Madrid, Spain
via Rome, Italy (8 May 2010)
Our second day in Madrid was our first official day of sightseeing. We tried to go by my guidebook, but the Madrid guidebook I have is not really so awesome. Instead, we wound up wandering around for awhile.
We started off with a visit to the Plaza Cibelles which is just beautiful. There is a giant post office here (sadly blocked off for construction).
There is also a really pretty Bank at this metro stop.
Then we headed down the street to the Prado Museum. We decided to come back later to see it during the free hours of 6pm-8pm, as we're not really the biggest fans of art--especially when we don't really know much about any of the paintings there.
Instead, we enjoyed a walk through the Botanical Gardens. These were really quite lovely, and I'd definitely recommend seeing them if you're in Madrid.
Next, we headed to Puerta del Sol which is the center of Madrid. There is a neat neon sign here.
There is also a building which chimes for the New Year. I missed the bear and strawberry tree statue, somehow. The bear and strawberry tree are the symbol of Madrid. I also missed the 0 kilometer mark which I was really excited about =/
From here, we headed on to Plaza Mayor.
After this point, we got a little lost. But we wandered across a 110 year old pharmacy. It's like we're drawn to them....
We also stumbled across the Museum of Ham which is actually a chain of restaurants. Josh teared up a bit when he saw it...
Eventually, we found ourselves at the entrance to a very expansive park. This turned out to be Campo de Moro. You can see the view of the palace from the entrance to the park there.
The park even had peacocks! And they were so used to people that they would come right up to u
This coincidentally led us to the Royal Palace which was BEAUTIFUL. My favorite room was the Gasparini room. Absolutely beautiful. The Spanish really have a talent for tasteful palace decorating, in my opinion. They also had exquisite lampposts. I <3 lampposts.
There was even a palace pharmacy! Pictures weren't supposed to be taken, so I snuck this one in. The whole place was really neat. I think it was about 7 rooms in all, and so cool! This is a photo of the distilling room.
This is the Plaza de Espana where there is a very lovely fountain and little park.
Before heading back to Silivia's, we decided to squeeze in one last sight. We headed to Las Ventas which is the bullfighting stadium. The place is just beautiful. AND we found out that we could get tickets in the upper level for about 5 euros! We decided to take in a bullfight the next evening.
Then we headed back to Silvia's for dinner. We went to a taberna (tavern) around the corner from her apartment where we had our first experience with tostas (or toasts). If you go to Spain, you've really gotta find a place that serves tostas! I'd show you pictures, but these are some that were on my camera that got stolen which I had not yet uploaded =/ I had a tosta with brie, onions, and peppers. Josh had solomillo with potatos and mustard as well as bread with tomato on it. His was actually a meal, but the tomato was the tostas part. Solomillo is special Spanish serloin, and it is quite delcious.
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