Day 1: Arrival in Spain and Exploring the City

Our travel to Madrid was mostly uneventful. The plane was delayed for about 20 minutes in Philadelphia (our layover city) because there was a problem with the screen where they show movies and they were worried it might fall on people. In my Prague entries, I mentioned how the airplane was not up to the standards that we had previously seen. US Airways was even worse! If this trend of decreasing modernity in the transport we take to Europe continues, pretty soon we'll be going over in steerage.

Here I am, in the Philadelphia airport, posing next to a replica of the Liberty Bell made out of Legos:
Once at Madrid's airport, we took the metro to our hotel. The trip was less than 30 minutes, and quite convenient. We went straight to our hotel, and were shown to our room. After showering, we headed out to explore the city on foot.

Here is Plaza Mayor, where the weekly stamp, coin, and bottlecap market was taking place. Apparently this is a big place for pickpockets, but we escaped unscathed.
There was quite a large police presence in Madrid. We're not sure if something out of the ordinary was happening (they are in the middle of election season and we did see some people coming out of fancy dark cars that were being followed by what looked like secret service agents), or if this is normal. However, it was not oppressive and we didn't have any encounters with the police.
We ate lunch in a little cafe that we stumbled upon. We returned here for dessert later in the week.

We then walked down to the Prado, thinking we might stop in and see some of the paintings (it's free Sunday evenings, so we thought we'd chop our visit there into two pieces while only paying once). However, the line to enter was ridiculously long, so instead we went to the nearby Botanical Gardens. I'm sure the gardens are much more impressive during other times of the year; however, we still had a great time.

There were quite a few feral cats hanging around the gardens, which was surprising.

Who knew that botanical gardens could be such dangerous places?
Here is Brian, looking at some of the plants that were growing in the large greenhouses. There were also many plots of land where plants will soon be growing, as Spring arrives. We were lucky enough to be there during a bonsai exhibition as well.
After walking around the city some more, we stopped and had dinner. This picture didn't turn out so well, but you can kind of see the ambiance of the place. In Spain, people eat much later than what we're used to. Many places don't open for lunch until 1 pm and dinner until 9 pm. There were a few days when we started eating lunch at 3 pm or later! Due to this, we'd often stop for a snack around noon or so.We wanted to go to a churros place that was mentioned in our guidebook. Brian is trying to figure out which way to go on Madrid's rather confusing streets:You may have noticed that his jacket is wet, and that he's wearing a hat. The first part of our trip coincided with cold, wet weather. We were determined not to let this get us down, and the end of the trip saw sunny skies! I guess that's one of the trades you make with off-season travel. We've decided that we'd still rather travel off-season. First, it's cheaper, which means we can afford to go on more trips! Second, there are fewer crowds to deal with, and that's important to us.

And here is what we had for dessert on that first night. Churros are kind of like straight donuts, and you dip them in hot chocolate. But this hot chocolate is not like what you see in America. It's very thick; almost a pudding consistency.
After this, we headed back to our hotel for some much-needed sleep.

Day 2: Toledo

Monday morning, we headed out on the first of three day trips we planned to take. Toledo is a medieval city, and quite up our alley. We took the high-speed AVE train, so the 70 km trip took only about 30 minutes.
We saw the strangest thing on the train. A gentleman across the row from us had been reading a newspaper. About 5 minutes before we arrived in Toledo, he took several sheets of newspaper and placed them in his shoes! Then he jumped up and down a few times, and proceeded on his way. This became a running joke for us throughout the trip.

Toledo is a very confusing city, as the main part is walled-in, and basically the same way it has been for centuries.
The streets are very narrow and curvy; however, this does not stop the locals from driving through them in ridiculously fast speeds. On more than one occasion, we had to press ourselves up against the buildings so that we wouldn't be squished. I am not exaggerating. Most of the streets are one-way (which is what that red sign is indicating).

The first sight we wanted to see was the chapel Santo Tome, where El Greco's masterpiece, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, hangs. Our map was confusing and many of the streets were unmarked. We walked around for almost an hour searching, until we found it, having walked by the building several times. Perhaps the most confusing part is that the chapel is not labeled as "Santo Tome" anywhere! There is a small sign that says "Count Orgaz" referring to the name of the painting. It took us a bit to make that connection. In the picture below, you can see Brian wandering, searching for the chapel. It's in the background on the right, across from the map that's in the background on the left.
We visited the cathedral, where pictures are not permitted, and the Santa Cruz museum. This was one of our favorite parts of Toledo. Entry was free, as they are undergoing a multi-year renovation. There were some beautiful cloisters:
And a special art exhibition:
But the best part was that it was heated! We spent a long time with the tile exhibit, as it was warm and there were heaters where we could place our hands.

