SPAIN - Madrid 2

Tuesday was my final day in Madrid. Russ had work through Friday, but I had decided to return home Wednesday so my Mom could get back to her job, and also because I didn't feel the need to spend 5 whole days exploring Madrid by myself.

After looking at my options for the morning, I chose to return to the Royal Palace and pay the entrance fee to see the inside. Very happy with that decision. Unfortunately, photos were only allowed outside and in the main entry, so I am limited to telling, rather than showing, how incredible it was. 

I paid an extra 4 euros for an audio guide to take along with me through the palace. Good decision. It was much more interesting to learn about the rooms and the artwork, etc. than to just see room after room filled with expensive and unimaginably ornate items. Each room was decorated differently, and I don't think I saw a square foot of wall or flooring or curtain or table or sofa or clock or dish that wasn't finely made. They don't have just regular walls. They're all covered in embroidered silk, or ancient tapestries, or famous paintings, or hand-crafted carvings. 

I was also happy to have the audio guide because otherwise I think I would have missed out on one of my favorite parts: the armory. The armory is accessed from a corner of the courtyard that isn't prominently marked, so I think many visitors probably don't go down there. I REALLY wanted to take a picture in there. It was just cool to walk into this huge room filled with armor and weaponry. It was all displayed very formally, too. Like there were life-size horse models covered with armor, and soldiers mounted on them. And interestingly, there were also full suits of child-size armor. My audio guide informed me that these were sometimes offered as gifts for the royal children from other rulers.

This main lobby of the palace was the only place were could take photos inside. 

So the palace was really neat. And I was so glad I decided to return and do the tour.

Another "living statue" just outside the palace. (Can you imagine holding that stance?!)

Can you guess which dessert is mine and which is Russ's? :)

After meeting up with Russ for lunch I went back to the hotel for a bit to rest and then I walked the streets for a little while until Russ was finished.

We had already decided we wanted to go to Parque de El Retiro that evening. It's a really big, and very popular public park area in Madrid.

I loved this little lake and all the people out on the water in paddle boats.

I assume this is the same in many European cities, but there aren't like big chain restaurants. Instead, there are tons and tons of small bakeries and cafes and bars and other places to eat. And many of them have tables set up outside, as in the photo below. 

For my last dinner in Spain Russ insisted we try the "tapas" experience. Tapas indicates small plates of food, like appetizers. It's common for a restaurant to have a tapas section of the menu and an option to order 6 or 8 or 10 of the choices (depending on how many people are sharing it), and that's your meal. It was a fun way to try a lot of different things. 

As we were walking back to our hotel after dinner Russ suddenly realized that there was an item on my Spain bucket list that I had not yet checked off: churros con chocolate. Some of our friends recently went to Barcelona and posted at least twice on Facebook about eating "churros con chocolate". I had told Russ that was something I definitely wanted to try while in Spain. 

So, even though we had just finished dinner, we stopped in a little diner and asked if they offered my desired dish. They did! And I'm very glad we stopped. So yummy. 

And, that's the end. I successfully made it to the airport on my own the following morning and bid a fond farewell to Espana. 

So happy I was able to go. And especially that I was able to go with Russ. 

SPAIN - Madrid 1

In Barcelona we were paying for our own accommodations, so we opted for the low-cost hostel. In Madrid, however, BR&E was footing the bill, so we got to stay in a nice hotel.  

Notice the golf-ball shaped soap as a testament to the "niceness" of our hotel.

However, it seems that in Spain hostels and nice hotels alike opt to slide 2 twin mattresses together and call it a double bed. We seriously laughed when we got into our room and saw the same exact mattress arrangement as we had just left. Oh well.

Monday morning Russ headed off to work, and I headed out on my own. I was very glad we had already been in Spain 2 days so I was familiar with the maps and the metro system, etc. I was still very cautious and made sure to take careful notes beforehand about exactly which metro line I wanted to be on, which direction to go, and where to get off.

I spent the morning on a city bus tour that I had arranged in advance. I was so impressed with our tour guide who gave all the information 3 times - once in Spanish, once in English, and once in French. To an American who speaks only English, that was pretty impressive!

The bus stopped to let us off for pictures at 2 sites: Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas (bull ring), and Santiago Bernabeu Stadium (home of the Real Madrid soccer team).

