A Postcard A Day - T for Tuesday - T for Madrid (photo heavy)

Hi T-gang! How are you all? 

We have just come back from a week in Madrid, the capital city of Spain. Neither of us had ever visited the capital, but I had to go to the embassy to renew my passport, so  we thought we would book a hotel and stay a bit longer to see the sights.
I'm happy to share photos with you so this is going to be photo heavy...

The thing that struck me was the lack of Christmas decorations or festive lighting. Not a Christmas tree in sight. 
But there was a Christmas market in the Plaza Mayor (the main square):

OK, so I was underwhelmed... The stalls of the market were cute:

 There were about a hundred of these booths and most of them sold the same thing:

Figurines to make nativity scenes. In Spain these are called 'belén', which means Bethlehem. They make whole villages rather than a crib in a stable etc.

The thing I love about Spain is the café culture. Even in December (it's cold in Madrid) people sit outside:

And here is one of those little bars:

One day we had lunch on one of the outside terraces. They had windscreens and patio heaters to keep us warm and the food was very good. We noticed that the little sparrows had a good thing going as they would appear on the table when the customer had got up to go but before the waiter wipped away the dirty dishes. Clever!

The embassy was on the 36th floor of the right-hand tall building in the business part of Madrid.

I was looking forward to seeing the view from there. But on the day of our appointment, this is what it looked like:

The 36th floor was completely in the mist! Tight security meant our elevator pass only took us to the floor we were meant to be on. Oh well...

Our hotel was lovely. It was literally built on top of the train station. In fact we couldn't find it when we arrived. (We should have looked UP! lol!) In many countries in Europe there is a kettle in the hotel room so that you can make yourself a hot drink. Not so in Spain. We knew that and brought our little caravan kettle. So here is a scene from our room:

This photo will qualify me for T for Tuesday, organized by Elizabeth and Bleubeard at Altered Booklover, where we share anything interesting as long as it has a drink in it. The tea on the right is called Winter Spice, and the box on the left contains sachets of cup-a-soups. The box in the back ground is brown sugar, which hubby likes in his coffee and the orange tube contains effervescent vitamine C tablets, which make a refreshing drink. (And before you ask... the fluffy things in the top right corner are the pompoms of my woolly hat that was lying on the shelf!)

Now for my postcards. Needless to say, there were many postcards waiting for me in the mailbox when I got home. 
The one I want to share with you is this one from Canada:

It's a vintage looking card, and it has glitter on it which doesn't come across on the scan.

So be it 'merry' or be it 'blessed', I wish you all a wonderful Christmas!

Happy T-Day,
Hugs,
Lisca