Madrid - First Three Days
Apr. 4th, 2010 09:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jacquelinebHave thus far had a pretty lazy time in Madrid. Spent a lot of time in my sister's apartment, just hanging about, reading, talking, etc. I haven't seen her since October though so this has been rather lovely. I think I left the house once on Friday in the evening, sister showing me around the area she lives in, which is about 15 minutes walk from Sol, what's considered the city centre.
We did plan to go to Toledo on Saturday, but the weather turned out not to be so great, so we stayed in again till the afternoon when we went for another walk down towards the river. I joked that she'd taken me the scenic route - the first part of the walk, shall we say, did not show the prettiest parts of Madrid. The river, Manzanares, was nothing much to comment on, but there was some work around the bridge we went to which looked like it might be rather nice when it's finished.
The rain then caught up with us and we trundled up past the palace, me under my broken brolly, which was soon replaced by a bloke selling them on the street, taking advantage of the weather change. Then we had some tasty churros in exceedingly busy place where the wait staff piled the cups of chocolate and plates up so high that you worried they might topple over if the customers hadn't moved out of the way in time.
We met up that evening with M, who is doing the dancing exam with me, and her sisters (we all just happened to be in Madrid for this weekend) for a very nice paella and sangria (sister and I will be having the leftovers of this for food later tonight). An early night intended, sister and I attended up chatting till after 2 and crawling out of bed around 12.30 today. Very well rested, we trotted over to the Museo del Prado to take advantage of the free entry from 5-8pm on a Sunday. We had a good look at the first floor, before deciding to come back another evening to see the second floor (again, free entry 6-8pm on weekdays). My user icon is from this painting by Federico de Madrazo y Kuntz, which we saw at the gallery and featured in a lot of the gallery products.
I managed to find a magnet of a painting of St Michael (San Miguel here); naturally, he's slaying a dragon. ;)
Now off for drinks with a friend of my sisters.
We did plan to go to Toledo on Saturday, but the weather turned out not to be so great, so we stayed in again till the afternoon when we went for another walk down towards the river. I joked that she'd taken me the scenic route - the first part of the walk, shall we say, did not show the prettiest parts of Madrid. The river, Manzanares, was nothing much to comment on, but there was some work around the bridge we went to which looked like it might be rather nice when it's finished.
The rain then caught up with us and we trundled up past the palace, me under my broken brolly, which was soon replaced by a bloke selling them on the street, taking advantage of the weather change. Then we had some tasty churros in exceedingly busy place where the wait staff piled the cups of chocolate and plates up so high that you worried they might topple over if the customers hadn't moved out of the way in time.
We met up that evening with M, who is doing the dancing exam with me, and her sisters (we all just happened to be in Madrid for this weekend) for a very nice paella and sangria (sister and I will be having the leftovers of this for food later tonight). An early night intended, sister and I attended up chatting till after 2 and crawling out of bed around 12.30 today. Very well rested, we trotted over to the Museo del Prado to take advantage of the free entry from 5-8pm on a Sunday. We had a good look at the first floor, before deciding to come back another evening to see the second floor (again, free entry 6-8pm on weekdays). My user icon is from this painting by Federico de Madrazo y Kuntz, which we saw at the gallery and featured in a lot of the gallery products.
I managed to find a magnet of a painting of St Michael (San Miguel here); naturally, he's slaying a dragon. ;)
Now off for drinks with a friend of my sisters.
