Excitement! We awoke on Day 25 to the sound of a bullhorn. Yes, a full-fledged political demonstration not only walked by but took up a permanent position below our window. We went down and one sign I read said, "No more money for the banks." Not too hard to figure out what they are angry about... considering most people in the USA are not too happy about the same issue.
My brave wife, photographing protesters. She is brave. We hadn't read the signs yet.
When you hit a place every morning for coffee and muffins, you realize that it belongs on the blog. By the way, Monique is absolutely responsible for this ritual being part of our lives. In a good way.
For our last full day in Madrid, we decided to hop on that double-decker bus thing. We had pretty much walked 15 minutes in every direction, and although we love metros this seemed like a good way to hit the key landmarks.
When I took this picture, I was relieved. You have no idea how many inadequate pictures I took of La Puerta de Alcalá before this one.
Palacio de las Comunicaciones again, from the top of a double-decker bus. Nice perspective, no?
The Temple of Debod. Okay, Egypt gave this temple as a gift to Spain in 1968. I think that makes this the first ever Egyptian artifact that I have seen that was not stolen. I wanted to think that Spain received this gift with a card that said, "Thank you for not being Italy, England or France." But according to Wikipedia, Egypt gave this a sign of gratitude for the help provided by Spain in saving the temples of Abu Simbel. Bummer.
This is the pond behind the Temple of Debod. This woman pulled off her skirt and proceeded to act as if she was at the beach. Would you have not taken a picture?
Palacio Real. And, seriously, this is a real palace. I think you know that Barbie is one well travelled Palace expert. We took the tour of this palace and she said, "This is the most amazing palace I've ever seen."
Palacio Real inside the courtyard. From Wikipedia: The palace also has the distinction of being the largest royal palace in Western Europe in size, with over a combined area of over 135,000 m² and more than 2,800 rooms. See, I told you it was impressive.
We first walked into the armory, and Barbie began to take a picture and the guard stormed up to her with his chest puffed out saying, "No no no no." She apologized and said she thought the rule was no flash, which we thought was true. Anyway, when there were no guards around I took this pic out of spite. The armory was quite amazing, I must say. Too bad I cannot share it.
At the entrance to the main doors of the Palacio Real, Barbie impersonates a guard.
You walk into the Palacio real and head up a staircase that is simply amazing. The decor literally knocks you off of your feet.
After this one a guard told me no photos allowed, and I decided to give up. Ironic that they don't seem to realize that allowing pictures will encourage people to visit. If you saw a glimpse of what we saw, everything from an entirely porcelain room to a Chinese themed room, you would visit for certain. Now you have to take our word for it. (Thank God they didn't have this stupid rule at the Reina Sofia, no?)
Outside the palace is La Plaza Oriente, with this statue of Philip IV.
Next to the Palacio Real on finds the Almudena Cathedral. Because when you have the biggest royal palace in Western Europe, you damn well better have a bigass church to pray in next door.
La Puerta de Toledo. Easy to translate, that's for sure. I really do love this having a door to the city thing.
We stopped off at Plaza Mayor for lunch.
The paella was fantastic.
We happened across El Corte Ingles, Spain's super-charged department store. When Barbie approached the MAC counter and this gentleman helped her, I had to take this pic. He made Bruno seem masculine.
Tío Pepe! Did you know that Tio Pepe is the best selling brand of sherry in the world? And that the Tío Pepe sign at Puerta del Sol in Madrid is considered a landmark? Me either. Check wikipedia if you doubt these truths.
We went back to the hotel and cooled our heels for 15 minutes or so, and then headed to the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, which sits across the street from our hotel. Interesting history to this museum. The short version is this: super-wealthy landed aristocrat collects art, then his son collects art, then this son marries Miss Spain and introduces her to art collecting, then the former Miss Spain twists the son's arm and makes him donate the collection to the state. I'd say that makes her an excellent person, because the art collection at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza is out of this world impressive.
No pictures allowed inside the Matisse show, but I was allowed to take this one. Nice way to enter a temporary exhibit, no?
The main lobby of the museum. I quite liked the pink decor. Apparently the Queen, Miss Spain 1961, chose it. Salmon?
No pics allowed at the permanent collection, either. So these pics you see are when I pulled out my iPhone and when trying to send a text I accidentally pressed the touchscreen in a sequence that caused a picture to be taken.
Georgia O'Keeffe. If you fail to see parts of a woman's anatomy in her work, you are not looking at it properly.
Aren't these rooms lovely. This is a fantastic museum. Amazing how I keep trying to text and accidentally taking pictures. Weird how that works sometimes.
The top floor uses the roof to create a great space.
Back in the real world, we crossed the street and I pointed out this classic Mini. Then we started taking pics and the car's owner rolled down her window and smiled a huge smile for us. She must absolutely love the attention her car gets. She was very sweet, you could tell.
We got back on the double-decker for the other tour, that of "Modern Madrid."
Okay. Now I finally got the right picture of La Puerta de Alcalá. Man, was that difficult from moving vehicles or what?
Another repeat. Hmm, what am I thinking?
Back in our room, I hear all sorts of honking and I look out the window and, no joke, at least a thousand bicycles are going by. I couldn't get a better picture than this, but looking down the street the other way it was just a sea of them coming towards this roundabout. Pretty awesome, the people of Madrid.
We decided to ride the double-decker at night. They charge you for a 24 hour period, and it's a fun ride, so why not? You know those building's that you've seen more than once? Get ready to see them again, but at night.
If you look, directly above Starbucks, you can see Barbie's clothes hanging in the window. Coffee was spilled, clothes were cleaned. How appropriate is it to see her white clothes hanging above the store where the coffee that stained them was purchased?
Dude, what can I say? I'm a Puerta fan.
And a post office fan. Yes, this used to be a post office.
Palacio Real at night.
Almudena Cathedral. At night.
Puerta de Toledo. At night. Seems like a good place to end for the day.
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