Outside, I posed next to a statue of Cervantes:So Brian wanted to pose by the next statue we saw. We are not sure who this is commemorating:We generally stay away from too-touristy things; however, our guidebook recommended the tourist train as a "tacky but fun 50-minute trip through Toledo's highlights with great Tajo Gorge views." We decided to go, and it was great! The conductor went through and took our picture together:And here are a couple of views of the city:
Toledo is the city where we had our most disappointing meal. We walked into what looked like a small diner. The only items on the menu were pizzas. Unbeknownst to us, they were frozen pizzas. He brought mine, undercooked, and then Brian's about 10 minutes later. He only had one toaster oven to cook the food! Brian's pizza was overcooked. We chalked that up to a funny travel experience, though, and as we were extremely hungry, we ate it.

But then we went to get some little desserts at this little mazapan place. I liked the little pastries; Brian not so much.We visited the San Juan de los Reyes Monasterio, where Isabel and Ferdinand were supposed to be buried. I didn't realize until after we left that photography was not allowed, so I was able to get this picture of Brian and the tiny door:We walked back to the train station and had a few minute wait. We were exhausted from our day of walking! We calculated that during every day, we walked a minimum of 12 miles, and a maximum of 20 miles. At the end of the day, we couldn't wait to lie down! Here is Brian, waiting for the train.We got back to Madrid around 8:30 pm, just about time to start thinking about dinner! We passed this place:Restaurant La Traviata. Even though it's Italian food and we were in Spain, we decided to go there. First, as vegetarians, Italian food often fits in with what we eat. Spain's food is mostly focused on ham or offal. Here I am inside with my fantastic pasta dish:We had heard about Spanish vermouth and wanted to give it a try. On our walk back to the hotel, Brian noticed this place:It's hard to see in this picture, but "vermout" is clearly written on the side. We stopped in. I loved it, as I tend to do most sweeter wines. Brian was happy that they brought a plate of olives. We returned to this bar later in the week for another after-dinner drink.And here is Brian, opening the street-level door to the building where our hotel was located.

Day 3: Prado

We decided to visit The Prado Museum on Tuesday. We woke up and had breakfast at a little cafe between our hotel and the Prado. Each of our orange juices was $8! And actually not that tasty, although they were made with fresh oranges. We walked to the Prado, and spent about 6 hours looking at the art, mainly paintings. No pictures are allowed. There were many great pieces by great masters. The Prado's map lists where all of the masterpieces are, and we made sure to see them. But, by the end of our visit, we were overwhelmed with art, our feet hurt from constant walking and standing, and we were ready for a break!

But first, we decided to visit the Egyptian temple. As we exited the Prado, we noticed that storm clouds were brewing:
Here is a long view of the temple, whose official name is Temple de Debod. This is an actual Egyptian temple that was disassembled due to flooding, and relocated here to thank Spain for its help saving other monuments.
After our visit to the temple, we sat outside, relaxing.
We walked back to the hotel (the only time during our trip that we returned during the day) for a siesta. We were exhausted from staying up later than normal and physically exerting ourselves (walking and standing) basically the entire day.

Upon exiting our hotel around 9 pm for dinner, the rain was coming down heavily. It is that reason that I left the camera at home -- I didn't want to risk damage. We decided to eat at a restaurant close to the hotel, and had several to choose from. We were looking at the menu posted outside Zara, a Cuban Restaurant whose owner had come over to Madrid 30 years ago, when the owner's husband came outside and ushered us in. That sealed our decision as to where to eat! The food, as always, was delicious.

As a bonus, during dinner, the rain stopped! We walked to a little cafe and had an after-dinner dessert and hot chocolate. We returned to our hotel to sleep around 11:30 which is late for us, but still early for Madrid night life.

Day 4: Segovia

Wednesday we took our second of three day trips from Madrid and headed to Segovia. We got to the bus station and ate breakfast out of vending machines (not filling!) From Segovia, we decided to go directly to La Granja Palace, which is sometimes referred to as "Little Versailles" as the French-born king modeled it on that palace. We stopped and had a second breakfast of pastries from a little convenience store and bottled water.

Here is an outside view of the palace:
As we approached the palace, we hadn't yet finished the 1.5 liter bottle of water. Brian decided that instead of letting it go to waste, he would finish it. He will come to regret this later.
We took a tour of the palace, which was nice but not outstanding. Perhaps because it was the off-season, there was a guard to visitor ratio of approximately 5:1. In every room, several guards were intently watching us, as though we had plans of touching something or maybe even taking a picture! But we behaved ourselves and headed out for the real treat of the visit: the gardens.

