Madrid

Last recap from the middle of our trip, Madrid. I'm still wrapping my brain around how different all three major cities we visited were. We must have hit Madrid at a busy time, the weekend before Easter weekend, a huge rivalry soccer game and the Madrid marathon. The city was packed. This wasn't as surprising on Saturday and Sunday but Monday too. Lots of young people were out and about on Monday which makes me think it was spring break week. It was still a very interesting city but it didn't have the laid back feel that Barcelona had.

We arrived via train on Saturday afternoon and took the subway to Grand Via where our hotel was. After getting settled we went exploring. Grand Via is the main shopping avenue and it was packed. Plaza del Sol and Plaza Mayor were also packed. We were in search of a place to watch the FC Barcelona vs Real Madrid that evening (cheapest tickets were over 500-Euro which we just couldn't stomach paying). We settled into an Irish Pub an hour or so before the came to hold down our spots at the bar. Two orders of fish and chips and a few beers and ciders later the game began. Interestingly enough there were people rooting for both teams in attendance. The game ended in a tie which is better than Barcelona losing but still not very exciting. We wandered around a bit more before calling it a night.

This is the English version of Bulmers, not to be confused with the Irish version that is only called Bulmers in Ireland. It's called Magners everywhere else because of the English version. Oddly enough they served me a Magners branded glass. Magners is better, hands down.

This is Plaza Mayor which reminded me quite a bit of Piazza San Marco in Venice but without the huge basilica and clock tower. We procured a painting, an actual canvas, of Don Quixote here that is now hanging in our living room.
 This is a fountain in Plaza del Sol, tulips in bloom. It was a very nice evening out.

This is the Grand Via. It was very commercial and lively. Our hotel is on the opposite side of the street with the tall blue neon sign. The Hotel Atlantico was the top-rated hotel on Trip Advisor which was surprising given it is a Best Western. It was nice though and they had a great breakfast buffet. Oh and a bidet in our bathroom which always amuses me.

Choosing a museum to start the next day's activities was tough. The Prado is by far the most famous and largest museum in Madrid. We knew it would be crowded and overwhelming and we were worried about ending up tying up our entire day inside. We opted instead to go to the Thyssen gallery which had a more manageable collection of paintings with a decent variety of genres, styles and time periods. It was a lovely museum and when we finished we had sandwiches in their nice outdoor courtyard cafe.

After the museum we decided to walk over to the large Parc Retiro. This is a lovely, lovely park. It was warm and sunny and people were out in droves sunbathing, boating and generally enjoying the landscape.

Saw this fountain on the way from the museum to the park. I love how many fountains there are in this city.

We think that at least part of this gorgeous building is now being used by a telecom company, how sad.

I thought that mariachi bands were more of a Mexican thing but these guys were quite good and drawing quite a crowd in the park.

This street performer was doing crazy balancing stunts, it was pretty impressive.

This park had everything, tree-lined walkways, fountains, row boats, a large (but empty) greenhouse and en English-style garden. After leaving we walked back through Plaza del Sol to find the famous place for churros con chocolate. It was really packed so we opted to try again the next morning. Their claim of being open for 24 hours was false though because at 9:00am they weren't open yet! Don't worry though, it eventually worked out.

We had dinner here, a bottle of wine and two large plates of tapas and bread. It was great and the crowd was friendly.

This guy was actually a bronze statue, not a street performer faking people out. We did see a number of the latter during the course of our trip though.

We tracked down a jug of Sangria after dinner. The bartender mixed it up in front of us and it was fan-freakin'-tastic. I wanted to go back the next night for more but we figured it'd be good to try different places. This tapas bar is at Plaza Santa Ana.

 Ha ha, those are some nice tan lines, Karen.

And really, whoever said that rollerblading was out of style hasn't been to Europe. We saw lots of people rollerblading in Spain including these tricksters in Plaza del Sol. The next morning we headed out early to visit the palace. This place is huge and the epitome of opulent. Unforutnately they don't allow photos inside but imagine it looking something like this:

Ha ha, but seriously, gold plating and frills freakin' everywhere, plus an entire wing that they now have full of armor and weapons you can check out. It was well worth the morning we spent there but I recommend going early. Despite it being a Monday, it was, of course, packed by the time we left.

After touring the palace we went back for churros con chocolate and it was goooood!

After this snack we checked out the gardens next to the palace before making our way to Plaza de Espanya to see the Don Quixote statue. From there we wandered to another hill top park where a small Egyptian temple has been reassembled as a gift to Spain. It was pretty cool but since it was Monday it was closed to go inside.

 These girls were dancing in the gardens, looked like fun!

This is a view of the cathedral and palace complex from a hilltop park, very nice! We were pretty beat from all of our walking so we made our way back to the hotel stopping for some ice cream along the way. For our last evening we went back to Plaza Santa Ana for tapas and sangria (at a different cafe). Then we wandered back to Plaza Mayor and hit up the palace for nighttime photos.

This is a market we stumbled upon. It was pretty cool, people were just enjoying wine and food inside. I was bummed we'd already eaten!

The next morning we picked up our rental car and began the driving portion of the trip. On the way out of Madrid we passed by the university which looked very large and impressive. I wouldn't say Madrid was my favorite part of the trip but it was very memorable.

Opulence photos are screen shots from the infamous DirectTV commercials that I found on random sites who didn't attribute them properly.