Today I have unfortunately no photo for you,

or better from you: Madrid! Do not want to claim that this city is ugly or disparage it in any way. Only I do not find it photogenic, nor does it open up to me. So there are cities that I find beautiful only at second glance, others again, you stick your head out and are in love. And here? No movement. Every now and then I take out the photo camera and pull the trigger, but it's nothing unusual, unique or really pretty enough to post. Sorry dear Madrilenians. So here I come again, as soon as my favorite club gets to play in the Champions League here again. So probably never again. And why is that? Well, everything here is big, sprawling, almost gigantic and that is possibly the problem. The architects or urban designers have so probably too much space. And we all know that beauty & creativity flourishes most when there is a shortage. It reminds me a lot of US cities, only that they know how to create visual axes and visually appealing places. Here, that somehow doesn't really work, at least not for me. Too bad, I'm really annoyed a little bit, I would have just suspected that yesterday I would have gone straight to Lisbon instead of wasting my time here in gigantism and tomorrow I have another whole day here. What do I do only? Do I stay in my 5 star luxury resort here? Off to the shopping mall? See what the young ladies with a desperate look and a vendor's tray offer besides perfume? Cherries? Plums? Themselves? Or do I want to visit the Thai massage temple, foot zone reflex with hot lava stones? I don't think there's a happy ending for me. All day in the hotel, no I can't do that, not even briefly watch a season of a series. I have to get out, I have to find her, the one. It's not that I haven't tried today. I even tried metro tunnel diving. Into the metro, out at one station, then up, walk briefly in a circle and see if the city hits you with a hammer, no, so back into the metro, two stations further, same game. Nothing. Very often. Normally, yes, I had my future beloved ex-wife, wait, that must mean my beloved future ex-wife, right? Anyway, usually I bought her a guidebook, she studied it, showed it to me, and then I navigated us to the good spots. I'm afraid that would have ended in an argument here. Sunset? I did not find a position. Even Google suggests for this only either a viewing platform on a house in the middle of the city or a park with the wrong compass direction, skyline, if it can be called so, in the back. And the viewing platforms on the houses? Let's put it this way, today the pedestrian zones were so crowded, all you really had to do was sprinkle cheese on top and the crowds would have been ready. The platforms on the houses in the city center must have been deserted. I'm sure they were. What also stands out? In Barcelona, all the signs are 4 - 6 languages. Spanish, Catalan, French, English, sometimes German and here? One language, Spanish. Salesman here? "No hablo inglés" ! And no Asian tourists here either. In Barcelona very much, mostly pretty young women or a bit roundish guys and since they all had really nice teeth I assume South Koreans and no Japanese. Chinese, sure, they're still under lock and key. So when I put 1 and 1 together, and I do sometimes even right, rightly no photo here, okay one, but just to illustrate. Just look at this Christmas tree, it's really in the middle of the city here. No wonder everyone sits here in the cafes at noon with a glass of wine in the cold sun. But I couldn`t drink that much to make this city beautiful and I`ve drunk a lot of things beautifully, but meanwhile, fortunately, I live straight edge: I don`t drink, I don`t smoke & I don`t fuck. But that reduces possible activities here to a minimum. Also the coffee is really not of the good kind. At the Manzanares I was already, it is nicely done on the riverbank, but just not really unique. Also the cookies that I had bought in a bakery, also those lack the certain, oh what can I say, extra class, big they were. So well tomorrow again a round (have today only 18 km unwound), in the hope I still find the one. As always, I'm looking for the one. The one place that is worth a photo. Maybe I should go to the zoo? Who knows, on that note, good night. P.S.: today made a little more effort with the writing, not just something written down like the last times.... sorry for that äh deepest apologies.