Hola on Saturday!
For being right off a major Madrid street (Gran Via), in the heart of the city, it was surprisingly quiet last night; we were both very surprised – but double glazing does help, that’s for sure!
I at least had a fairly early night – to bed somewhere around 9-9:15 pm which is good for me and does not require setting an alarm. Up this morning about 6-6:30 am, and it is so DARK I keep thinking that I just need to turn over and go to bed! However…planning to do, as well as breakfast to get. We had purchased cheese (several kinds), ham, (several kinds) and salami as well as some excellent orange juice. We’ve never been big breakfast eaters, and that was more than enough for us. While R was in the shower, I made our train reservations to get to Toledo on Monday; day trip only, but we’d like to see something of Spain’s first capital. We now have our remaining Madrid days fairly organized. Tomorrow we’re going to tour the Royal Palace, and hopefully get to Mercado San Miguel. Monday is Toledo, and on Tuesday we will try and get to whatever places we haven’t done or haven’t finished (possibility of the first floor of the Archaeological Museum) before heading out of town to Avila on Wednesday.
This is atop one of the buildings; and I love Art Deco!
Headed out about 9:30 am to find Templo do Debod, Madrid’s one and only authentic Egyptian temple. It’s in a lovely park, and we were able to take a 74 bus directly to it. The temple was given to Spain in recognition of the assistance that Spain provided to Egypt when Abu Simbel was moved and the Aswan High Dam was built. Just like the Egyptian temple in the Met in NYC, albeit outside instead of under- cover. The difficulty here was that they only allow 10 people at a time to go inside, and they can stay for up to half-an-hour. So, as we had a group of squealing youngsters between us and getting in, we decided that we would be better served heading to the Cathedral next to the Palace. (We’ve got timed tickets for the Palace tomorrow at 12:45 pm.) What we hadn’t realized was that the Temple in the park was up on a hill, and that there was a lovely view looking out over sprawling Madrid. Who put that there?!
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| Plaza de Espana |
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| Templo de Debod |
It was truly a lovely downhill (yeah!) walk to the Palace – which is absolutely HUGE and makes Buckingham Palace look very small in comparison.
View from the park 
Lovely day and a lovely park!
Just past the Palace, and seemingly attached to it is the Cathedral of Santa Marie La Real De La Almundena. I know that we were both surprised to learn that the Cathedrals in Cadiz and in Evora, Portugal were relatively new, but this Cathedral was actually consecrated by Pope John Paul II on June 15th, 1993! Now that’s new! (I think our notion of European Cathedrals, like Notre Dame in Paris and Westminster in London, is that they were built somewhere around the 1100’s or so; they’re really old!) However, since the 16th century on, when the capital of Spain was established in Madrid, there were many attempts to settle an Episcopal See and build a cathedral – which didn’t begin construction until 1883. The interior design and decoration are interesting, as there is little if any really “old” stained glass and, what stained glass there is, is truly contemporary. The vaulting of the ceiling in places looks almost futuristic, but it is a really lovely Cathedral.
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| Lovely fountain! |
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| Now this is a Palace! Front view |
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| Side View of Palace |
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| Yet another side of the Palace! |
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| Cathedral front |
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| Stunning set of front doors! |
After our visit, we thought we would head to Plaza Major and see about having lunch at Mercado San Miguel. We waited at bus stop for a number 3 bus, but it turns out that 1) either our 3-year-old bus map is out of date and the route has been changed, or 2) something was happening in “downtown” Madrid to throw everything off schedule. Turns out we think a little of both – the #3 took us away from our desired direction, but then there were police everywhere and a crowd starting to build in Plaza Santo Domingo. There was a small group of people with drums and a microphone (always dangerous!) waiving Catalan flags and shouting, but we were too far away to see what exactly they were protesting.
However, being right next to El Corte Ingles (roughly speaking, the local version of Harrod’s), we decided we would take a look at their Gourmet restaurants and the view from the 9th floor. (We had been there a few years ago, but not for lunch, just drinks and it was quite impressive, I remember.) This time, though, the restaurants hadn’t started serving lunch yet, and there really wasn’t much activity – and to be honest, nothing looked that enticing to either of us! So, we picked up a few things we needed and then headed out and just two blocks away, back to Mu! for lunch! Same staff as last night, and we were even able to get “our” old table! Rather than getting the full meal this time, though, I ordered two beef empanadas and a glass of wine, and R had a large salad, minus the tuna (?) and a glass of red wine. Great place for a snack (or anything, really!) and when we finished, we decided that we would head back to the apartment, as we were both in need of naps by this time.
My two yummy beef empanadas! 
R's salad, which he has been missing!
We did stop in a really lovely bookstore on Gran Via and were able to pick up a plasticized (like Street Wise used to produce!) map of Madrid, as our old map from last time is beginning to show its age! Also, one final stop at the lovely Dia grocery store across the street from the apartment for more water, some tangerines and a bottle of wine. Then down for naps – yeah!!
More later!
m
xxx
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