Retiro Park and Basilica San Francisco 02/19-02/24

On Friday, Teri and Bobby came to Madrid. Teri is a friend of Robyn's who also works for the bank. Her husband, Bobby, joined her on this trip. They came to our apartment hile they waited to see their apartment. I helped them get situated and the next night we had them and several of the other bank employees over for tapas. We planned just to serve tapas and then everyone could go out to dinner but everyone stayed until 11:oo so tapas was dinner. It was fun to meet more people Robyn works with and everyone had a good time.
Sunday Robyn and I walked down the street to Retiro Park. It was Robyn's first time in the park and it was a beautiful day. We made our way to the lake and stopped for a drink after listening to a couple of groups of men playing songs and they were really good. We then decided to rent a row boat and go out onto the lake. We had a great relaxing and romantic time floating around soaking in the sun and the scenery. After we left the park we walked around just enjoying the day. We came across a church and decided to go to mass. It was a nice church and it was fun hearing mass in spanish. We could follow along pretty well. Robyn got her hand slapped by an old lady sitting behind us. We had put the kneeler up to give us more leg room and aparently that is not allowed. The woman tapped Robyn on the shoulder and pointed at the kneeler. Robyn thought she was pointing at something else and the lady slapped her hand and pointed again at the kneeler. I don't know what the deal is with leaving it down but we didn't want to start an incident so we put it back down.
The next day was Monday and Robyn was off for President's Day. We decided to go to the Royal Palace since Robyn had not seen it yet. However, it was closed for official business. We went next door to the Almudena Cathedral but it too was closed for renovations. We started walking in the direction of Sol and decided to eat lunch at the Indian restaurant that we love. After lunch we decided to head up to Moncloa to see the Museo of the Americas. You guessed it, closed on Mondays. At this point we gave up and headed back home. Robyn went shopping and I picked up some food and headed home. We had a good day even though we did not get to see the things we wanted to see.

On Wednesday Vickie, Bobby and I decided to go see the Basilica of San Francisco. It was Vickie's last day in Madrid so we tried to make the most of it. The Basilica was very nice and it was Bobby's first look inside a church here. Although impressive, he has a lot more amazing things to see. We left there and headed up the street to a temple. It was a lot smaller but also nice. My battery died in my camera so I only got a couple of photos. We then took Bobby around to see some sights in Sol and after a good and long lunch, we said goodbye to Vickie and headed home. Hopefully she will be able to come back. She is a lot of fun to sightsee with and we will miss her.

Adios amigos,
Steve

Madrid, Spanish Naval Museum

02/17/2011


In the fall, Robyn came back to Madrid and I stayed home. She had some great trips with our spanish friends including a trip to Rioja, which is in the wine country, and had the best time. Unfortunately, we have not found her USB cable to get the pictures off the camera so those stories will ahve to wait until we get back home and she has time to write about them. Robyn has been extremely busy at work and working long hours. This project they are working on is very large and stressful on everyone there.


We finally made it back to Madrid on February 12th. We had a good flight over and now that we know our way around and a little more spanish, we had no trouble getting to our new apartment from the airport. We are in a different part of town that is very nice and not as noisy as our previous apartment in Sol. Unfortunately, the commute for Robyn to work is an hour and requires a lot of walking but the exercise will be good for her. We both suffered jet lag worse than any other trip but we will rest up this weekend. After getting settled in our apartment, we went out to dinner with some friends. Reuben, who is from Spain, ordered the tapas for the 7 of us as well as a hard apple cider which is well known in a special region of Spain. The waiter held the bottle high in the air and poured the cider into a glass he held below (over a barrell to catch the cider that missed the glass) so as to add air to the cider to enhance the flavor. The food was delicious and included chorizo with potatoes, octopus (yummy), squid in squid ink empanada (sounds bad but tastes good), and big white bean and clam soup which was so good that Robyn and I have decided to go eat this once a week. Robyn was off to work on Monday and I was off to the grocery store to get supplies. I soon realized we needed an ice tray(bandeja de hielo) so I went to the closest stores but they did not have them. I knew a store in Callao that had them because that is where I bought them last time so I decided to walk the nearly 3 miles there on this cold, cloudy day. I found the ice tray in the large department store right where I remembered them being from last time. I rode the metro back home because I was tired. I have to build up my stamina for walking long distances again. I brought a pedometer with me this time so I can keep up with how far I walk each day. I didn't start wearing it until Monday but I have walked over 12 miles in the first 3 days. It has been rainy and cold every day until today. Tuesday I walked through Retiro Park to get to the Thyssen Museum but on the way I came across the Spanish Naval Museum so I stopped in there. It is a large museum with lots of models of old ships from the Spanish Armada all the way to modern ships. There were also lots of old canons, weaponry, and artifacts from old ships. It was very interesting and I was there for 1-1/2 hours. The picture of all the toy soldiers shows the changes in the uniforms worn by the soldiers from past to present. The picture of the long tube-like thing standing on end is actually a telescope that was mounted on the ship. I left that museum and walked to the Thyssen museum which holds lots of paintings from masters such as Monet, Chagal, Salvidor Dali, Picasso, and many others. No photos were allowed in the museum but the paintings were great. The exhibit is very large and after 2 hours my legs were getting sore so I left and walked back home.

Today is a beautiful day and I am doing laundry and writing this blog but I need to go to the store to get food for dinner tonight and then go out and walk around for a while to see what I can find.
Adios mi amigos