Madrid

Hello from Meckelfeld, Germany (Carsten's hometown!).

We are hanging out with family and friends for a few days before heading home on May 5.

For now let's talk about Madrid.

We of course started with a free walking tour. This 3 hour walk gave us an overview of the city.

This statue is of someone whose father had a nice statue. He wanted something grander so he had this statue made.  The problem was that the face looked nothing like him. So - he had the head removed and a new head made - looked more like him but it is out of proportion.  The head is too small for the body. The price of hubris.

The cathedral.

Old city hall. The Emirate of Cordoba originally founded Madrid as a defensive outpost to protect Toledo (which was the more important city and was the capital at the time).

This bear with apple tree is the city symbol - it is on the flag as well.

The architecture is impressive.

The fountains were impressive as well but they were all in the middle of very busy traffic-circles so hard to access.

We did a Tapas and Terraces tour one evening.

Did you know that Tapas are free? The origin of tapas is this - people would order drinks and become intoxicated - this caused the usual problems so there was a law passed that required a "tapa" to be provided with the drink.  Tapa means lid or cover.  The little free snack would be on a plate set on top of the beer glass or whatever.

When you get a drink in Spain you are offered a tapa.  We got a variety of tapa - olives, chips, gummy bears, bread.  I love free stuff!

The views and sunset did not disappoint.

In the middle of the Plaza del Sol is the 0 Km marker.  It is the point from which distances for Spain's national roads are measured.

Inside the Madrid cathedral.

The very large palace in Madrid. This palace has 3,418 bedrooms - this number was decided by Charles II who wanted a different bedroom for each night of his life.  Of course he died before sleeping in any of them!

This guy in the palace reminds me of someone - I though Data from Star Trek or maybe Judd Hirsch - who do you see?

So many little details. This from the porcelain room (some from Meissen, Germany).

The chandeliers are beautiful!

The royal dining room.

The crown room.

The throne room.

Typical meal - shrimp w garlic, chorizo sausage and bread.

 

After 6:00pm the Prado Museum is free so we took advantage of that!

This lady was on the outside - she is the Boss!

Hieronymus Bosch paintings were one of the highlights of the museum. His stuff is WILD!

I think I will make this my screen lock picture on my phone.  Scare people off ...

This is one of the large traffic circles in Madrid.  It is one of the reasons we do not need a car.  We certainly had a lot of steps but that is easier than managing the traffic.

The view from the former post office building, now city hall.

Well, I think that is about it.  We really enjoyed Spain.  The weather was perfect, the food excellent (although it could have been spicier), the wine superb and the toilets free.  What more could you want!?!?!

We will be home in a week, until then - take care.

Sheri & Carsten

PS - we missed the huge power blackout in Spain by one day!!! We did experience the smells of the garbage strike before we left! Whew!