Madrid!

Madrid Is SOOO beautiful. Everything is landscaped. EVERYTHING. And I don't think I saw a single clunker while I was there. We started by taking a shuttle to the airport then the metro into the city. There we caught a hop-on/hop-off bus and began our whirlwind tour of Madrid. We had breakfast at a place called Rodilla which is a spanish cafe chain. It was down the street from a soccer stadium that was bigger than Jerry's Palace in Arlington...A ride through some residential neighborhoods and then the main city. Our first stop was Plaza del Sol. This is the main plaza in the city and it was packed on a Sat. We went shopping, I got new shoes and a nice jacket cuz it was COLD. Next we rode to the Royal Palace. That is me standing by a lamp post outside. The place is HUGE!! It was gorgeous! We walked through a church that is next to the palace. Next we stopped for a bite to eat at a place called Plaza Mayor. Had really good pizza! We moved on and visited an art museum. It was 99% religious paintings of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus breastfeeding. Weird. Then we strayed through this beautiful park that had a huge pond built where people could rent boats to paddle. There were kids playing and dogs and people selling stuff and singing or performing. Last stop was a restaurant for dinner before heading home. Just some tapas and wine. We made it back to the hotel after a long wait at the airport (we couldn't find the shuttle area for the hotel). Then it was off to ROME!! More on that when I've had a chance to wander around.