Day 19: July 2 (Madrid)

We got up around 10 am and went for breakfast at the Chocolateria San Gines. It was yummy the second time too.  Neil, however, said "No more!"  Too filling and too sweet.  There was an older white woman there with a black child.  They were not getting served and I thought it was a race thing but there was a mixed race couple right next to them who had no trouble at all.

The Police Band

We left breakfast and walked to the Royal Palace. The palace was fronted by a huge garden surrounded by very nice buildings.  There were many tour groups evident, including a group on Segways. We heard some music and followed the sound over to a street concert performance of the Madrid Municipal Police Band.  The day was pretty and we enjoyed standing around in the shade and listening for a while.  A woman spoke to Neil in Spanish.  We walked down the street to the tour entrance of the palace.  There was quite a long line to get in, but nothing like the line for the Sagrada Familia.  The tour was expensive, 16 euros, but it included entry to a temporary exhibit of Polish art.

The inner courtyard of the palace

The palace was enormous.  We started in the Royal Armory, a huge collection of various kings' ceremonial suits of armor.  The exhibit included a display of armor for horses.  There was even armor for a dog!  We found the armory more interesting than the actual palace.  We went through the palace along with a tour so we heard some of the information about the room contents and historical context.  It was a lot to absorb.  There were ceremonial rooms, dining rooms, family rooms, etc, and probably only about 10% of the palace was accessible to the public. I felt somewhat claustrophobic in some of the smaller rooms.  We had a good lunch in the Palace cafeteria to build up some energy.  The next stop was the Royal Pharmacy, consisting of rooms lined with shelves on which sat lots and lots of labeled jars.  There was also a room with processing equipment including a still.  Finally, we went through the Polish exhibit.  The exhibit was not too big, well presented and very interesting.  The exhibit ended with paintings by Da Vinci and Rembrandt.  The Da Vinci, "The Girl with the Ermine", was the reason I wanted to see the exhibit.  It is normally in Krakow, so that it was unexpected to encounter it in our travels.  The Rembrandt, "The Girl in the Frame", isn't well known and has not often been exhibited to the public.  We had difficulty trying to find more information on the internet about this painting, partly because we couldn't find a good translation for the Spanish word "marca".

Stained Glass in Catedral Almuden

After leaving the palace, we wandered across a large courtyard which was under renovation until we reached the Catedral Almudena.  This cathedral was completed in 1993, after 200 years of construction.  It was Neil's favorite cathedral, very light inside with beautiful, brightly colored ceilings and very modern stained glass.  There were a lot of priests up on the pulpit energetically discussing something.  We left and walked around the corner where there was an archeological excavation.  Across the street from the dig, a big well-to-do wedding party was spilling out the doors, cheering the bride and groom.

We walked down to the Sabatini Gardens on the other side of the Royal Palace.  Taking a stairway down from the street, we strolled through the gardens and past a stage set up for a presentation of Swan Lake on Ice later that evening as part of the citywide Verrano en Madrid program of events.  Finally, we headed back to the hotel for our early evening rest.  The crowds through the Puerta del Sol and Plaza Callao were already large and growing on this Saturday night.  Once in our room, I did my usual laundry chore.  I called about doing a Segway tour, but all tours were booked through the next week. I read for a while, then napped.

Teatro Espanol at night from Plaza Santa Ana

We went out in search of dinner at about 9:30 pm.  We turned the other direction away from Plaza Major and went to Plaza Santa Ana, which fronts a very colorfully lit Teatro Espanol.  This is a square known for its outdoor dining and it was crowded.  We grabbed a table at the Cervecia Alemana.  The table area was being serviced by one waiter, and he was busy!!  We had a huge salad, tortilla espana and albondigas.  I tried some "apple beer" from Asturias and liked it.  This beer is traditionally served by pouring it into a glass from a bottle held overhead, but I did not get this treatment. Crowds were enormous.  It was 11:30 pm and the playground in the plaza was filled with kids.  There was a schizophrenic guy quasi-living in the plaza "acting out" while we ate.

We were literally stepping over people sitting everywhere on the street on our way back to the hotel.  The public trash cans were full and overflowing into the streets with refuse from fast food places.  I think that it is kind of a Spanish thing to throw trash on the ground.  It appears that a good part of the local government budget must go into paying the many municipal trash workers we have seen working at all hours.  The trash is quickly collected and, generally, streets in Spain are very clean.  Heading back, the Gay Pride event was going strong with loud techno music entertaining the crowds.