Madrid

The next day we set out to explore Madrid. We had been around on the metro a decent amount, but this was our only time venturing downtown to the big and old parts of town. Claudia and the girls stayed home while Stephen showed us around.

The Palacio Real de Madrid, or Royal Palace of Madrid.

It was pretty, but considerably less ancient than most of the sites we had been seeing the week before.

We got to see a changing of the guard, which was cool but terribly impractical. Those guys can't pay attention to anything else while focusing on all that coordinated marching and stomping. If you are going to break into the palace, do it while they are changing the guard!

Plaza Mayor

Nearby was the oldest continually operating restaurant in the world! We weren't able to get a reservation, but it was still neat to see.

Cranking out the suckling pig and other fancy dishes since 1725!

Next, we took the metro to Sol, which is Madrid's equivalent of NYC's Times Square. We checked a big media store to see if they carried the latest season of a Spanish TV show that Stephen and Claudia like, then found a great Paella place for lunch.

This bear eating from this tree is for some reason a symbol of Madrid.

Our tour continued to include these neat skyscrapers. T

They built a few pretty recently, and they are kind of strange in that there isn't a whole lot around it. It's like they built the skyscrapers first, hoping that stuff will fill in around them.

We stopped by a free art gallery for a bathroom break (seriously, it's a great strategy) and found this great statue of Elliot!
He went through a very unfortunate phase where he compulsively knocked over babies that ended shortly after our trip.

We next headed over to Retiro Park, which is similar to NYC Central Park. The place was huge, beautiful, and blisteringly hot.

Can you spot the hidden bloods?

My nieces are adorable

The Crystal Palace! This used to be an elaborate greenhouse filled with exotic flora

Now you get all the exotic heat with none of the greenery! It was a neat place to be in- briefly. 

We saw many many fountains and sculptures in Europe, but the Fallen Angel in Retiro Park was my favorite.

So expressive!

Not the best picture of us, but you can see the demons on the bottom in this shot.