Madrid
Moon Song
Laura & Alan Grayson
Thu 7 Feb 2008 08:15
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This morning we set out on our walking tour of the
historic district. Plaza Mayor is a an age old market square where bull
fights & festivities were held. Now it is where outdoor music and
patio cafe's can be enjoyed. On to St. Michael's Basilica, the first
church of the tour. Great stuff. Laura wanted to dip into the holy water but I
was afraid that it would burn me so I opted out. Walking thru the streets all by
itself was wonderful as the architecture is so different to what we are used to.
Snapped lots of pictures just walking down the street. After a few wrong turns (
still not used to everything being so close) we made it to the LA Almudena
Cathedral. We walked into a service being held and fear of being struck down
again had me turning around. We went back a bit later for a good nosey tho. Onto
the Royal Palace. Kinda figured this place would be really flash especially
since they stole all that gold from the Inca's and sure enough their kings and
Queens lived in big time luxury. Was a really good tour and had one funny spot
when the tour guide was describing some really precious and expensive clocks and
instead of calling them priceless he said "Worthless". Got a bit of a chuckle
out of that one so obviously from now on we have to describe all the good stuff
as "worthless". Out of the Palace and back to the Cathedral. Now that place is
"Worthless". It has always made me wonder just how much money the church's
really have, well I know where a big portion of it is.
Next day we went to the Prado Museum. Well to start
with we stood in line in the drizzle for 1 1/2 hrs just to get the tickets. Now
remember it is winter here and it was cold but here is the funny thing. We were
both quite warm for the most part and we only had a Tee shirt, shirt and jacket.
Remember we came from Venezuela where we sweat just standing under the shade of
the trees. In this queue we saw some well wrapped up people, down jackets hats
and gloves for the most part. Laura even stripped down to just the Tee shirt but
I think she must have been having a hot flash. Anyway I ramble. This museum is
full of "Worthless" paintings and BIG. Some of these paintings filled up a whole
wall and that's a museum wall and you know they're big. Laura's
favorite was the room with 8 huge marble statues dating back to 500A.D.
So we walked around there for a couple of hrs until all the paintings
started to look the same and it was all a big blur of color. A quick coffee and
we were fired up and ready for some more action so off we shot back to the hotel
for a quick siesta. It was raining and cold after all. That pretty much
completes the Madrid part of the trip as tomorrow we head off
to London.
All and all Madrid is a wonderful place and we
reckon this place requires a bit more investigation unfortunately this is just a
teaser tour as time is short.
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