After handling the phone theft issues, Dave and I got back into touring Madrid. Most of the major attractions are in central Madrid and within walking distance of our hotel. The most important attraction is the huge Prado museum, which took most of yesterday to tour, just hitting the highlights. Unfortunately all of our pictures from yesterday were on the stolen "gypsy" iPhone, so nothing to post from that or from our extensive bicycle tour on the prior day. Today we returned to hiking around by foot, crisscrossing the city for closer looks at some of the sites visited briefly during the bike tour.
City hall is located on Plaza Mayor - a very large square that was once the scene of bullfights and Inquisition trials and executions.
The nearby Mercado San Miguel was originally built in the early 1900's, fell into disrepair, but was brought back to life in 2003. It's a beautiful iron and glass building. Instead of air conditioning it uses a misting system to keep patrons cool.
The market sells fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and seafood, and is full of tapas stalls. Tourist and locals gather around 4 in the afternoon to enjoy a beverage and tapas after work.
This plate holds barnacles. We enjoyed these as a first course at our hotel in Finisterre. Each barnacle has a tiny piece of meat. Very salty. A lot like picking crabs.
Looking west.
The Royal Palace rivals Versailles in size and over-the-top ornamentation. It has 2000 rooms and was built in the early 18th century after the previous palace was destroyed by fire. Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother ruled here for a few years.
The Royal Palace from the outer courtyard.
The ceiling fresco in the main entrance. Most of the public rooms had large ceiling frescos.
Unfortunately, we were not permitted to photograph inside.
Overlooking the former Royal hunting grounds that is now a public park 10 times bigger than Central Park in New York City.
As our trip comes to an end with tomorrow's return flight, we have one pressing question to answer soon.
Does David's beard stay, or does it go?
Stay or go .... will be interesting to learn of the beard's fate!
ReplyDeleteThoroughly enjoyed every written word (though not really the part about the phone theft, or Dave's pinky toe issues, or the cost of the shipping charges for the boots, etc.) -- but the rest was GREAT!!
Trim it a little and keep it. Thanks for sharing your adventure!
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