So it turns out that two of the days we have in Madrid are Spain’s Labor Day on a Friday and then the festival of Madrid on the Saturday. So lots of action in the city.

Friday was fun because we walked straight out of our hotel street and into the Labor Day march. And Kylie was keen to join in and be part of the chanting throng. Pity that our Spanish was not developed enough to have a clue of what was going on. But we were there and part of the march.

I tried a couple of times to get a chant going of ….. ‘We shall not, we shall not be moved!!’. But they would not join in and just walked past me. I think it got lost in translation.

On the whole, it seemed a peaceful march, but there appeared to be several older folk with signs and chants relating to their pension. So there was a bit of a serious side and I didn’t dare get in the way of some angry senior citizens. I was guessing that social security might be an important issue for some older Spanish folk.

After we separated from the march we headed up to a beautiful park area …. By coincidence it was Park Retiro. Yes I kid you not …. it translates to park for retired people. But they were all down at the march.

Turns out it used to be a park only for Spanish royalty. But these days they even let Aussie protesters in.

Yes that last photo is a Spanish magpie. One for the collingwood fans out there. Ole the magpies.

But seriously, it is an amazing park …… And then we stumbled upon a massive lake in the middle of the park. And it had boats. And yes ….. Kylie wanted to be rowed around the lake. Of course I was up to the task as skilled skuller from my days at university (part time study of  accountancy at Charles Sturt uni on the mighty Murray river in Albury).

So off we went for a row around the lake. The photos might not do it justice, but navigating a course around this expanse of water with 50 other little boats was not an easy task. You might notice that I came a bit too close to the water spout statues. Nearly ended up with water in the boat.

Kylie took control of the oars at one stage and did a great job. I was keen to see if I could throw  a line out the back as I did spot fish in the lake. But when I realised they were carp, I thought better of it. After all we have all the carp we need in Lake Burley Griffin.

We decided to head in as the skies were looking a little threatening. Being in the middle of this big lake in rough waves was a concern. Swimming to shore and then saving other women and children was not what we came here to do ……….. plus there was no room for an esky in this little fibreglass number and rowing does work up a thirst.

All in all a fun day …. Some serious marching and some good times in the park.

And if any of you have Spanish friends (yes, Luis I mean you) and they try and tell you that they know this park and the lake is really just a big pond ….. Don’t believe them. It is a big lake to row around … Especially when you go around in circles a lot and play dodgem cars with other  little boats.