All the King's horses and all the King's men...

Back blip

This morning, amazingly, things were mostly back to normal, the electric supply having been restored over night. 
Martin's sister Sue set off early to catch a train back to her home in Alicante (where she had plumbing issues that  needed her attention!). 
Martin took me on a short walking tour of central Madrid to see the outside of the cathedral and royal palace. We walked through lovely parkland below these buildings, and suddenly this procession of  beautifully turned out horses and their more casually attired riders came past us. We decided the horses were probably from the Royal stables and being trained for ceremonial work.
Early this afternoon we took the metro to the airport, in order to take a short flight ( 1 hour ) to Oporto. We had originally intended travelling there by a series of three trains taking about 10 hours, but last week Martin discovered there was a Portuguese rail strike planned for yesterday/ today which would have prevented us making this journey, and so had booked us flights instead. Actually, I was pleased to have a brief journey rather than a long day's rail trip after yesterday's adventure. 
We are staying in a wonderful Pousada in central Porto. 
This evening we went for a meal in a local restaurant called Solar do  Patio, in a converted manor house, see extra,where we celebrated Martin's birthday which is today.