A Great Walking
Town
Out and about in Madrid on foot
On our first morning in
Spain, we got up at 8:30 am and were out the door by 9:30 am. We
went to El Corte Ingles, picked up our breakfast, and enjoyed eating it
at the Puerta del Sol.
| Here
I am in Madrid's Puerta del Sol square. There were lots of people
around. |
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Here
are two famous features of the Puerta del Sol: the Charles III and
Horse statue and the Tio Pepe sign! |
| This
statue is the symbol of Madrid. |
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| For some strange
reason, I love finding where milage is measured from. (I think
this is because of the stories my mother told me of the place in
Nashville, Tennessee, where all mileage in Tennessee is measured
from. I've found them in Budapest and Paris, too.) The one
for Spain is right on the Puerta del Sol, right in front of the
governor's office. |
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After
the Puerta del Sol, we followed the Rick Steves self-guided walk and
ended up in Plaza Mayor. |
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| My first Spanish
square was the Plaza Mayor, so I was spoiled for all other squares! |
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| This
is the mini-garden in front of Madrid's city hall. The statue is
of Don Bazan, but we admired the plants and surrounding buildings. |
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This
was just a fun, huge mosaic vase we went by on the way to the Royal
Palace. |
| We found our way to the gigantic Royal Palace but enjoyed it from the outside. We did get to see a horse-drawn carriage arrive around the back. |  |
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| Our favorite sight
by far in Madrid was the Egyptian Temple
de Debod, not far from the
Royal Palace. |
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It
was even free to enter! |
| This
was the outer door.The carvings from so long ago were amazing to see! |
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This
was the inner door. |
| Look
closely to see the carved design, the circle with wings. |
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| I know these
photos are dark, but no flash is allowed inside the temple. The
hieroglyphics and carvings were just breathtaking to experience! |
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We
were lucky to visit at a time when it wasn't crowded, so we got to look
at the different rooms as long as we wanted. |
| Here
is a view with the arches in front of the temple. |
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Notice
the design at the top of this arch is the same design that we saw
inside the temple: a circle with wings. |
| We
could've taken pictures with the temple all day! |
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One
last shot of the temple, then we had a seat before moving on. |
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| I had read about a
salad bar buffet in Madrid called Fresc
Co, so we decided to give it a
try. It wasn't cheap (9.50 euros [$16] each), but it included one
soft drink and all-you-can-eat salad bar, hot bar (with pizza!), and
dessert (fruit and an "ice cream" machine). We liked it a
lot. [I would later each at two different Fresc Cos in Barcelona
four months later!] |
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Here
you can see our first plates. They even had broccoli!
Beware, though, that American salad dressings are not
international! (No, there's no Ranch or blue cheese dressing!) |
| Entry
to the Prado Museum is
free most nights for a couple of hours, so we
went. I wanted to see the originals of Goya's Second of May, 1808 and Third of May, 1808; Velasquez's Las Meninas; and Hieronymous
Bosch's The Garden of Delights.
The paintings are so much larger in person! [No photos inside the museum, so here I am in a blurry night shot outside. It gets dark early in February!] |
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There
were statues of many Spanish artists around the Prado. Here is
one of Goya.
The only other museum we
visited was the Centro
de Arte Reina Sofia, where I paid 6 euros
($8.40) to go in and see the original Guernica
by Pablo Picasso. (While expensive admission to see one painting,
it was something I really wanted to do, and it was almost worth the
money.)
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| For years, my
sister and I have been fans of the decorated cows that cities sometimes
have. We were pleasantly surprised to see them around
Madrid! Here are two we found between the Prado and Atocha train
station. (We were headed to Atocha to get train tickets to
Segovia for the next morning.) |
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| This was my last
photo in Madrid: a cow in the airport's Metro station. |
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| On to
the next pictures |