Within hours of Kevin (groomsmen, long-time friend, and generally good guy) arriving in Germany, we were on a plane to Madrid, Spain. Our first night there, we walked around and took in the lively city center, Puerta del Sol, filled with lots of people, lights, shops, and activity, before retiring to our hostel. On one of edge of Puerta del Sol is a notable sculpture: the bronze bear and strawberry tree of Madrid.
When we headed out bright and early the next morning, all of the stores were closed. We kept thinking they would open, but when lunch rolled around and shops still had their gates closed in front of the store windows, we started to get a little suspicious. It wasn't until we saw a parade of Spaniards walking through the streets in costume that we realized perhaps we had arrived just in time for a holiday of sorts.
As it turns out, November 9th is a day of the Virgin Mary in Madrid, confirmed by the flowers placed for the Virgin outside of a large church. Hey, it only took us half of a day and bleachers filled with flowers to figure it out!
Flowers for the Virgin
Luckily, there were still plenty of things to see and do outdoors that day, such as walk around the Parque del Retiro (shown below).
This public park was filled with people running, walking, biking, and relaxing as well as many sculptures, fountains, and a large pond with paddle boats for rent.
Monument of Alfonso XII
Plaza Mayor (shown below), a 17th-century square once used for bullfights, executions, pageants in the presence of the reigning king and queen, is now filled with cafes and shops. We went to a stamp/coin market here on Sunday morning.
If you click on this picture, you can see the paintings on the side of the Case de la Panaderia:
One of the streets that leads into the Plaza Mayor:
Templo de Debod, the Egyptian temple of Debod, was built in the 2nd century BC. The archways you see in the pictures below are the original gateways to the temple. It was rescued from a flooded area and given to Spain as a tribute to Spanish engineers involved in the project.
This is some sort of a throne. It is a kept in a dark room (the flash makes this picture look bright) with a sensor that triggers a projected image when people approach.
Model of the original temple
Museo del Prado (art museum) is said to contain the world's greatest collection of Spanish paintings, especially by Valazquez and Goya.
Prado exterior, statue of Valazquez
Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photographs while inside the museum. But here are a few of the notable paintings, taken from the internet:
Las Meninas (The Maids), Velazquez
The Clothed Maja, Goya (c.1800)
The Naked Maja, Goya (c.1800)
Children at the Beach (1910), Joaquin Sorolla
The Three Graces (c.1635), Rubens
The Garden of Earthly Delights (c.1505), Bosch- this is actually a huge, three-panelled painting. If you click on the image, it's kind of crazy that this was done in the 16th century. My first impression was that it seems like artwork that you would've found in the 1960-70's when hallucinogens were presumably more popular (i.e., people can be seen hugging giant strawberries).
Another highlite of the trip was seeing the Palacio Real, a lavish palace built over the course of 26 years. The present king, Juan Carlos I, lives in a more modest palace outside Madrid, but the Royal Palace is still used for state occasions. Like the Prado, we were not allowed to take pictures of the interior. However, Matt was able to sneak a few pictures from the hip and hopefully we can post some of these a little bit later. For now, here are some pictures of palace exterior, courtyard and gardens.
Main entrance
View from terrace
Gardens
The Catedral de la Almudena is located right across from the Royal Palace (this is where the flowers were being placed for Mary of Almudena).
Across the street from the Royal Palace are additional gardens and statues in the Plaza de Oriente:
Plaza de Espana was once occupied by military barracks due to its close proximity to the Palacio Real. The stone obelisk in the foreground was built in 1928, and the statues below are of the author Cervantes as well as Sancho Panza on his donkey and Don Quixote on his horse.
The building in this picture is the Torre de Madrid (1957), known as La Jirafa (the Giraffe), as it was at one time the tallest concrete structure in the world.
Although bull fighting season ended before our arrival, we did take the Metro to see the stadium. As you can see from the pictures below, the stadium also serves as a venue for other activities in the off-season (circus equipment).
On our last night in Madrid, we went to a Real Madrid v. Mallorca soccer game. It was my (Ashley's) first soccer game ever and I really enjoyed it. According to the guys, it was a good game, and Madrid beat Mallorca (4-3).
The weather was beautiful for our entire trip (50's in the AM, 60's during the day), which meant that we did a lot of walking (probably around 10 miles per day)!
More pictures to come soon...
