Cathedral de Santa Maria Almundena

After our long walk to picnic in the gardens, we headed to the Cathedral.  We came upon the crypt first, so started there, then went up to the main nave.

View of the cathedral from the entrance to the Palacio.  It was very big and hard to get far enough away to take a good photo.

The main alter.  I've never seen a cathedral with such a beautiful and colorful ceiling. 

Above the main alter.  The paintings on the walls and ceilings were brilliant.

Ceiling in the main nave.

Alter to the Virgin Mary

I found it fun that the pews were versatile and could accommodate people facing the side chapel, or facing the main alter.

One of the side aisles in the crypt.  The crypt had over 400 pillars, each with a different capital (topping) on it.  The ceiling was quite high as you can see.  It's hard to believe the entire main floor of the cathedral was above us. 

Found it interesting that the tomb markers on the floor included by DEP (rest in peace in Spanish), and RiP (in English).  The docent noted that only very wealthy (and noble?) families, and bishops could be buried here.  It seems that some were royalty from non Spanish speaking parts of Europe.  

There were also quite a few wall 'niches' that actually stuck out from the wall.  Many were not marked, meaning I assume that no one was interred there yet.

Royal Palace

Largest palace in Europe with over 3,500 rooms.  The audio guide tour was great.  Just enough history and background of each room without being over whelming.  We got there early ahead of many of the large tour groups that seem to completely take over each room that they enter, and are not paying attention to anyone else around them.  We got to enjoy each room without crowding.  

We started on the grand staircase that came up from the covered entry where the carriages could pull in.  

This is the inner court yard.  The staff offices are on the lowest level, the Royal apartments are on the 2nd level, the third and fourth levels are the serving quarters.  All of the Windows on the second level are on a high ceiling walk way with entrances to the rooms off of the walk way.  It is light and airy and quite attractive.

The Throne room.  Still used for state occasions.

Formal dining room, seats up to 130.  They had several display cases with different China and silver place settings.  One of the silver settings as 10 pieces each - must use the right fork!  There were also sets of liquor glasses that protocol requires for different beverages.

This was my favorite room (designed by Gasparini).  All of the decor had vines and flowers.  The marble inlays in the floor were especially gorgeous.  It was fun to see the matching fabric that is twined around each of the chains that hold the chandeliers in each room.

This room had blue velvet wall paper that was so tempting to touch!  

This was the ball room.

Professional photo of the entry hall with the carpets laid down for a special guest arrival. (Taken from a postcard)

I noticed that each window in the palace actually had Four layers.  The levered blinds, the white wooden framed Windows, the brown wooden framed Windows, and a solid wooden shutter.  That should provide good insulation in the winter!

We decided to picnic in the gardens (we had bought lunch at the Dia grocery store in the morning). This is a view of the palace from the gardens.  It took us a long time to get all the way around the city block to the gardens and the paths did not go through it as the map indicated.  We had to go all the way around and ended up exiting where we started.  A bit more walking than we planned.  You can tell from the height of the building that it was once a fortress.  It would be neat to see what all is in the levels below the main floor where we entered from the plaza above.

In the garden.

I was surprised that the gardens were not planted out yet.  These were all bedding plants waiting to go in.  The window boxes are also not very prominent right now.  

Retiro Park in Madrid

After the bull ring we went in search of food near Retiro park, but settled for ice cream bars to hold us off till dinner.  The park was beautiful and full of people.

Enjoying ice cream in Europe - a must!

We stopped to watch a  street artist who painted on tiles.  He painted a whole waterfall and pond scene right in front of us just using his fingers to blend and spread the paint.  It was beautiful.  Delaney brought home one of his works. 

There were tons of row boats out on the small lake.

We saw several artists painting, including one who used ceramic tiles for his canvas.   We all stopped to admire his work and he started painting on right on the spot.  He just used his fingers to spread and blend the paint colors and created a waterfall and pond scene with trees right in front of us. 

So many trees.  Very foresty.

The Crystal palace in the middle of the park.  Once a green house, it now contains an art exhibit.  The exhibit is a lot of large glass pieces that look like an incomplete industrial pipe that has melted with only the remains showing.  Very modernist.

Delaney befriended the turtles.

Momma duck had 6 duckings!

As we made our way out of the park, we passed through a used book market.  There were several groups of school kids that were out and having lots of fun!  The narrow streets and pedestrian ways are quite lovely to walk along.

