Fleur's Adventures: Muggings in Madrid and other news..

So just two weeks after my trip home the UK it was time for Mummy Baikie to come out for a week and then Bianca and Daddy Baikie made it out for four days, within that week.

Mum arrived and we spent Thursday and Friday exploring Alcala. The city is a world Heritage Site so has lots of beautiful buildings to see and visit. We walked around enjoying the sunshine and saw the University buildings (where I have my lectures - they are stunning!), the palace, the monastry, the Cathedral, the big wall which used to surround the city and we even managed a little visit around Cervantes' House.

Then on Saturday morning we made our way into Madrid to meet Bianca and dad as they arrived and after we dropped everything off at our hotel, we made our way into the centre for a day of sightseeing and tourist behaviour.

This is when the title of my post becomes relevent. On the metro from Tribunal to Sol my purse got stolen, right out of my zipped shut bag which was held under my arm... I thought I was doing everything right but it turns out when it's going to happen, it will happen. The metro was already packed and just as the doors were shutting four people threw themselves into it and jostled everyone around for the whole journey. Therefore no one had any idea what was happening. They clearly had a plan and also had a knife. Mum's bag got slashed into (luckily they got into an empty outer pocket), Dad felt someone go for his pocket but he got there first and the zip on my bag was forced open from the wrong end and unlucky for me that's just where my purse was. Hey ho, all they got was 53cents (the benefit of being a student) and a lot of plastic. It was annoying to deal with but at the end of the day it's nothing. There was something sentimental which someone special gave me to take on my year abroad and this is the one thing which still upsets me/winds me up. Upsets me because I lost it and winds me up because it will mean nothing to them!! GRRRR!!! Ah well, we are all safe and that is the important thing.

After said incident we went round the main sites, Sol, Plaza Mayor (saying hi to fat Spiderman on the way of course), the palace, the cathedral and then down Gran Via. After all the sun and walking we were pretty tired so just headed back to the hotel and had a late dinner in the bar. The next day we went all the way down to Atocha and then walked back up towards the centre of town and saw the 'Wedding Cake' building and then went for a leisurely afternoon in the park. I then headed home to do some work before uni and teaching the next day.

On the Monday night we had a lovely meal and then it was time to say bye to dad and Bianca on the Tuesday morning and I got to enjoy a couple more days with mum before it was bye to her too. Here are some of the best photos from the weekend.