On Monday morning we walked just down the street to a restaurant that specializes in churros and parros. Our hotel, the Hostal Patria Madrid, has an arrangement that their clients get a slight discount there. For 6.40 euros, we got 8 churros, coffee and a cup of hot chocolate (like pudding) to dip the churros. It wasn’t healthy but it tasted good.
Then we walked about 15 minutes to the west to the Royal Palace. We had to line up for about another 15 minutes to get in. At every tourist site here, there is security just like at an airport. However, that didn’t take long.
Once we were in, we got audioguides. It took a few minutes to figure out the sequence but once we had that organized, we started through the palace. This is the 3rd greatest palace in Europe, after Versailles near Paris and the Schonbrun near Vienna. This palace has about 2,000 rooms and is still used for state receptions, dinners and ceremonies. There are about 24 of the most important rooms that are open to visitors. No pictures are allowed inside the rooms.
The fenced and gated plaza in front of the palace is impressive on its own. To the west is a huge park that was once private but is now public. Inside the palace, we followed the set path and listened to our audioguides. Some of the smaller rooms were quite congested because there are a lot of tourists here every day. However, the bigger rooms weren’t too bad. We can’t imagine coming here in the summer when it’s 35-40C and extremely crowded. We were glad we waited until October.
The opulence and grandeur of the palace is hard to believe. Every room is decorated and furnished extemely elaborately. Royalty has its perks. There’s also a huge collection of medieval arms and armour.
After about 2 1/2 hours, we’d seen all of the areas open to the public. We walked back to our room for a short rest and then went to a Peruvian chicken restaurant, oddly enough, to eat. On our way, we took a photo from our tiny balcony and one of me standing across the street from our hotel, which is right behind me. Later, Anita took a photo from our balcony at night.
After we had eaten, it was dusk. We strolled the pedestrian streets around the Plaza Puerta del Sol for a couple of hours watching different buskers and enjoying the whole scene. We spent about 20 minutes watching a great busker orchestra composed of 6 violins, 2 cellos, a stand-up bass and an operatic singer. All of them seemed to be very good, very well trained musicians. They drew a crowd that was about the same size as the nearby line-up for lottery tickets that went around the block. We also watched a mariachi band of 8 or 9 musicians for a few minutes but it wasn’t really to our taste. There’s no end to the buskers and street vendors around the Puerta del Sol.
Finally, we went back to our room. For the following day, I bought tickets online to the Prado art museum, one of the world’s finest.
Then we walked about 15 minutes to the west to the Royal Palace. We had to line up for about another 15 minutes to get in. At every tourist site here, there is security just like at an airport. However, that didn’t take long.
Once we were in, we got audioguides. It took a few minutes to figure out the sequence but once we had that organized, we started through the palace. This is the 3rd greatest palace in Europe, after Versailles near Paris and the Schonbrun near Vienna. This palace has about 2,000 rooms and is still used for state receptions, dinners and ceremonies. There are about 24 of the most important rooms that are open to visitors. No pictures are allowed inside the rooms.
The fenced and gated plaza in front of the palace is impressive on its own. To the west is a huge park that was once private but is now public. Inside the palace, we followed the set path and listened to our audioguides. Some of the smaller rooms were quite congested because there are a lot of tourists here every day. However, the bigger rooms weren’t too bad. We can’t imagine coming here in the summer when it’s 35-40C and extremely crowded. We were glad we waited until October.
The opulence and grandeur of the palace is hard to believe. Every room is decorated and furnished extemely elaborately. Royalty has its perks. There’s also a huge collection of medieval arms and armour.
After about 2 1/2 hours, we’d seen all of the areas open to the public. We walked back to our room for a short rest and then went to a Peruvian chicken restaurant, oddly enough, to eat. On our way, we took a photo from our tiny balcony and one of me standing across the street from our hotel, which is right behind me. Later, Anita took a photo from our balcony at night.
After we had eaten, it was dusk. We strolled the pedestrian streets around the Plaza Puerta del Sol for a couple of hours watching different buskers and enjoying the whole scene. We spent about 20 minutes watching a great busker orchestra composed of 6 violins, 2 cellos, a stand-up bass and an operatic singer. All of them seemed to be very good, very well trained musicians. They drew a crowd that was about the same size as the nearby line-up for lottery tickets that went around the block. We also watched a mariachi band of 8 or 9 musicians for a few minutes but it wasn’t really to our taste. There’s no end to the buskers and street vendors around the Puerta del Sol.
Finally, we went back to our room. For the following day, I bought tickets online to the Prado art museum, one of the world’s finest.
No comments:
Post a Comment