Day Twelve: Madrid

Woke up this morning and headed straight for our traditional Spanish breakfast: Chocolate con Churros!

The San Gines Chocolateria is visted by everyone who is anyone from the King of Spain to Tina Turner to yours truly.

Thick hot chocolate and the fried churros topped with sugar: heaven!

We shopped away the morning and ended up at a park nearby the train station where we had a picnic lunch in the sun!

As we wandered the park we happened upon the Crystal House, which was home to a modern art exhibit.

A fountain in the park

We then made our way toward the train station to catch a local train to El Escorial to meet Tim and his family for dinner.

About 45 minutes later, we arrived in El Escorial, home to a famous monastery built by the Habsburg kings.

The exterior of the monastery

Sheep!

El Escorial is located just at the base of the mountains

Notice the very Austrian rooftops, thanks to those Habsburgs!

The plaza in front of the Monastery

We met up with Tim, a colleague of my mom in their Spain office, and his family and got coffee, before heading to a Japanese restaurant, which was not very well liked by Tim's kids, but it was most definitely an interesting experience. They were just the nicest and it was such a great time! It was a really interesting cultural exchange, as well as a just fun time swapping stories about Mom and work! After dinner, we drove home, dropping off the kids at home on the way.

When we got back into the city, we met up with Miguel, who was a CIT at Camp Timbers a few years back, for drinks and a night on the town. When we finally got home we were exhausted and went straight to bed!

Day Eleven: Madrid

Today we took a free tour of the old city of Spain and our guide gave us the entire history of spain in an impressive 10 minutes. I learned so much. I also fell in love with Juan, the current King of Spain. Here is my summary. Military Dictator we hate, he dies and has slotted Juan (also the would be next in line Monarch) to take over, but Juan has been secretly plotting against Dictator and upon taking over, opens up the government and makes it a democracy. The people vote for it to become a Constitutional Monarchy, making Juan their King. 1980s left over military crazy man wants to take over the government and make a dictatorship again, barges into the parliament and holds everyone hostage. Some of his military cronies start taking over towns and all communication gets cut off to the parliament. Meanwhile Juan is like, what are you fools doing? He holds a press conference and is just like, you are my people and you voted me your King and I am not going to let Spain fall back into this, we are a Democracy and I stand with the Democracy. So the military cronies realize that if they don't have Juan this is silly and they back down. But Crazy man in the parliament has no idea what has happened, still thinks he has cronies holding cities, until the next morning when someone slips a newspaper under the door. He realize he has lost, backs down and Juan saves the day. In 2010 there was a TV show about the best Spanish person in all of history where the entire nation voted and Juan won. I love him. And I want to be a Spanish Princess.

We started our tour in Plaza Mayor!

The view while waiting for our tour to start

Cathedral

A Statue. I remember so many details from this tour.

Back in Plaza Mayor

Gorgeous side streets

Church across from the palace, where our tour ended in a climatic explanation of Juan's life.

We went to the palace after the tour was finished and spent some time sitting under the lamp posts, taking a sitting break.

Getting some Spanish sun under the lamps

In the palace courtyard, where Juan still comes for formal state events, although he doesn't live there.

After the palace, we headed to the Temple de Debod. Over 2000 years old, Egypt gave this temple to Spain as a gift. Why doesn't Egypt give me a temple? I have a birthday every year.

Inside the Egyptian temple in Spain.

After the Temple we went back to the Prado and Reina Sofia and then headed to Las Tablas, for our night of Flamenco dancing! We arrived in a large dimly lit basement room and took our place at our black table adorned with a single tea light. We got our Sangria, the lights went out and the musicians took the stage. Three woman took the stage and a man followed shortly. There was an opening scene of sorts, in which everyone danced a short bit. Then they each had their own longer section. It was incredibly impressive! And just so intense! It was one of the highlights of my time in Madrid!!!

Day Ten: Madrid

We spent most of our first day in Madrid, hitting all the important stuff: the cheap shoe stores! I ended up picking up two pairs of flats during our stay and Jess got a pair of boots, a pair of heels, and lots of clothes! But in the morning we actually did spend some time wandering the city and exploring the sights.

The Bear statue in Plaza del Sol!

A fountain near the palace!

Another fountain/monument near the palace!

More Sangria!

The Palace, which is still used, and is the largest in Western Europe!

Opera House!

We spent the evening at the free Museo Prado with the classics like Velazquez and the Museo Reina Sofia with modern art!

Day Nine: Barcelona and Madrid

Day Nine was mostly a travel day flying from Barcelona to Madrid, except for our morning spent exploring the amazing interior of La Sagrada Familia!

We got there before it opened and were some of the first people inside!

Our first stop was the elevator, which we rode up to the top of the towers, exploring the innards of the towers, with many lookouts with great vies of facade details and also the current construction of the Mary tower.

Spiral staircase!

Back inside on the ground floor, looking up at the forest!

The gorgeous and bright stained glass windows!

Gaudi designed choir lofts big enough to hold over 1000 singers!

The main alter area

Gaudian Detail

Light on the organ pipes

The Door!

The scenic view created for La Sagrada Familia

Our flight to Madrid was uneventful and upon arriving we headed straight to our hostel -where we had a private room - near Plaza del Sol in the middle of Madrid. And in our deliour state of hunger, stumbled through the streets until we found a place that was open and had vegetarian food for Jess. I then enjoyed my first spanish Paella, before heading back to the hostel to call it a night!