Madrid, Spain

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.

At the start of our walking tour in Puerto del Sol (Plaza of the Sun) - many tourists here in Madrid's central square.

The bear eating berries off the Madroño tree - symbol of Madrid since medieval times.

Snacking and drinking on the tour.  Napolitana pastry (left photo) and Vermouth on tap.

Plaza Mayor - 17th century creation.

A plaza illustration of action during the Spanish Inquisition - execution of a heretic not conforming with Roman Catholic ways.

A lightly fried callamari sandwich - found in many pubs in Madrid.  5 Euro.

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.

1571, Town Hall, as the handy I-Pad explains.

Tim and Bronze Dude look down upon Roman foundation ruins.

Almudena Cathedral (1893-1993 build).  We passed on going inside - too new.  But the early evening lighting conditions made for great photos.

Royal Palace, begun 18th century, with later add-ons.  A preview for tomorrow's actual tour.

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.

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.

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.

Sangria pitcher and tapas lunch.  More Vermouth with a free tapas.

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.

And we also stumbled upon an exhibit of M.C. Escher, Dutch, graphic artist extraordinaire.  12 Euro.

Plaza Mayor, again.

Sangria on draft, mussels on the half shell.

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.

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.

Just below, very curious, self-portrait in the year of his death, by auto accident, a premonition creation??