Barcelona is in an area of Spain that has outlawed bull fights, but they still happen in Madrid (and a few other places as well). Every Sunday from March - October there is a bull fight in this stadium. With seating for 23,000 spectators it is the largest bull ring in Spain, and the 2nd largest in the world.

I'm not very good at taking the selfies, but I was all alone, so you get what you get.

Below is the soccer stadium. You can't tell how immense it is. It seats 85,000 people. I included this picture though to show the line of people waiting outside. There was no game that day. Those people were all waiting just to tour the stadium. And they were paying money to do so. That's crazy to me. I know they love their soccer, but still, pay money to see inside the stadium when you're not even going to a game?! An adult entrance fee is 19 euros, which is more than it costs to go to the world famous art museum in Madrid. And the tour guide told us the stadium gets nearly as many visitors as the museum. Crazy.

I was planning to meet Russ for lunch, but I had a little while between the end of the bus tour and the time Russ was scheduled for a lunch break, so I followed the awesome map downloaded on my phone and walked over to Russ's training site. Happily, I didn't get lost at all. That may be because I stopped every few blocks to look at my phone again and make sure I was going the right way. :)

Don Quixote statue in the Plaza de Espana.

My walking route took me right past the Palacio Real (Royal Palace).
When we drove past it during our tour the guide informed us that is has 2,800 rooms but was constructed in record-breaking time: only 26 years. :)

The royal family changed their residence to a smaller palace in 1931, but the King still uses this one for official business and receiving visits from other dignitaries, etc. He was actually using the palace this particular day, which is why you can see an armed guard out in front. The guards were stationed all around the palace and wouldn't let pedestrians within a certain distance.

The Catedral de la Almudena is right next to the palace. Its construction took FOREVER, by palace standards - 110 years.

Madrid has several different "gates". This one is called Puerta de Toledo (Toledo's Gate).

After my walk I found Russ and we had lunch with a few other people from the class he was teaching. In Spain the midday meal is traditionally the biggest of the day. And they're also on a later schedule generally than we are here in the U.S. So Russ's lunch break wasn't until 2:00 PM, and the meal we had included 3 courses. Whomever selected that restaurant did a good job; awesome food. Especially the dessert I had. I have dreams about that mango cake now. :)

After lunch I walked back to the hotel (which was just a few blocks from Russ's training site). At the hotel I did something that I never, ever do: I took a nap. I know. I should have taken advantage of every minute I had in Spain to see as much as I possibly could. I was so tired though. And I thought, "Hey, this is MY vacation. If I want to take a nap, I'm going to take a nap. And I'm not going to feel guilty about it either!" I'm not really much of a nap person. And the few times I've tried to take a nap at home it doesn't work. I can't really fall asleep with all the noise from my kids. But it worked this time. And I enjoyed it.

Anyway, I napped and rested and caught up on email, etc. that afternoon. After Russ got done working we headed out together. So Madrid has several museums, but the most famous is the Museo Nacional del Prado. My tour guide said it's the 3rd most famous art museum in Europe, after the Louvre and the Hermitage (in St. Petersburg). But the Prado is apparently the most important in terms of paintings. The collection here is comprised almost exclusively of paintings - 7600 of them (though many are in storage or on temporary loan to other museums).

There is a regular entrance fee for the museum if you visit during daytime hours, but every evening from 6:00 - 8:00 PM entrance is FREE, for everyone. I really love that. Not just that Russ and I were able to see such awesome and famous works of art without shelling out 14 euros each, but mostly the idea that they are making the art accessible to everyone. It seems like that's the way it should be. Cultural treasures really should benefit the masses, not just those who can pay.

The 6:00 - 8:00 PM free hours worked perfectly with our schedule since Russ finished teaching at 6:00. We walked right over and picked up our free tickets then saw as much as we could until the security guards kicked everyone out.

After the museum we tried to atone for my bad paella in Barcelona. This time we headed for a restaurant that was specifically recommended to us as having good paella. 

It was good. Not amazing. But definitely better than the other one I tried. What we actually loved there though was this toasted bread with jamon serrano. Serrano ham is this dried, cured ham that is all over in Spain, and super characteristic of the country. After we ate our paella Russ asked our waiter if they had anything with jamon serrano because I had never tried it. The waiter recommended this bread. It doesn't sound like anything incredible - toasted bread with a tomato spread and cured ham. It was DELICIOUS though. One of the best things I ate the whole trip.