Sunday in Madrid

March 11

We started the day by getting back on the Hop On/Hop Off bus as our tickets were good until 2pm. It was about a 15-minute ride to the Royal Palace which was our main stop for the day. It was built in the mid-17th century and has almost 1.5 million square feet. It’s technically the official residence of the royal family, they don’t actually live there. It is, though, used for official functions.

We were only allowed to take photos in the first couple of public spaces; not at all in the individual rooms so we pulled a few from google. We did the self-guided tour using the audio guide. The rooms were beautiful, and we really enjoyed the tour. It only took about an hour but then we spent a little more time in the armory.

After the Palace we walked across the square to the Cathedral, but it was the middle of noon Mass, so we didn’t get to see too much of it.

On our way to a large park about a 1/2 mile away we stopped for lunch. This is where we had our biggest challenge of the day, at least Lynn did. She ordered a Romano pizza which was a ham/mushroom pizza. Food came out and the pizza had not only artichokes but olives, which she hates. The waiter took the pizza back shaking his head that the cook had made the wrong one. The second one came out about 15 minutes later (of course Peter is done with his lunch by now) and this one still has artichokes but instead of olives there are red peppers. Called the waiter over again. Shaking his head once more he takes the pizza back and returns just a few minutes later with the exact same pizza minus the peppers. When Lynn pointed out the artichokes, he asked if she wanted a cheese pizza instead. What she really wanted was the pizza she had ordered but it didn’t look like that was going to happen, so she gave up.

As if that wasn’t enough, by the time we left the restaurant, it was raining again. Looking at the pictures of the palace taken from the outside you might think we finally had a nice day…. not so. We stood in line for tickets in the rain and later even though the sun was out, it was crazy cold…. low 40s with a 20-mph wind. Peter even bought a knit hat he was so cold. So now add rain to that (ever try keeping an umbrella open in a 20-mph wind; not happening), Lynn being hungry, and we were ready to call it quits for the day. Luckily, we got on the bus just before our tickets expired. The plan was to ride the rest of the circuit and get off back at the stop closest to our house. It took almost an hour (during which time the sun came out again) and we headed for our flat. Except, wait…. turns out we got off on stop 6 not 7 so we walked in the wrong direction. Once we figured it out and turned around, we decided to stop for coffee/hot chocolate and since Lynn still hadn’t eaten (by this time it’s about 3pm) we had a delicious piece of cheesecake which they served with a scoop of ice cream. It was great but by the time we left the restaurant, guess what? Yep, it was raining again. Luckily, we were only about 5 minutes from home, so we didn’t get too wet. Seriously, this crazy weather is getting really old. We’ve never seen weather conditions change so fast so many times in one day, even in Chicago. But there’s nothing we can do about it, so we never leave home without our umbrellas and cold-weather gear.

Tomorrow we’re off on a day trip to Segovia and Toledo. We could have done it on our own but decided to get a tour instead. Hopefully it will be a small group like we had to Fatima. Talk with you tomorrow.