Day 14 – Explore Madrid
Tour of Madrid this morning. We started by bus and ended by walking.
There is an Egyptian temple of rah in the middle of the city.. I don’t know what that is about. She told us when it was moved here and all about that but she didn’t tell us why it is here.
Our guide’s voice made me sleepy when we were on the bus and when we were walking around she walked very fast and then stood and waited for us. There are some pretty steep hills and it is so crowded here that it is hard to stay together as a group. As she spoke to us, she kept turning around to make sure we all heard but instead, we all heard a little of it instead of all of it. She was not my favorite guide and I did not figure out how to go anywhere even though she kept giving us directions.
This afternoon there are no s
cheduled activities so 
Mom and I decided to tour the palace. It is still an active palace and you can only tour it when the royal family is not using it. We only got to see about 20 of the 2000+ rooms but it was still a big place. The courtyard is huge and can open up to the cathedral next door. There is a large staircase when you enter and there is a huge courtyard in the center of the building that we got to look over from the windows. Every ceiling is painted but my favorite was a 3D ceiling. They would not allow pictures so I can only tell you that it was pretty cool. They also had umbrellas for us to use when we crossed the courtyard to the main building — that was a nice touch.
After a short siesta, Pilar took us for hot chocolate and churros. It is like a cup of melted dark chocolate and you dip fried bread into it. Much too rich for me.
Then mom and some of the other ladies went to the bull fight. She has described it to me and I am glad I did not go but she says she had to experience it one time.
We did not stay at a Parador or Pousada in Madrid, it was a hotel. At this hotel we had access to the rooftop gardens and pool — we went to look at it but the rain and the cold kept us from staying there long. We also had access to a club room with some snacks and drinks. I spent some time in this room with the other people from the group while Mom was at the bullfight. It was pretty cool to just hang out with these world travelers and find out about their other trips and experiences. It was also nice to stop by the club room for a cold water, coke or beer (no wine here because wine is associated with food) and little snack when returning from walking around Madrid — made a great place to meet people from the group and find out what they did that day.
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#VickieTravelz
My mother and I are taking a trip called the Back Roads of Iberia: Spanish Paradores & Portuguese Pousadas. These are our daily adventures – written for our family while we were traveling – April / May 2016.