After Valencia, we went to Madrid for a quick trip. I should have taken a picture of our hotel---it was an awesome location right on Gran Via, one of the busiest streets in Madrid. We had a cool balcony where we could see all of the "hustle and bustle" of the city right below us. This was the first place I have felt any sense of busy city life in Spain. When we came up from the metro onto the street, it made me think of this area as a smaller-scaled NYC of Spain. There's not as much of a "take your time, do it tomorrow, take a siesta" feel here---and you see more people walking around in business attire running around for work. It was a gorgeous day and we saw a lot of great things.
Plaza Mayor
It's pretty much guaranteed that you will see a statue of an important man on a caballo (horse) at least once in each city of Spain.
Mercado de San Miguel
This is an awesome market in Madrid that not only sells meat and fish for daily shopping, but it's also a popular hangout place all day and night. People spend time with friends and eat beautiful assortments of tapas. You can go around to each counter and get one tapa from each place if you like. We had some nice tapas that had brie cheese with chopped apples on bread. So good.
We had an amazing lunch outside in Madrid. It consisted of delicious costillas de cerdo (pork ribs), pasta with clams, and arroz negro (black rice). The black rice is a special type of paella that has calamari, chicken, peppers, and the reason it is black is because it is made with squid ink! :) Sounds scary, but the flavor really is very good.
Dad was really eyeing the BMW, deluxe moped.
This is one of the entrances to El Parque de Buen Retiro ---a really beautiful park in Madrid. It reminds me of an enchanting central park of Spain. Absolutely beautiful.
The cool trees that look like brains.
See??? Another statue of a guy on a horse!!
La Estatua del Angel Caido ---The statue of the Fallen Angel---one of the few statues in Europe relating to the devil. You don't see it too well from the pic, but there are serpientes (snakes) wrapped around his arms and legs, as if they were pulling him down.
El Palacio de cristal (the crystal palace)---beautiful building in the park
View from our balcon (balcony)
My lil bro loved his first experience with a free shoehorn from the hotel.
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