Then we wandered to the New Europe Tour of Madrid. I have now done these in Berlin, Madrid, and Amsterdam. They are always good and sometimes even better than good! Also, they are FREE! The people work off of tips at the end of the tour so you tip what you can afford if you like them. (I know you are thinking..wow you are one of those obnoxious people who walks around a city in a large group and basically gets tourist stamped on their faces. Yes, I became one of those people. However, these have become a great way to meet people and really get a feel and history for the city you are visiting. So just do it! Then you can make fun of me if you don't like it!)
Most awesome Spiderman ever!
So we walked around the city and heard about 1000 years of Spanish history filled with suicides, murders, witches, kings and queens, and of course some war. It is fascinating to see how the architecture changes throughout the city based on what country is in power. The most fascinating thing for me is the politics of it all now. It is crazy how recent Spain was a dictatorship and how easily it would be for that same party to win an election again.
Spanish Congress
We left Madrid for a few days and then heading back to Madrid. We found ourselves at the Palace in Madrid. It is still used on a regular basis which is pretty cool.
Pretending to be a princess in the
palace
One of the things I liked about Madrid a lot was how many parks and open spaces there are in the massive city. Above is one of the many which is gorgeous. We continued to wander the streets of Madrid. We saw an old Egyptian building and explored some great new stores. (I fell in love with Pull & Bear so if you know where else they have stores let me know!)
We also went to the Prado Museum and the Reina Sofia. Both were amazing museums. I have started getting the audio guides at museums which is so enlightening. I really loved both museums! My favorite at the Prado was Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights. The Reina Sofia holds Picasso and Goya. I really enjoyed these artists!
Lunch in Madrid
So I got the culture but the best part of my time in Madrid was watching the Barcelona v. Madrid game on Wednesday night. After Madrid won, Madrid went crazy! I had made some new friends and went to one of the major squares in Madrid to celebrate. We waited there until 5am when the Real Madrid team came and kissed the statue in the square. While waiting there were chants, flags, fireworks, crazy lights, and confetti. It was one of those experiences you can't plan in advance for. It was such an amazing experience. People were so unbelievably excited and we were able to meet a great group of Spaniards! It doesn't get much better than hanging out with locals when you are in a new city.
The geographical center of Spain
Dip your churro in chocolate! yummm
The tour of the bullfighting ring was really interesting. We learned about the history and importance of bullfighting. All the bulls are killed in the end no matter what but they are all sent to restaurants around Madrid. Only 3 people have actually died at that ring in nearly 100 years. The guide also discussed how it is a dying sport because there are few young people who still attend the weekly events.
Mexican in Spain! Recommended by a friend! It was amazing to have really good Mexican food and one of my favorite beers - Pacifico and a Corona! It was sooo good!
Now, most of those pictures don't show the immense amount of rain we got in Spain. Our bullfighting tour guide let us know that we were very unlikely to be getting rain in April. This did not help my disappointment in getting so much rain. However, I made friends in the rain and I powered through the week of rain! I love Spain and am going back in June! More to come about other cities in Spain.
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