More Madrid

The next day in Madrid we did quite a bit of walking. Madrid is considerably larger than Valencia, so even though it felt like we had walked forever we only covered a small portion of the city. We went to the historic places and parks, and saw things like the Royal Palace of Spain. 

I think this monument is a memorial for the Spanish War of Succession.

 The Royal Palace and it's gardens

 It turns out Madrid is home to some of the freakiest street performers I have ever seen. Outside the palace there was this man playing a guitar, but his torso was inside a box and it looked like he just had a tiny human skull for a head. I would have a picture, but one of my friends tried to take one of him and he started cursing at him. So I laid low. 

I think this is a famous square. There were many more street performers here, all crazy in their own way. There was a man/woman in a bird costume that ran around and there were also men who were painted to look like metal and in incredible poses while snowboarding and riding motorcycles.

We then went to the Mercado de San Miguel, which was this large building with glass walls that packed in a lot of different vendors. There were all kinds of foods and drinks and desserts. I got a donut and it was delish. 

I thought this place was just going to be a museum about beer, but it also turned out to have a very nice bar. Twas here that the Paulaner and I discovered each other. 

In the middle of Madrid's train station there happens to be a jungle of sorts. Birds fly in through openings in the ceiling and it's full of water and turtles. Very neat.

I also got to go to El Museo del Prado and El Museo de la Reina Sofia. However, I was not allowed to take pictures inside. I got to see some really cool painting from de Goya that I studied in school and of course I saw Guernica. It's a lot bigger than you would think. 

Madrid

A few weeks ago, I hopped on a train to Madrid and spent a night in the capital city. Valencia has a train station that took us straight there in a little less than two hours. I really liked the train ride; it was comfortable and quiet and really fancy. It was just like an airplane and there was even a train car ahead of us that had a bar in it. 

We got off the train and had a bit of a hike to get to our hostel. Unlike Valencia, Madrid is actually a pretty hilly city. And it is enormous. So we had our work cut out for us. Did you know Spain is the second most mountainous country in Europe? I didn't. This is the exterior clock tower of the train station.

Maybe an agricultural building?

More train station.

I don't remember anything about this fancy building but it looked cool.

I think we couldn't actually check in to the hostel for a while so we got on a tourist double decker bus and took a trip around the city. They had 12 different languages you could listen to the tour in and even some languages for kids. The kids Spanish version talked about stuff like cats and playgrounds. 

That stadium is where Real Madrid plays. Neat.

We weren't allowed to take photos inside El Mudeo del Prado, but I think this statue was outside of it. I saw some cool paintings from Fransisco de Goya in there like Saturn and The Third of May of 1808, which I really enjoyed.

This is a beer and tapas. Tapas are delicious little Spanish snacks.

Our hostel was this brightly colored interior that tried a little too hard to appeal to youths. 

There was an indoor swing set. 

Stay tuned for more Madrid photos in part II!

Mercadona

There are some quirky things in the grocery stores here that you don't see in the US. Cans and bottles of soda and beer come in 6 packs, but you don't have to buy the whole 6 pack. You can pop out the individual cans and buy them one by one if you so choose. This is a 5 pack of Coke Zero that was formerly a 6 pack. 

Also, I had never heard of Coke Light before but it is everywhere. While I haven't tried it yet, I am told it tastes like Diet Coke but a little sweeter. 

The name of the store is Mercadona and it is a convenient 30 second walk from the school. I go there every Monday and buy a 12 pack of Magdalenas (sugary muffins) for the cool price of 60 euro cents. The only negative is that you have to pay for a plastic bag when you check out if you want one. The bags only cost 2 cents each, but I was not aware that they cost money, which lead to an awkward exchange with the cashier. 

Las Torres de Serranos

As you may recall, there is another set of castle like towers in this city. I live right across from Las Torres de Quart, and I went to the top of them a few weeks ago. Last Sunday I finally went to see the other set of towers, Las Torres de Serranos. This tower was actually a lot fancier than the one across the street from me and included a lot more space to walk around, so that was cool to find out. 

I didn't take this picture

It has a moat.

First level

The sky here looks like something on a postcard just about every day. 

You can walk through that door onto the rampart!

The shadow

The rampart

These holes look all the way to the ground.