun breaks through again. So there we all were,
under the watchful eye of Felipe II,

and his rather cute deputy (What is it about the selection process for Madrid police officers?)
in front of what used to be the headquarters of the bakers' guild(?!).

listening to the drums.


Cool!

And then we came home, because it was too cold to be out unless you had antifreeze in your veins, or several hundred people to huddle for warmth with. We kept to the sunny side of every street. (Google says it's a max of 9 and min of 0C, with a 19kmph wind from the NW if you're interested. Sheesh! Wind chill factor!)