fin dia en Madrid

Hello friends
Today was a long but interesting day for us. We slept in a little bit till about ten and after getting ready and eating our breakfast we hit the road. Norma, one of the hosts at our bed and breakfast, makes us breakfast each morning. When we sit down, there is a place setting and pastries, butter, and jelly on the table. As soon as we sit down Norma comes out with toast and to get our drink orders. Yesterday I had coffee and orange juice and today i had chocolate, un bebido tipico de espana.

Today we started our day by walking to what we thought was going to be a thriving flea market full of hundreds of madrilenos. We walked through much of the area that it was supposed to be and didn't see anything outside of the norm. We came home to google it and learned that it happens on Sundays not Saturdays. :-( That was very dissapointing because we were planning on getting some souvenirs. So if you were expecting a gift from us, but don't get anything, now you know why.
After that, we decided to do some walking and head down to the Puerto del sol, a plaza that marks Km zero of Madrid, then go tour the Monasterio Descalzas Reales. It was a monastery where rich young woman went and lived to get prepared to be married. By the time we navigated the twisty turny uneven Madrid streets and got there, they were closed for the afternoon, to reopen later. We decided that it wasn't that important and kept walking. On a side note, this morning when we woke up, our legs ached from all of the walking we did yesterday. We walked down Gran Via, a major street in downtown Madrid. It was very modern and busy! There were so many people hanging out out there. There were movie theaters showing Harry Potter Y El Misterio De La Principia, and La Proposicion. Eventually we made it to Plaza de Espana. It was beautiful! We were glad to have a place to sit and sat next to a old woman with terrible schizophrenia. She was talking very loudly to herself, it was saddening. The plaza was beautiful though. It had a huge memorial on one end and some statues on the other. It is very near the local University. Some girls our age speaking very fast spanish asked us to take a picture of them and poked fun at Rachel when she gave the camera to me. She said something along the lines of, "Gorda tocalo" It was fun that they didn't realize we didn't speak spanish that well. After a short break we decided to take a walk to a park called the Casa de Campo. At the time we thought it was very short. Thirty five minutes later we made it to Jardin del Campo, the gardens of the Palacio Real. Since we didn't really have anyplace to be and wanted to sit down, we went in and it was beautiful! We saw three couples in wedding attire taking pictures there.

Another walk later, we made it to the Casa de Campo. We bought a bottle of water because ours had run out a long time ago and sat down on a bench. I think there was a triathalon going on because there was a lot of activity setting up and moving gates near the lake. We walked around the lake and sat some more before we decided to go home. We took the metro and got home fairly quickly. When we got here, Rachel figured out our plans for tomorrow while I took a nap. When I woke up, we went for dinner at a restaurant right across the street from the Palacio Real. The waiter was the most unfriendly we have met so far, but it didn't ruin our experience. We walked to Plaza mayor again to spend some more time with the mostly untalented street performers. We took a video and tried to post it, but it didn't work. I think the internet here is too slow. We'll try again tomorrow.

We got some ice cream and headed back home. On the way home, we stopped for a glass of wine to reflect on Madrid and watch the sun set behind the palacio. It was a great way to end our time in Madrid.