Saturday we went to Palacio Real de Madrid. Yet another place where we couldn't take pictures inside! But I did get some pictures of the outside (see below). The palace was constructed by 1755, and then the royals moved in. It is the residence for the Spanish Royal Family, but now is only used for state ceremonies and dinners. Claire and I shared an audio tour, and it gave us some interesting information. For example, we saw the room where Spain signed the documents to join the European Union. And the dining room can hold up to 140 people. The inside of the palace was extravagantly decorated and was absolutely gorgeous...you need to see it! There were frescoes covering all of the ceilings, a lot of gold and bronze gilding, silk tapestries, and paintings by Spanish painter Velazquez. And a lot of rooms had fancy clocks...they had a thing for clocks. We were listening to the audio tour, and it telling us about this grand clock, and that it was really old. Well, the clockface was about the size of a plate that you would use to put a tea cup on, and the rest of it was huge! It was interesting because there were some rooms that used to rooms or bedroom for King Charles III, but they didn't have it set up as a bedroom anymore. He had a room that the silk tapestries over the wall had his initials, as well as all of the chairs.The Throne Room was supposed to be the most grand room of them all. It had frescoes, crystal chandeliers, gilded stucco on the wall/ceiling, lion statues of stone, and tapestries. We walked through rooms that had old coins and medals, china and porcelain, and crystal dinnerware. We also saw the chapel, which was pretty big for a chapel, and very pretty.
After that we walked through the smoking room and billiard room. After that, we went to find the Royal Pharmacy. We followed the signs, and they were pointing to a closed door. We kind of stood there and a guard came up and we kind of pointed at it, and he was like si! So we went in. The audio tour told us this was where they kept all the poisons...and medicine for the king and his family. There were glass and ceramic jars all aligned on the walls, and some of them still had things in them! It was very interesting. Then we found the Royal Armory, which was really cool. They had knights in armor on statue horses (who also had some armor on), and all kinds of helmets, and swords. They even had armor for kings when they were kids, it was so small! If you ever visit Madrid, Palacio Real is a must!
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Statue of Philip IV (Felipe in Spanish) |
 |
| Almudena Cathedral across from the Palacio Real. The only good picture I could get because there were cranes in the way! |
 | |
| Palacio Real de Madrid |
On Sunday, we went to El Rastro, which is an outdoor market. It was crazy! Vendors had tents or stands set up in the streets, and the pathways were crowded with people trying to buy things. People were selling a variety of things, like Madrid souvenirs, leather goods, used clothes, antiques, and much more! I think you could find pretty much everything there...including underwear, weird. You definitely need to look out for your purses/wallets though, it is a popular place for pick-pockets. We heard a story from someone that they saw a guy trying to get into a lady's backpack, and another guy came up and punched him or something. And then the guy had to explain what happened, because the lady had no clue! We looked around a lot, looking for stuff we may buy. We saw some cute leather purses that were handmade, so maybe we will go back and buy one. Claire and I both bought a Spanish fan...they are everywhere, but these seemed pretty cheap. They aren't the really fancy ones, but they are really pretty! Mine is pink and has purple and blue flowers on it. So, it was a successful trip to El Rastro, and now we know what to expect!
Things I have learned in Spain:
- I can finally watch Downton Abbey! I kept looking online, but I couldn't find it anywhere, so I ended up buying it on Amazon, but it is so worth it!
- It still amazes me how thin everyone is here...because they eat late at night, sleep in, stay up late, don't drink a lot of water,season everything with salt, and eat a lot of bread. I thought those were things that were unhealthy and made you gain weight!
- With the healthcare in Spain, people don't have to pay for doctors visits, going to the hospital or things like CAT scans or MRI's, and pay very little for medication. Our senora told us their taxes are high, so that pays for the healthcare
- Gypsies in Spain are not like the gypsies on the TLC show My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding...that is what I wanted to tell an American girl who was talking about it on the Metro. She was like, yeah they are really good at paving roads. Claire and I just looked at each other and were like wow
- I saw a little girl with a Hannah Montana backpack the other day
- Fake Uggs are in style. The only people I have seen wearing real Uggs are from SLU
- Brazilians speak Portuguese because way back in 1494 Portugal and Spain signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, which was a line that defined what country owned what new colony. Spain got North and South America, and Portugal got east of that line, which just happened to pass through Brazil. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tordesillas
¡Adios!
No comments:
Post a Comment