Day nineteen: Madrid

Today was our last full day on our trip and the birthday of someone whose name starts with an L.  In honour of this occasion we celebrated with a healthy breakfast of churros and chocolate.

Then we headed to the National Archeological Museum, a museum that just reopened this month.  On the way we passed some sort of military celebration with a marching band and soldiers on parade.

There were also numerous interesting architectural features and buildings.

The museum was great, with a vast collection covering early hominids up to eighteenth century Spain.  It was very well done, with descriptions in both Spanish and English so it made for a very informative visit.  This is Lucy, an early adult female hominid with Lila for comparison ( Lila is wearing the blue coat).

We all thought this mummy was interesting.  There was an x-ray above it showing what was under the wrappings.

We went for lunch at El Corte Ingles, which had a great view of the city and the huge park beyond the palace.

Here is Lila with her fancy birthday ice cream.

Tomorrow morning we venture back to Saskatoon and home.  It has been a wonderful experience and we enjoyed it all, but we are looking forward to getting back home.

Day 18: Madrid

Today, when we got up it was raining, so we planned some indoor activities.  We started off with the Royal Palace in Madrid.  It is enormous with 2800 rooms.  No pictures could be taken inside, so here are some views from outside.

We could only go through about 28 rooms.  They are spectacularly furnished. These were some of our favourites. The Stradivarius room which contains the only matched quartet of Stradivarius instruments, a cello, viola and two violins, our book claims that each is worth approximately $15,000,000.  The porcelain room whose walls are entirely covered in porcelain with strategic vines and flowers covering any seams.  The dining room which seats 144 at the table.  There are clocks every where because the royal family collects them.  There was also a fabulous armoury, filled with many fully armoured and mounted knights, and some of the most famous swords in Spain's history.

Next we went to lunch at a nearby market filled with interesting delights

After siesta we walked to the Reina Sofia Museum, a modern art museum.  It contains Picasso's Guernica.  It was interesting to see it, but overall the Prado museum is much better.

We walked back up to the El Retiro park as the sun was shining.  We passed a number of bookseller stalls that reminded us of Paris.

There is a crystal palace in the park that was modelled after the one in London.

Lots of people were out in boats on the artificial lake and we sat and watched them until the rain clouds started to build up again.  We stopped by the fancy cypress trees to show them to Bridget and Lila, who thought they looked like truffula trees from Dr Seuss.

Day Seventeen: Madrid

Today we went by metro to the zoo.  The zoo is in the middle of a very large wooded park.  Lila was excited to see some of the zoo babies.

The zoo was quite large and we spent our entire morning wandering around looking at its variety of exotic wildlife. We watched a dolphin show which we thought was more Sea World than Vancouver Aquarium.  Alan liked the white rhinos.

Some of us were feeling a little under the weather, so it was a pretty quiet day.  Alan and Bruce went to a park near the Prado museum. This park had quite a large artificial lake with many people attempting to row rented rowboats.

Lots of German soccer fans around today as there is a championship match here tonight.  So there was intermittent singing and chanting on the streets. We still haven't figured out all of the road signs, as we have no idea what this sign means.

Day 16: Madrid

Our final stop on our trip, Madrid.  We have another cute little apartment, complete with towel warmer. Lila wants to know why I always pick places with so many stairs.  We are on the third floor, but there are a lot of little steps to get here.

Lila and Bridget did a little shopping, while Alan scowled.   We walked around to get our bearings, and found Plaza Mayor.  Loads of people around, plus car traffic which we haven't really dealt with since we got to Spain.

We walked down to the Prado museum, but decided to wait for a little while until we could get in free.  The royal botanical gardens were nearby and looked inviting. 

There were lots of beautiful plants.  Lila had fun taking pictures.  The planting one is for Grandpa Graham so he will know when to plant things.  The Prado was interesting, plus it was free after six. In some places there were painters painting full sized copies of some of the works.  There were many famous paintings, Bridget liked Velazquez, Lila liked the Artist's Children in the Japanese Drawing Room by Mariano Fortuny y Marsal, Bruce liked the Heironomous Bosch and Alan liked A dog painting by de Vos.  We could not take pictures, but this is the outside.

Lots of good food today. Baby eels on toast. They taste like noodles.

Pimientos de Padron, grilled small peppers with olive oil and salt. Super yummy!

They sure love their ham here.

Happy birthday Uncle Keith! Alan was looking at swords for you today.  Interestingly when you travel by train from Toledo they scan your luggage, but swords and knives seem to be fine to carry on.

Day fifteen: Toledo

Today is our last full day in Toledo.  It was a rainy day, so we took things easy.  We forgot to mention one experience we had yesterday that was unusual and unique. The nuns in some cities are known for making treats.  Some convents have a storefront staffed by non nuns.  This one had a tiny sign.  We rang the buzzer and got let in.  Then walked down a short hall where there was a display case of what was available.  Soon a nun appeared behind a barred window, took our order, disappeared then brought back our treats and change and we let ourselves back out.

We went to the cathedral. It is said to be one of the most beautiful in Europe.  It has a number of interesting things.  Including a seriously large painting on the wall, Grandma Kathy paints some large paintings, but we challenge her to do one this size.

Bridget liked this panel from the altar. She thinks it looks cartoony.

When cardinals from Toledo die, they get to choose where in the cathedral to be buried.  Their hats are then hung over the site until the hat rots away.

It is the 400th anniversary of El Greco's death.  He is considered one of Spain's master painters. He spent half his life in Toledo, so there is the largest exhibit ever of his work.  We saw lots of his paintings today, but this is the only one we could photograph because it was in the cathedral.

The streets were much quieter today, Toledo is very beautiful, even in the rain.

We stopped by the sword maker again and he showed us some very old swords he was restoring.  His family has been sword makers for more than 150 years.  We bought a jug from what we thought was a small store.  The store however extended underground the equivalent of about 5 times the street level store.  His family has been making ceramics for 7 generations.  Apparently, a significant proportion of the population used to live underground.  We leave you with a picture of Action Nun!

Day 14: Toledo

We got up relatively early on Easter Sunday.  The city was pretty empty.  There was supposed to be a procession today, but nothing much seemed to be going on.

 We went to the Alcazar which houses Spain's military museum.  It was free on Sundays! The Alcazar was destroyed during fighting in the civil war and has been rebuilt since.  During the addition of the new building they found remains of the original Alcazar, which they incorporated into the original design .

The museum has a vast collection of arms, armour and other military objects.  We enjoyed the horse armour.

One of the temporary exhibits was of miniatures depicting various Spanish military figures. 

We think Uncle Bill would have liked this, but we think he is a far superior painter.  The point of view of the museum is interesting with titles like: The Conquest of America and the Defeat of Nelson. After the museum we made the pilgrimage to Mariano Zambrano, a sword maker.  He showed us around where he hand makes the swords.  He makes about 100 a year.

Alan and Bruce had a great time at the store. Alan eventually bought a sword based on El Cid's Coloda. 

Blacksmiths sure are big and burly just like in the stories.  We went for a walk across the first century Roman bridge and along the gorge.  It was neat because as you walked along the pathway you couldn't tell there was a city above you. We took a ferry back and forth across the river, feed some ducks and fish and went back into town as it started to rain.