Madrid: Day Two

It's amazing what 12 hours of sleep will do for a person's well-being. After a wonderful night's rest and an unusual breakfast buffet, D and I headed off to the Museo del Prado to view the Spanish royalty's art collections from the 15th - 18th centuries. Several hours later, a very cultured D and I picked up lunch and then headed off to the Palacio Real. The Palacio Real was commissioned by Felipe V, but since he died before the palace was finished, it ended up being only 2,800 rooms - a quarter of its intended size. Bummer.  As you can tell from the pictures below, it still ended up a pretty decent sized castle.

D and I in front of the Palacio Real

In the 'guard' house in front of the Palacio Real.

Immediately across from the Palacio Real was the Catedral de Almudena (posted yesterday). Somehow D and I found the Catedral de Almudena and completely missed the Palacio Real. In fact, we also missed the front of the Catedral de Almudena that faces the Palacio Real - go figure!

The front of the Catedral de Almudena (and D's head).

From the Palacio Real we wandered down to the Muralla Arabe, the fortifications built by Madrid's early medieval Islamic rulers. The majority of it was torn down and replaced by a Christian wall.

In order of front to back: D, the Muralla Arabe, and the Catedral de Almudena. I think that might be the Christian wall in between the Muralla Arabe and the Catedral de Almudena, but I'm not sure.

Then it was time for a tasty dinner of suckling pig and off to the bullfight. 

Suckling pig - tasty!

I am not a fan of hurting animals, but the bullfight was definitely an event to see. The matadors are incredibly athletic and decked out in intricately embroidered and bedazzled outfits. And the bulls are terrifying. But don't leave in between matadors! They won't let you back into the amphitheater until the matador has killed the bull (poor bull!) and they are in the process of resetting/cleaning the field.

Matadors entering the arena at the beginning of the bullfight.

Look how close the matador gets to the bull! This particular matador got a standing ovation from the crowd complete with waving white handkerchiefs.

D and me at the bullfight. It was 9 pm and still daylight out!

So far, D and I have both happily managed to avoid terrible sunburns despite the amount of time spent outside. Hopefully, we can continue that trend as we go on a boat ride tomorrow morning and then head off to Barcelona.

Madrid: Day One

I have to admit, I was a bit nervous that we (my husband, 'D',  and I) were going to actually make it out of Chicago. First, the cab that we reserved did not show up. Next, in a new cab (that required an extra 10 minutes of walking), we merged onto I-90/94 and just sat. And sat. And sat. And then the skies opened up and a torrential downpour commenced - there was a clear forecast (umm, fail?)! And we were still sitting. After convincing the cab driver to get us to the closest El stop, we ran with our luggage (in the pouring rain) to catch the Blue line to O'Hare. We made it to our gate with time to spare, but found out shortly thereafter that the plane was not at the gate because it was also stuck in traffic - ohhh, the irony. After a delayed boarding, we made it on to the plane - yay! No. The weather was not done with us. It began to pour again, resulting in a ground stop and a 2 hour delay. But, we made it out! Hola, Espana!

Today we had to force ourselves to adjust to a new time zone - a seven hour time change. In honor of D's father, we did a forced march around the Madrid districts of El Retiro, Huertas and Toledo - roughly 8 miles.  Our initial march started off at the Parque del Buen Retiro, right near our hotel. We had a goal - to find the oldest tree in Madrid. It took us about 2 hours to find it - mostly because it was right in front of us at the main entrance to the park, a rectangular section called the Paseo Parterre. Additional oddities in this section were some strange, perfectly pruned trees that strongly resembled broccoli.

Madrid's oldest tree, planted in 1633

D sitting underneath the broccoli trees.

We did part of a bus tour, but true to form, I fell asleep almost immediately after the bus started moving and eventually whacked my head on D's shoulder. We had to get off the bus and start walking. Luckily, there are many beautiful cathedrals in Madrid which made the walk back towards the Parque del Buen Retiro much more enjoyable. The Basilica de San Francisco El Grande had a beautiful garden and a lovely view of the city.  About 2 blocks up the road was the Catedral de la Almudena which features stunning carved artwork on its front doors.

D and me in the garden at the Basilica de San Francisco El Grande

The front doors of the Basilica de San Francisco El Grande

On our way back, we encountered several street artists. For some reason, the noises they made to attract interest (strange chirping and squeaking sounds) fascinated me. This particular street artist completely captivated me - ooo - shiny and sparkly!

Street artist

We were headed back to the Parque del Buen Retiro for one purpose - to see one of the few statues of the devil (in the world!!). This statue is called El Angel Caido or "The Fallen Angel." Quick weird fact: this statue sits exactly 666 m above sea level. Definitely strange.

El Angel Caido

D and I have now been up for about 30 hours straight. After some well needed rest, we plan to see the Museo del Prado, take a boat ride at the Palace de Cristal and go see a bullfight - all tomorrow!