So I was feeling down when I got to Madrid. You know the saying “When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping”? I’m one tough woman, so I went shopping 2 days in a row!!

Today, we took Metro to Plaza de España, just 15 min away. The whole Gran Via was closed off to cars. Shoppers were everywhere. It was like a flood of people carrying shopping bags going from one store to another. People waited in line to get into shops. We went to Primark, and all the baskets and carts were out. Primark on Gran Via is even bigger than Nordstrom in the Westfield San Francisco Centre on Market St. And I had never seen such a big shopping crowd. People were really shopping here, not window shopping. The carts were full to the top, and cashiers lines were snaking around the store.

I don’t recall Walnut Creek ever had such big shopping crowd. Is that because Americans are doing most of their shopping online? I know I don’t shop anywhere near downtown WC. My shopping area is in North Main. It’s called Goodwill! Every other Saturday, Goodwill has 50% on everything at the store. And we, as a family, shop till we drop. Serious shoppers here!

After shopping, I pretended to be intellectual by going to the Cervantes District. Barrio de las Letras, also known as Cervantes Distric, was the literary capital of the Spanish Golden Age in the 17th century, and where Miguel de Cervantes lived, wrote, and died. We went there to feel the quarter where he lived, to see the gold brass inscriptions from Don Quijote in the pavement, and to visit the place he lived and died, and the convent where he’s buried.

The opening sentence of Don Quixote de la Mancha: In a village of La Mancha, whose name I do not wish to remember, there lived not long ago a gentleman—one of those who kept a lance on a rack, a worn-out shield, a skinny horse, and a fast greyhound.

Some of his quotes that resonate with me: