Tuesday 17 April 2012  -Magnificent Madrid    

After 15hours sleep Paul and I were well rested and looking forward to exploring all that Madrid had to offer. I checked for the top 10 things to do and see and with our map in hand and good walking shoes we were out the door and ready to begin.

Our first stop was Teatro Real and after getting our bearings, which I am finding very difficult, as there are too many little lanes, we moved on through Plaza De Oriente and the Royal Palace.

This is a massive building as you can imagine that has all the regalia you would expect of a European Principality. 

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Across from the palace is the Cathedral De La Almudena, another very large building. It is sad to see so much money tied up in these when there appears to be a lot of poverty.  

One thing we have noticed is the great number of buskers in all of the squares. While wandering we often felt like we had our own soundtrack following us around. We could have been in an Audrey Hepburn movie.

From here we walked along the main street towards the Templo De Debod. This is an Ancient Egyptian Monument which has been discovered and preserved and is free to enter into. It was amazing to see all the intricate carvings in the sandstone. It was pretty special.

 

We walked back towards the Palace this time walking through the Jardines (gardens) de Sabatini. Which are intricately created with small hedges and water features. Everywhere we looked people were walking their dogs. It was making Paul and I home sick for Yogi.

By now we were hungry so we found a small bar to stop in and fill up on bacon and eggs. Reading a menu is not the easiest as most of the time it is in Spanish. We are learning to pick out a few key words.

We continued further down the main street to San Francisco el Grande, a building that contains the old city walls. There was also a great view over the area of greater Madrid that sprawls out across the land.

We have noticed the high level of graffiti sprayed across the city. No building, sculpture or wall appears safe and there appears to be no great urgency to remove the eyesore.

 

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We wound our way back through the lanes to Plaza De La Villa and onto Plaza Mayor. This is the largest of the squares. It reminded me a lot of the main square in Venice. There were lots of cafes and people sitting around.  It was very vibrant and interesting to take in. One section of the main building was painted with interesting frescos. I wondered how long they had been there.

We then made our way back through the tourist centre and shopping precinct of Puertra Del Sol, this seems to be where most of the buskers generally dressed in fancy dress hang out, before heading back to our hotel for a short rest.

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