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Published: December 7th 2006
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A Day of Errands and the Royal Palace
We gotta get some stuff done When Kel and I got up this morning we decided we had reached the end of ignoring all of the things that really needed to be done. We were in a great need of laundry, needed some grocery type items and had to ship the purse that Kel bought in Arcos back home before it was destroyed while traveling.
After about an hour of locating things on the internet we set forth to drop off our laundry to have it cleaned. About a half a mile later on a side street we located the laundry service and dropped off the laundry; it would be done by 3pm. Great, one down two to go!
The closest UPS was about 3.6 km away (that’s about 2 miles). We set out on our trek through the city and relished our ability to explore parts of the city we hadn’t seen. We both find that Madrid has a real heartbeat that is palpable as we walk through the streets. There are crowds everywhere, but it creates a real feeling of life.
While
walking we came across a small grocery store and stopped for some of our essentials. Two down, one to go! While walking to the UPS we discovered a DHL that was closer but after 20 minutes of working with the lady to get everything packed and all the labels filled out we found out that the prices was literally 1.5 times what we paid for the purse itself. Kel said, “No Way!” We jumped out onto the streets again in search of the original UPS which was actually a Mailboxes, Etc which is just like home.
The Mailboxes Etc was charging half the price of the DHL so we went through the label and packing ritual again. This time all was successful, the lady behind the counter was great and all our errands were done. We had finished everything we needed to do by 1:30pm which was completely awesome.
The Royal Palace and some Doner Kebab on the way The walk to the Royal Palace was about 2 miles so as we were walking we decided it was time for lunch. Just like that we stumbled across a Doner Kebab place just like the one
in Granada. Kel says, “YAY!!!!” We got a table and ordered our Turkish Kebab sandwiches and what not and while we were eating the place became packed. There was a line out the door waiting for tables. We were ghankful we arrived when we did.
From the Doner Kebab it was maybe ten minutes to the Palace. The line to get in was about 15 minutes long (remember that this is a holiday weekend here due to Constitution Day on the 6th and the Beginning of Catholic Christmas on the 8th).
The Royal Palace in Madrid is the 3rd greatest royal palace in Europe after Versailles and Austria’s Schobrunn. It has more than 2000 rooms, 24 of which are on the public tour. The rooms of this tour were mostly created for Charles IV and are incredibly rich in gold leaf and detailed paintings.
The coolest rooms:
The Hall of Columns: Originally it was used as a ballroom but is now used for ceremonies of importance. For instance, Spain signed the EU agreement in this room in the 80’s.
The Throne Room: Just like it’s called, this is the room where the King and Queen
sit for formal occasions. The ceiling is a detailed painting from the 1700’s that depicts Spanish holdings during their conquering phase when Spain owned colonies around the world. The Throne itself is really cool with Lions and red velvet, but strangely enough it was built in the 1970’s, no shag carpeting!
Porcelain Room: Love how they label these things…it’s a room made of porcelain. The walls are all screwed together pieces of porcelain that is white and green. Kinda garish to live in, but cool to see.
Stradivarius Room: There were some really ornate violins and cellos that were built by Stradivarius for the Spanish Royal Family. These are all on display in this particular room. I love musical instruments and wish you could see them but the light was so dark in the room that none of my pics turned out. Sorry!
The Smoking Room: Once again no pics for this one but this room was decorated like an Opium den. The room had nothing but pillows on the floor so that people could sit around and smoke like an addicted Chinese person during the 18th century. More than a little creepy in my opinion, but
a kinda cool room to look at.
Back for clean clothes and some rest After the Palace, we took a more direct path back to the laundry but had to contend with the crazy crowds that start in Puerta del Sol at about 4pm. Kel does a masterful job of negotiating a path through a crazy crowds. I just do my best to keep up.
Our laundry was back in our laundry bag, clean and neatly folded. The cost, 7.50 euros…well worth it in both of our opinions. (It would have cost about 4.50 for us to do it ourselves and sit there for 2 hours).
Then it was back to the hotel and some rest, blogging and prep for dinner.
Hope everyone’s great at home. Hope the crazy cold front on the East Coast hasn’t gotten too many of you down. Today is our 1st month-aversary of the trip, and it's still great to be on the road!
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laura white
non-member comment
thanks for sharing
just love the stories and photos. Is it hard to believe it has been a month? What is your favorite memory so far? look forward to getting your postings - and I'm very jealous of the afternoon naps :) Laura