Tim & Gerri's Wild Ride
Email & Facebook Gerri:
  • Home
  • Worldwide Travel
    • Everest 2025 >
      • 2025 Everest Packing List
      • Everest Blog Summary
    • 2024 Europe Tour >
      • 2024 Europe Tour Packing List
      • Europe 2024 Blog Summary
    • Asia 2023 >
      • Asia 2022 Packing List
      • Asia 2023 Blog Summary
    • Eastern Europe 2022 >
      • Eastern Europe 2022 Blog Summary
      • Eastern Europe 2022 Packing List
    • Narrowboat Holiday 2022 >
      • Narrowboat 2022 Blog
      • Narrowboat 2022 Packing List
    • Ireland & UK 2019 >
      • Ireland & UK Itineray
      • Ireland & UK Blog Summary
      • Ireland & UK Packing List
    • France 2018 >
      • France Itinerary
      • Blog Summary
    • European Tour 2017 >
      • European Vacation Blog
      • Blog Summary
    • Southeast Asia 2014-15 >
      • Southeast Asia Blog
      • Packing List
      • Blog Summary
    • Afghanistan 2011-12
  • United States Travel
    • Great Lakes Sail 2020 >
      • Great Lakes Sail 2020 Blog
      • Blog Summary
    • Trans-America Bicycle Ride >
      • Blog Summary
      • Our Team
      • Equipment
      • Breweries Along Route
    • Pacific Crest Trail >
      • Pacific Crest Trail 2016 >
        • What is the PCT? - 2016
        • Why Hike the PCT? - 2016
        • Gear - 2016
        • Itinerary - 2016
        • PCT Blog Summary - 2016
        • Where are we now? - 2016
      • Pacific Crest Trail 2014 >
        • What is the PCT?
        • Why Hike the PCT?
        • Gear
        • Food
        • Itinerary
        • Blog Summary
        • Where are we now?
    • Motorcycle Ride 2014 >
      • Motorcycle Blog
  • Brewery Visits
    • 2025 Breweries
    • 2024 Breweries
    • 2023 Breweries
    • 2022 Breweries
    • 2021 Breweries
    • 2020 Breweries
    • 2019 Breweries
    • 2018 Breweries
    • 2017 Breweries
    • 2016 Breweries
    • 2015 Breweries
    • 2014 Breweries
    • 2013 Breweries
    • 2012 Breweries
    • 2011 Breweries
    • 2010 Breweries
    • 2009 Breweries
    • 2008 Breweries
    • 2007 Breweries
    • 2006 Breweries
    • 2005 Breweries
    • 2004 Breweries
    • 2003 Breweries
    • 2002 Breweries

Madrid, Spain

3/20/2017

2 Comments

 
16 - 19 March 2017
The view outside our apartment we will be in for three days.  This place wasn't the snazziest - think old New York tenement with fresh paint.  But the location was pretty good.  Although we had to park the car 25 minutes away in a basement facility - but it seemed very safe and secure.
Picture
At the start of our walking tour in Puerto del Sol (Plaza of the Sun) - many tourists here in Madrid's central square.
Picture
The bear eating berries off the Madroño tree - symbol of Madrid since medieval times.
Picture
Snacking and drinking on the tour.  Napolitana pastry (left photo) and Vermouth on tap.
Picture
Picture
Plaza Mayor - 17th century creation.
Picture
A plaza illustration of action during the Spanish Inquisition - execution of a heretic not conforming with Roman Catholic ways.
Picture
A lightly fried callamari sandwich - found in many pubs in Madrid.  5 Euro.
Picture
A newer market building (circa 1916) Mercado de San Miguel - lots of higher end wine/liquor, foods, trinkets shops with local affluent yuppies and gawking tourists.
The Moorish door is supposed to be the oldest door in Madrid (1480) on Madrid's oldest building.  Somehow someway somone kept track of that.
Picture
Picture
1571, Town Hall, as the handy I-Pad explains.
Picture
Tim and Bronze Dude look down upon Roman foundation ruins.
Picture
Almudena Cathedral (1893-1993 build).  We passed on going inside - too new.  But the early evening lighting conditions made for great photos.
Picture
Royal Palace, begun 18th century, with later add-ons.  A preview for tomorrow's actual tour.
Picture
Here we enjoyed the diet special - churros and liquid chocolate.  Madrid's response to the New Orlean's Beignet donuts.  Hundreds of tourists are cycled through and fed like little piggies.  We thought "hot chocolate" meant our version, but this was thick gooey chocolate, and more decadent than a pint of Ben and Jerrie's X10.
Picture
Spain's national art museum, Prado Museum - considered one of the most comprehensive and best collections of paintings by European masters - El Greco, Goya, Raphael, Bosch, Ruebens and others.  We arrived 40 minutes early so we didn't end up in a 300 foot waiting line to buy tickets.  We wandered the galleries for 3 hours with our rented audio tour, and dodged groups of school kids being bored to death by their tour guides and other groups of various nationalities being told who knows what.  Even for a couple of engineers like us, there were several recognizable masterpieces and many other such works.
Picture
Picture
Nearby was Spain's national Navy museum.  Dozens of meticulously created ship models, and artifacts (canons, swords, navigational tools, maps (to the right is one of the oldest maps - circa 1500, showing the New World - the green land, with the Old World lightly highlighted on the right hand side)), and paintings.
Picture
Picture
Sangria pitcher and tapas lunch.  More Vermouth with a free tapas.
Picture
Picture
Time for the tour of the Royal Palace shown earlier.  A long winding tour through royal splendor.  Pictures not allowed inside for most of it.  The 144-guest dining table with full setting was amazing.
Picture
Picture
Picture
And we also stumbled upon an exhibit of M.C. Escher, Dutch, graphic artist extraordinaire.  12 Euro.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Plaza Mayor, again.
Picture
Sangria on draft, mussels on the half shell.
Picture
On departure from Madrid, we toured what seemed like an endless weekly market, on the way to the parking garage.  Lots of things to look at, but we bought nothing knowing that we didn't want to carry extra stuff for another 3 months in our backpacks.  In abundance was U.S. themed merchandise.
Picture
We stowed our bags in the car, and toured one last art museum in Madrid, which featured a Picasso masterpiece, "Guernica", 1937, shown here in the last photo.  Regarded by art critics as one of the most moving anti-war paintings in art history.
Picture
Just below, very curious, self-portrait in the year of his death, by auto accident, a premonition creation??
Picture
Picture
Picture
2 Comments
Terry
3/31/2017 06:59:57 am

Finally made it into your blog--as always--very nice pictures. Looks like your trip is off to an awesome start. I never got close to Europe in my Navy world travels. Enjoy yourselves and stay safe!

Reply
mary
3/31/2017 08:54:29 pm

Love the museums! Jim wants to know if Tim has found airplane museums.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.