So we started off the day with a brief tour of Madrid. Looking out the window of the bus just showed me how many different portions of Madrid there are, from the very old streets around the Plaza Mayor to the newer sections with ugly skyscrapers that were built in the sixties and seventies. However, everywhere there are fountains with Greek gods. If the gods are not standing in the fountains, there are statues on top of the buildings. Below is Poseidon, or Neptune, centered in one of the roundabouts in the streets of Madrid.
We also stopped to see the memorial to Cervantes and his "two sons," Don Quijote and Sancho Panza, panza meaning "gut," and in case you haven't read Don Quijote or seen the statue, yes, Panza has a paunch. Also at the top of the monument is a memorial of all of the Spanish speaking places around the world, with representatives from various countries holding up the globe.
We then got out of the bus and walked around near the Plaza Mayor (different than the one in Salamanca but the same basic format and idea) and the streets were absolutely beautiful.
We had one of the best tour guides I have ever experienced. He was incredibly funny, knowledgable, and very clear in both English and Spanish and was not afraid to come out and tell us the dirty details of the seedy underbelly of court life in Spain during the Bourbon rule.
Which leads us to one of the most exciting parts of my day - the Palacio Real. I unfortunately have very few pictures of the building because photos were not allowed, but let me assure you the inside was more ornate and beautiful than can be imagined, with incredible paintings and rooms of silk and porcelain, paintings of the royal family by Francisco de Goya (I about died of excitement), and an incredible sense of history. This is not the original palace. Basically, when Charles II of Spain died without an heir (he was inbred and quite possibly incapable of having sex with his two wives - the first one was poisoned because she was unable to provide an heir ironically), there was a great war for succession in Spain, Barcelona supporting the Hapsburg dynasty of Charles II and Madrid supporting Phillip of Austria, a Bourbon who arrived in Spain in 1700 and claimed the throne. When he got to Madrid, he took an immediate disliking to the wooden castle standing where the castle now stands. It burned down mysteriously one night (not so mysteriously actually as all of the tapestries, paintings, and sculptures had been removed from the building a couple of days before the fire - nobody thinks it is a coincidence). After the building burned down, Felipe V went about building another palace, this time of stone since wood burns. However, the first person to live in the palace was Charles III, the younger son of Phillip V. He only got to be king because his older brother literally died of sadness nine months after his wife passed away. Luckily for Spain, Charles III is considered one of the best kings of not the best king they have ever had because he improved Spain incredibly without fighting a single war.
After that we had a lot of free time, so we sat down for a nice leisurely lunch and then headed to the Museo de Reina Sofia, where we saw Guernica, lots of artwork from the Spanish Civil War, and quite a few pieces by Salvador Dalí. These, of course, also could not be photographed. However, these were a couple of the works that I saw:
Guernica - Pablo Picasso
Adam and Eve - Rosario de Velasco
The Enigma of Hitler - Salvador Dalí
So in my hustle and bustle, I'm not getting too many pictures of myself in Spain, but when I do, they most often look like this.
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