Real Madrid

The second part of my fall break was spent in the city of Madrid. Madrid is a very different city than both Barcelona and Rome. For starters it is a much smaller city. It is also a much more industrial city. However, it is still beautiful and full of historical sites and amazing art; enough to keep anyone busy for several days.
Our first day we flew in around lunchtime, so after exploring the area around our hostel we mainly just napped until dinner. For dinner we had paella again, because it's just that delicious. After dinner we went around to check out all of the different bars around our area. It was pretty fun, but most of the nightlife was closed because it was a Monday and most places are only open Thursday to Sunday.
The next day we did a tour of the city on a Hop-On-Hop-Off Bus. This is a bus that stops at major landmarks of the city and you can get off and explore then hop back on the next bus (they come about every 15 minutes). This was a lot of fun because we got to see all of the city and explore it too! My favorite stop was the Royal palace and gardens.

Royal Palace & Gardens

Some of the other sites were the government buildings and the cathedral. There is also the two art museums: El Prato and the Reina Sofia. We visited these the next day along with the botanical gardens. However, this blog would not be written by me if I didn't tell you all about our dinner adventures! For dinner we went to a restaurant that served traditional Spanish stews and had a Michelin Star! I was quite impressed. The stew was absolutely delicious. They serve it in a ceramic jar and the waiter then pours out the liquid onto a bed of noodles. Then you scoop out the meat and potatoes and vegetables and add them to the broth and noodles.

The waiter told me I had to hold my napkin like that.

Francisco de Goya 3rd of May

Now I can tell you about the art museums! The first museum that we visited was El Prat. El Prat is the largest art museum in Madrid. It houses the masterpieces from artists like: Carracci, Caravaggio, El Greco, Velasquez, and Goya. My favorite was the paintings by Goya. The museum had his black paintings as well as the famous 3rd of May. I didn't realize how large some of the paintings are! The Reina Sofia museum was dedicated to more modern art. There I saw many paintings by Salvador Dali and Picasso. The main attraction of the museum is Picasso's massive Guernica. 

Temple of Debod

That night we went to watch the sunset at the Temple of Debod. The Temple was brought to Madrid from Egypt and is placed on a hill that overlooks the rest of the city. On our last night we also went to see a flamenco show! It was lots of fun! There was a live band and it was really interesting to see the different styles of flamenco and all of the different moves. It's a lot more intense than I thought it was going to be! There is a lot of foot stomping! And that's about all we did in Madrid. We were just super touristy.
The next installment of my Fall Break blogs will be all about Amsterdam!

Pablo Picasso Guernica