We woke up pretty early and headed right over to the Palacio Real (Royal Palace) after coffee and breakfast in a cafe near our hotel. We hoped on the metro once again and walked to the palace, finding some beautiful sculptures and gardens out front. We realized we'd have to wait in line for a little while to enter, but it wasn't bad and we were soon inside. We walked through the main plaza looking at the whole outside wall and entered up the main stairs that had a beautiful fresco on the ceiling and decadent statutes all around.
I think it kind of looks like the White House in that picture...
In the main stairway entrance.
view of Madrid from outside the palace
I unfortunately don't really have other pictures of the palace because it was completely prohibited to take pictures inside. We spent a good amount of time there and upon exiting, all of the people that sell things on the streets were around. My mom and I bought some pretty scarfs and then my parents, being gullible tourists, decide to get massages from the Chinese people who are outside the palace with their little seats and maps of the body's pressure points. Overall, the ended up getting ripped off, but so are dealings with shady street business people... My dad at least said his back felt better. (picture above)
After the palace it was lunch time so we headed on the metro to go across the city. Our plan for the day was to head to the big park (El Parque del Buen Retiro) and buy some bread and lunch meat to have a picnic there. After having a bit of an adventure in a store that was sort of butcher shop/pastry shop, we got our food and walked to a bench among all these beautiful trees in a nice grassy area to eat our lunch. The park was really diverse - some parts filled with natural trees and plants, another area had a big lake-like body of water with boats that had restaurants around it, and another area was filled with well-trimmed bushes lining the walk-ways in specific areas, making it all looked like a perfectly planned setting. Overall, it was really beautiful and relaxing... pictures!
After the park we walked a bit more through Madrid and headed for the Reina Sofia, a museum featuring all kinds of Spanish art. We walked past the Prado, Spain's most famous museum, but the line was HUGE and we had less time than we wanted.
The PradoI really enjoyed the Reina Sofia, although I think my dad was a bit bored again. It helped explain some more of Spanish history and the Spanish culture that you can see today. Some of the art was a bit hyper-modern, but nonetheless got you thinking.
After the museum we met up with Catie, another girl on my program here in Alicante, and her mom. The two of them also spent the weekend in Madrid as her mom was visiting Spain. We found a good looking tapas restaurant and enjoyed some really good tapas together and a few beers. Catie and her mom are both super sweet (and super southern, they're from Memphis). By then it was past 10 so we walked around a bit more, but shortly after got on the metro to head back to our hotel.
Here is a picture of my dad on the metro.Unfortunately my dad was almost robbed while we were on the metro by two guys who tried to take his wallet out of his back pocket, but he noticed as they were doing it and they went in the other direction. It left him a bit spooked, but what can you do.. it's city life. Our train for the next day was at 11am and because we were all pretty tired, we decided to just sleep in and take out time getting to the train station after we stopped for breakfast.
Getting on/inside the train:
It was a relaxing train ride back throughout the afternoon and we just took our time back in Alicante because I had two midterms to study for (one Monday, one Tuesday) and had to get myself motivated to go back to class.
I have more pictures from Alicante and from the beginning of our Madrid trip so I will post again soon to share them and talk a bit more about things in Alicante. For now, class. At least it is almost the weekend again...
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