We had driven down to Madrid that very morning from Segovia...... a good two-hour ride at normal speeds. Once in the heart of the capital city I signed us into a five-star fleabag ...... a clean , no frills room some four storeys up with balcony overlooking inner courtyard parking lot. Since it was a scorching hot day and I was quite tuckered out I decided to go fetch a bottle of rhum along with a litre of quality orange juice and set up shop out on the balcony in the shade. The photo above was snapped that afternoon and represents the sight I beheld from my fourth-storey vantage point.
While sitting there imbibing the local elixir and recharging my batteries I could not help but witness the very animated " goings on " unfolding before my eyes at ground level in the courtyard . People coming out of the restaurant or hotel would find their cars hemmed in by idiots , raise their fists to the skies calling upon all the devils of hell to punish the " cabrones " in the finest fires of the netherworld..... then head back into the establishments in search of the owners........ sometimes with success ....... whereas more often they came back emptyhanded since the guilty ones had set out on foot to see the sights of Madrid .
After about one hour and a half of this live entertainment there came a sudden lull in all activity below ...... the parking lot was partially empty here and there........ peace and quiet seemingly ruled the moment. Then the little white car ( green arrow ) pulled in and driver went into the nearby hotel. Soon afterwards the two red cars drove onto the lot and parked , one beside the white one , one behind it .... thereby partially hemming it in. However , there still remained enough wiggle space for " whitey " to back out of there.
At that precise instant an old familiar voice I knew so well piped up out of the blue......... it was the wee conniving troublemaker leipreachàn inside me , L'il Athol , who suggested I go down and move my rental car ( blue arrow ) to the space indicated by the yellow arrow ....... thus blocking off all possibility of "whitey's " exiting at all !!! And then sit back and watch the outcome !! Now just as I peered into those tiny beady evil eyes and was on the verge of giving L'il Athol a real verbal thrashing for his evil proposal I noticed some movement down below . A silver-coloured car had slipped into the very spot under discussion.... thereby fulfilling Athol's malicious wishes.
Soooo we both poured ourselves another rhum and watched......... and waited !! Finally out comes the owner of the white car , reaches for the heavens like the others before him once he sees his predicament ... then goes from one car to the other to check for keys maybe as seen in the pic above. Then he looked up and saw me on the balcony .... asking me whether I had seen where the drivers had gone....... to which I simply answered , " Soy extranjero.... no vi nada .... nadie !" .... " I'm a foreigner... I saw nothing.... noone !" Then I felt sorry for the poor guy and invited him to come up to my balcony for a drink and wait for the car owners to come back....... which he did. His name was Francesco ...... a shoesalesman from Valladolid. We chatted for about 40 minutes until the silver car's owner appeared ..... at which moment Francesco shouted down his appraisal of the other's main brain components....... shook my hand thanking me for my hospitality and good taste in rhum .... and then went down and drove off.
P.S. First of all there is much more to do and see in Madrid than sit on a balcony and watch a live performance of the Binary Arts Corp's game " Rush Hour" unfolding before your eyes. I had seen this same parking scenario all over Southern Europe but had never taken a pic of it before that afternoon and simply wished to share it with you all.
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