Just as it was with the botanical gardens from our first day's visit, these probably are much more impressive in warmer weather. However, for the first time on our entire trip, we saw a blue sky!
There was abundant wildlife, mostly birds. Brian spent the better part of 20 minutes stalking this (and other) pheasants and taking their pictures. They didn't really seem to mind.
Here he is, walking along a row with fountains. Although it has been many years since I have visited Versailles, I noticed some similarities in the garden layout, which I assume was intentional.
Here I am, in the gardens. I don't remember what's behind me, though:
This fun little house was restricted so we couldn't enter, but it was so pretty that I had to take a picture:
And here's where Brian realizes that he shouldn't have finished that water, that there are no bathrooms in the gardens, and that it's a long way back to the castle. The flowing fountains didn't help matters, but all turned out just fine.
There were no signs telling us when the next bus would come, so we made our way to the bus stop, intending to wait until the next one came. Unfortunately, we just missed the bus, so we had an hour to wait at the stop. It was near some nests of these large white birds, so we watched them as we waited. They were quite entertaining, sitting on their nests, displaying against competitors, etc.
Back in Segovia, we ate lunch at a Spanish chain restaurant called Pans.
Then we headed to the aqueduct. Segovia was a Roman military base, and this aqueduct was built by Emperor Trajan's engineers about 2,000 years ago. It carried water to the city until a couple of centuries ago!
We also went to the Alcazar (fortified palace), which was a highlight of our trip. As a rarity among the sights we visited, pictures were allowed. Here I am, posing by armor:And Brian, surrounded by opulence:We climbed 152 large steps in a tight spiral staircase up the tower, to see 360 degree views of the city. Of course we went up as fast as we possibly could, so Brian was feeling a bit winded:

We walked around Segovia some more, and then returned to Madrid. We had tapas at a few bars as we made our way from the bus station to our neighborhood. We then had dinner at a restaurant. One of the things that we don't like about Europe is the prevalence of smoking. We don't let it ruin our trips, but we are always shocked at the number of people smoking on the streets. Here Brian is, after a glass or two of wine, pretending to smoke his bread stick:We went to the same Vermouth tapas bar where our bartender was from Ecuador, and then stopped for ice cream as we walked home:The previous night, as we were entering our hotel, another couple entered right behind us and followed us up the stairs, entering the same hotel as us. (You needed a key to enter at street level and another key to enter the hotel). Twice they didn't use their key. Now, they were our age or younger, didn't look menacing, and were most likely tourists. However, we should not have let them blindly follow us in, and were careful to not let that happen again for the rest of our trip.

In this picture, Brian is making sure that no one can sneak in through the street-level door!

Day 5: Palace & Museums

Thursday was our last full day in Madrid, as we had a day trip planned for Friday. First, we went to the Royal Palace (Palacio Real). The palace is still used for royal functions, although the royal family does not live here. It can be closed with very short notice for events. This actually happened to my cousins when they visited Madrid last year. We were lucky that the palace was open for us.

As is the norm with Spanish attractions, no pictures were allowed. It was very opulent, and our favorite of the three palaces we visited on this trip.
After the visit, we hung out in the courtyard for a few hours, enjoying the perfect day. Many people were walking around, and there were performers. This guy is playing the accordion. There were other musicians, and also the street performers who stand perfectly still until you give them some money and then they give a little performance.
Brian took many pictures of the courtyard and nearby park, but here are just a few:

After this, we headed over to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. Although the Prado was impressive, it was almost too much. This museum was just about perfect. There were works from pretty much every genre, from baroque to modern. Many were by famous artists, including Van Gogh, Monet, Picasso, etc.

After our visit, we went to a vegetarian restaurant for lunch. This was nice, as we could order the menu del dia, where you get a nice starter, main course, dessert, and a drink for a very reasonable price. We were unable to order this at most restaurants due to the meat in those courses. The food was delicious. However, we didn't arrive for lunch until 3:15 pm, and the service was very slow. We exited the restaurant at about the time we'd start eating dinner in America!

We walked to the Reina Sofia Museum, which is the 3rd of the 3 major art museums in Madrid. The Paris Picasso Art Museum is currently undergoing renovations, and most of that collection was sent here for display. Brian was pleased to have crossed a Paris sight off of his to-do list, even though we were in Madrid. It was a lot of Picasso. Although we enjoyed ourselves, we probably didn't enjoy it as much as others would have!

The major attraction at this museum is Picasso's large work, Guernica. This painting depicts the aftermath of the Nazi bombing of the Spanish town of Guernica in the 1930s. There are also works by Dali (a favorite of ours) and other, with a focus on more modern works.

After all of this walking, our feet were in pain, so we took the metro back to our hotel and grabbed a quick dinner at Pans. After all, our lunch did not finish until after 5! We were sleeping before our heads hit the pillows.