The Travels of Eric and Lorna

This is a picture of Plaza Mayor in Madrid. This is a closeup of the statue of Phillip III that is in Plaza Mayor. Madrid street view. This is a strange looking bird we saw in the botanical gardens in Madrid. I don't know what kind of bird it is. If anyone does, please post it in the comments. Another Madrid street view.

Today we went to the Prado Museum . They don't allow pictures inside, but here is a picture of the exterior. As you have probably heard, it's an amazing museum. The collection is heavily weighed towards painting, particularly the Spanish masters such as Goya, Velazques, etc. If you have taken an art history class, you have studied many of these paintings. It was pretty incredible. We got there before it opened, and the line wasn't too bad. It wasn't that crowded, especially at first. If you want sculpture or modern art, go elsewhere, but if you are interested in classical painting, you can't do much better. Afterwards we had an excellent lunch at an Itallian restaurant as we walked north. We were walking to the National Archaeological Museum . The museum is mostly closed for a major renovation, b ut a small collection is available for viewing. Looking at thier plans for expansion, this is going to be a amazing museum when it is finished. Here are a few cho...

Well, after not sleeping at all on the plane, we really slept in this morning. I didn't get up until almost noon. Not like me at all (at least on vacation!) After getting going, we decided to just kind of wander around some. We first walked down Gran Via, one of the main streets in the city. The architecture is amazing. We eventually ended up near the Prado, which is closed on Mondays. We plan on seeing it tomorrow. We went through the botanical gardens, which were very nice. It was a very pleasant reprieve from the traffic and heat. Did I mention it's hot here? Not brutally hot, but it is certainly hot. Bearable in the shade, but in the sun it's rough. We then walked over the Parque del Buen Retiro , or Park of the Pleasant Retreat. And so it was. It is a huge park, and we had a nice time strolling around it. One of the major features is a nice lake where you can rent rowboats. There is also a huge monument to King Alfonso XII. We then took the metro back to or...

Well, we made it to Madrid. Sorry for the small pics below, but they load a lot faster on the internet connection at the hotel. Our hotel is near Plaza de Espana , the main monument in which is to the famous Spanish write Cervantes. That's him on the chair there. It's a nice big square. The best part is the statue of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Madrid is really nice. It's loud and hectic, but it is the largest city in Spain, so that's to be expected. So far we are really enjoying ourselves. The flight over wasn't too bad, particularly since we both had aisle seats with no one in the center seats next to us. Sweet! Above is a picture of the Royal Palace . This really doesn't capture the size of it. It is just enormous. We had a great lunch at a place called Paradisio de Jamon, or Ham Paradise. It was good, and fairly affordable. We then strolled down to Puerta del Sol. The most famous monument there is the statue of the bear and the madrono tree, whi...