"So. Class. Bank. Then returned home to dump school stuff, cram a swim suit/towel into a bag and flit off to rendezvous with my landlords, who had offered to take me to their club. The plan: I was to catch the Metro out to a station southwest of the city center where one or both of them would pick me up, the afternoon would proceed from there. From my building, I made the hike to la Calle de Fuencarral, one of Chueca's main drags -– the more touristy of the two main drags -– then down Fuencarral past the Municipal Museum to the Metro, where I headed well down into the Earth's crust to catch the subway line I needed, one extending well southwest of the center.
"Part of the reality of Madrid, at least in the two years I've been lurking within the city limits, is that it's growing at an unnerving rate, meaning construction everywhere, aboveground and underground. In this case it meant (I discovered) that due to work being done on this Metro line, the train ride terminated two stops short of where I needed to go. A shuttle bus took over from there.
"One or two statios short of the transfer point, the line abruptly burst aboveground, bringing scenery to contemplate -– dusty green trees; brown, parched grass; hard, brilliant Iberian sunlight. Now and then buildings or a view of a road. At the termination point, all passengers poured out of the train, walked through the station to the street, poured into a shuttle bus, which took us to the remaining stations. After which I found myself standing on the sidewalk by Campamiento, the station final station on my ride. My landlords (Pat and John) waited, I crawled into the back seat of their small car, we headed further west."