July 29 - Last day in Madrid

Our courtyard family picture (without our photographer)

Street view of the Palace (note the graffiti on the bush!)

The "Gran Via"

Stopped in here looking for a commemorative "futbol" jersey

Today, we made our way to the Royal Palace of Madrid. Many of Spain’s old kings used to live there, and because of that, there are many rooms and artifacts representing all of them. When we arrived at the palace, we had to pass through security (as with many historical monuments and tourist attractions all over the world). Also, we decided to do an audio tour. The palace boasts over 3,000 rooms and two courtyards, but the public is allowed to see about 30 of those rooms. I guess that 3,000 rooms would be a lot to see in a day! We saw rooms commemorating the kings, the royal pharmacy, armory, dining rooms, and many other studies and bedrooms. All of these were very cool to see, and we learned much more by having the audio guides! It was amazing to think that all of Spain’s finest leaders, many of the world’s finest leaders, had set foot in the beautiful rooms that we toured!

After leaving the palace, we decided to head down toward the street “Gran Via”, Madrid’s version of Michigan Avenue. Lined with shops, theaters, hotels, restaurants and swanky residences, I liked to refer to it as the “magnificent kilometer” (although I’m not really sure how long it is). You could get lost walking on it and all of its side streets! We started to keep tabs on the number of familiar shops and restaurants we saw, and we found 5 Starbuck’s, 2 McDonald’s, and 2 H&M stores! I also found out from my dad that in Madrid, there are 19 “El Corte Ingles’”, which is Spain’s version of Marshall Fields.

After going in to many stores and wandering, we decided to look for a place to eat our packed lunch (typical). We saw a spot on the map that should have been a park, but we couldn’t find it, so we ended up at some smelly, pigeon and hobo filled “park”. It was more like some benches in between two buildings, less of a park, and more of a path in between two streets. After rushing to eat our lunch and leave, we got back on the Gran Via and headed back to the Puerta del Sol for the last shop of the day, some clothing store for Katie. 

Finally, to add to our day’s excitements, we decided to take the subway back home. Once we figured out how to get back, we did, and in great time. Madrid’s subway is very cost and time efficient. For one euro each, we could get a ride to anywhere we wanted on their system. It also seemed to be that trains arrived at each station in every direction every 4 minutes. I was quite surprised by the system, and find it to be better than the EL system in Chicago (I had to throw it out there). Once we got home, it was TV time, and basically for the rest of the night, because our parents bought us three frozen pizzas and let us stay in for the night, while they went out “Tapa – Hoppping”, or hitting four Tapas bars in one night! It was quite the successful day!

Ryan