Madrid, home to an 800 room Palace!

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March 30, 2008

Today started off with breakfast in the hotel. Then we went on a walk to the Plaza Mayor de España. It consists of shops and restaurants, but during important government events, they use the big open area. Afterwards, we made our way to the Palacio Real de Madrid, where the King and the Queen of Spain used to live. It looked really big from the outside, but once we were inside, it was a whole other place. Our tour guide told us there were 800 rooms in the Palace, and we saw about 25. It is amazing the abilities people had hundreds of years ago to create it. After our tour was over, Kristina and I went to see the Armaría (armory) and Farmacía (pharmacy). Then we went to the Cathedral. We caught the end of the mass, but then we were able to walk around. The Madrid Cathedral is really different than the one in Sevilla. This one was more open and colorful. I really liked it.

We started going back to the hotel for lunch and stopped at the market in the Plaza Mayor. My feet and legs were killing me at this point, so it felt really nice to finally sit. We weren’t sitting for long though, because then we went to the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. This museum had art ranging from the 1300s-1900s. It was cool, but I was worn out and tired of looking at all the art, so Kristina and I went through rather quickly. We went back to the hotel after I stopped at Starbucks to fulfill by Sunday fix. We waited and rested for about an hour til we took taxis to the train station to go home. On the ride home, we watched Hairspray. I made my way home to sleep because I was so tired! Madrid was awesome though. I wish I could have been there longer because it was fun being in a big city, like home, again. I guess I’ll just have to come back to Spain some day!

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