Buenos Dias!

Our trip to Madrid was fantastic!!! David went for a conference, so I bought a plane ticket and found my own way there to meet him. Can you believe I did all of that traveling by myself? When I arrived, David met me at the airport - he was done with his sessions of the conference for the afternoon, so first on the list of things to do in Madrid was to find the Puerta del Sol - the center of the city, and of Spain. They actually have a "kilometer 0" plaque on the ground in front of the government building. It also has the first and oldest "billboard" in Madrid!

So if by now you haven't noticed a recurring theme of ours - experiencing cities by their traditional foods - you will after this post! Next on the list was to find some churros and hot chocolate. This kind of hot chocolate has a consistency somewhere between pudding and melted chocolate. Dipping the churros is the way to go!

There are so many museums and galleries in Madrid. We went to the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia first - so many famous paintings that were amazing to see first-hand, including Picasso's Guernica.

We also saw two more great sites - Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts! Unfortunately, Starbucks doesn't have eggnog and gingerbread lattes at this time of the year like in the States... sigh...

The Prado, "one of the world's greatest art galleries", was next on our list. You can tell why it's billed as one of the greatest - more masterpieces that I never thought I'd see anywhere but in a book! Favorites were Las Meninas by Velazquez, The Garden of Earthly Delights by Bosch, and the Goya's Black Paintings.

When we left, the moon was shining over a church behind El Prado and it was just such a beautiful scene - this shot doesn't really do it justice, but you get the idea.

Tapas was next on the list to experience - I've had tapas in the States at a great restaurant in Boston, and some in Madrid were actually similar! The first night was kind of quiet - we went to one place with friends and then called it a night at maybe 11? For Madrilenos, this is way too early. Many places don't even open until 9, and "dinner" is at 11! But we got enough tapas at this place to call it dinner - our waitress was great, recommending things to us and bringing us little extras. The next day, David had to go back to the conference, so I went on a walk through "Old Madrid" - first back to Puerta del Sol, to Plaza Mayor, where bullfights and Spanish Inquisition executions happened...

past some amazing architecture in all of the different plazas along the way...

and on to Palacio Real, the Palace of the King and Queen of Spain. They don't actually live there, but they do use it for ceremonies and so on - they close it to the public when they're in. Luckily, they weren't in, so I could take the tour! No pictures allowed inside any of the rooms, but here's the view from the Plaza de la Armeria.

Probably one of my favorite rooms in the palace was the Gasparini Room - the dressing room for the king! The ceiling was almost overwhelming with its details - it was molded stucco, but painted, with fruits and vines in dark oranges and greens. There were, I think, 6 gigantic mirrors in the room, all at least 4-5 feet off the floor, because the king would get dressed on a platform. Here's a view of the scene from the palace, back out in the Plaza - I guess it's good to be king!

Still waiting for David to be done with the conference, I went to Madrid's cathedral, Nuestra Senora de la Almudena - only finished in 1993! It had a beautiful organ inside. The outside actually seems to be too simple and almost governmental in its structure to reveal what you see inside - the altars, windows, and sculptures are so intricate and lavish.

I then found my way to Plaza de Espana - with the building Torre de Madrid in the background, an obelisk with a statue of Cervantes, with Don Quixote on his horse and Sancho Panza on his donkey in front. This is one of those shots I saw in all of the books about Madrid, so I had to recreate it!

After a walk down Gran Via and some souvenier shopping, I met David for a walk through Parque del Retiro - a huge park on the eastern side of the city with beautiful monuments, buildings, lakes, and many walkways throughout. One strange site was somewhat of a garden of gatos, as I saw it! There were at least 10 cats in this one small grove of trees. All different colors, and very well-cared for and clean - we have no idea what they were doing there!

We spent Saturday night doing the requisite tapas crawl of Madrid. Starting with Taberna Los Austrias - yum, chorizo, manchego...

On to La Casa del Abuelo, which only has shrimp and drinks. There's a picture of Danny Divito on the wall, as well as a "We Prohibit Singing" sign (in Spanish of course). You drop your shrimp peelings on the floor, or get the peeled ones that come in sizzling garlic and hot-pepper oil.

We tried one more before heading in for the evening - Casa Toni - huge plates of fried eggplant and jalapenos. We even met a couple from the U.S. who was there on the same recommendation from Rick Steves. What an experience!!! So this weekend was definitely a whirlwind of a trip, but also definitely worth it. We did so much, and had so much fun!