Las Ventas - bull fighting ring

Our first stop after dropping off our luggage at the hostel was the bull ring in Madrid.  There were a few scalpers trying to sell us tickets to a show, but they didn't try too hard.  We got our audio guides and began the self tour.  I had no idea that bull fighting was such a complex sport!  The guide explained the way that each performance is judged (in so much detail I got a little confused).  There is a 'president' who is the chief judge, but the audience also participates in judging the performances.  There are certain 'dance' moves that the matador performs, and he must get very close to the bull.  The bulls are either younger or older, with the older ones being more difficult and getting a higher score.  Matadors can earn one ear, two ears, a tail, or a trip through the 'great doors' on the shoulders of the crowd, which is a great honor (and does not often occur).

The arena was built in the early 1900s and seats 23,000 people.  It's architecture is Moorish and the brick work is quite beautiful.

The royal box.  Apparently there is quite a fuss about which seats are the very best in the arena.  The Royal box is placed where the late afternoon sun will not shine on the viewers.  There is a special section up close where the 'old men' (experts) sit.  All of the audience have white handkerchiefs to wave for scoring the performances, which the president must take into account.

Several of the students went back to the arena the next day to get tickets to a show.  There is one every night in May.  They arrived as the show for that evening was getting underway and learned that everyone really dresses for the performance.  Men in suits, women in heals.  They are planning what to wear for the show in two days.

The tour also included passing by the infirmary and talking about the various injuries received by bull fighters.  Most of them have many scars on their legs where they have been gored by Bulls.  There are actually not that many fatalities according to the audio guide.  They talked about how the infirmary doctors had state of the art facilities and could stabilize the fighters who took injuries.  One was saved after the bull's horn went through his Adam's apple into his mouth. (Eeh!)

The tour ended with the museum where many of the outfits of the most famous Matadors were on display.  The tradition is to wear pink stockings under the pants.  The beadwork on the outfits is amazing.  In the museum, one of the docents asked if he had any questions, then launched into an explanation of how the Bulls are treated so well during their lives, living in open meadows with only grass, not penned and eating in feed lots.  They suffer for about 10 mins during the fight, but are killed cleanly.  He was clearly trying to persuade anyone who eats meat to think about how their meals are treated before being consumed, and not to judge the treatment of the Bulls in the ring.  

Our hostel

Arrived in Madrid without too much trouble.  1 1/2 hr delay at the Atlanta airport and we didn't make up time crossing the Atlantic.  Everyone's luggage made it and no problems in passport control.  Only one bank card didn't work.  The information desk woman was very helpful.  I had in mind taking the metro into the city, but she said the airport shuttle bus was quicker given our destination.  We just missed one that was leaving, but another came in 15 mins.  I thought we would be the first on the bus, but we were the second stop and all the seats were already full.  We thought we would stand for the whole 45 min ride, but the traffic must have been good because we got into town pretty quickly.  Group of 12 with luggage = awkward transit on and off buses!  Got to our hostel with only one wrong turn and our rooms were ready for us early - bonus!  Got freshened up and headed out to explore a bit before giving in to our jet lag...

Far home Atocha hostel gets a great rating from me! It's a little hard to find on the street because of the busy store fronts.  We have two 6-bed rooms.  There is sufficient room and big lockers.  The ex suite bathroom even has two showers.  We have a nice balcony overlook, but construction in the wee hours makes it a little loud at night.

The breakfasts are wonderful.  Cheese, meat, yougert, fresh baked crossoints, fruit, and pan chocolate out of the oven!

Europe Bound

Madrid, Barcelona, Geneva and Vienna.  Looking forward to another fun trip with students!

Headed Home

A trip to Scotland would not be complete without getting caught in the rain.  We were up at 6:00 am to catch our bus and airport shuttle.  It was not drizzly, it was raining pretty hard.  Thank goodness the bus came early, but 12 people getting on with suitcases is disruptive.  We made it to the airport shuttle (after getting on the tram by mistake – different ticket needed), and then to the airport with just enough time to spare to take off long johns and other warm layers for the return trip home.

It was sad to say goodbye to Axel, our Swedish exchange student who had met up with us in Edinburgh.  The group enjoyed training with him in Wichita in the Fall, and wishes they could find a way to visit him in Sweden!