Madrid Meandering

So yesterday was our class trip to Madrid....class trip, that sounds so elementary school :-)  We were given an assignment to not only learn about the Archeological Museum we were visiting, but to also understand all the directions for getting around Madrid so that we could navigate the train system, metro system, and walking without our Professor's help.  I must say, I am proud of my map reading abilities.

I'm a pro.  This is me on the train on the way into the city.

So we first went to El Palacio Real in Madrid.  I'd been there on my trip in high school so seeing it again was such a deja vu moment!  My group from the trip junior year of high school could have popped up next to me and it wouldn't have been weird at all!  It was just a beautiful as the last time I saw it, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to see it again.

 Gardens next to the Palace.

 This is the courtyard in the front of the castle.  The castle apparently has something like 2,800 rooms....so it's a tad small.....

I really wanted to show what it looked like inside but they don't allow photography.  It was extremely lavish though.  Gold gilding everywhere and velvet rugs and furniture covers.  Haven't I just painted a picture for you?

Next we walked down to Puerta del Sol.  It was packed!  Apparently all the after Christmas sales end Feb 28th so EVERYONE was there shopping.  It was so nice to walk around by myself for a little while though.  Sometimes being in a big group got frustrating.

 That's the government building in the middle of Puerta del Sol.  I'll hopefully get more time back in Madrid to get more pictures of the city.

Our next stop was the National Archeology Museum.

 This was a sun dial.  The little light at the bottom moves according to the suns position in the sky over certain notches in the base.  SO COOL!

 My coffin better look as cool as this.

 This was called Caida del Los Angeles Malos or Fall of the Evil Angels.  It has all of these smaller pieces carved so intricately.  Below is another smaller and zoomed photo of it.  It was my favorite piece in the museum.

This pot with bones was some form of burial that I thought was neat.

Afterward we walked around and got tapas at this restaurant.  We got several types of sausage, fried fish, muscles, Croquetas (a fried cheesy, bacon, ham thing), and Chopitos Romanas.  Those are MINI fried squid.  So freaking cool.

 

 

 At dinner I also had my first glass of wine.  It was a very smooth red.  I had the glass, but then decided I really didn't want more.  It was ok, but I would honestly just prefer diet coke!  Clearly I'm not cultured enough to be European!

After that I got ice cream with some girls and then we headed home.  It was a long and wonderful day and I will ABSOLUTELY be going back many times this semester.