Lorie Flanagan - May 7, 2019


Day two here in Madrid- fue increible (incredible)! The day started off with a filling breakfast here at the Hotel Zurbano. I heard a lot of very positive compliments from Ty, Jacob and Leigha about how different and more true-to-taste, and less diluted, the orange juice is here. This is true for all the food we have had so far in Spain- not quite as processed as home. 

Glorious orange juice!

After our late departure from the hotel this morning after nine this morning, we rushed off to embark on our walking tour of Madrid. Our tour guide, Peter, came back to tell us a brief synopsis of Spanish history. We began at El Palacio Real de Madrid, which was built in the 18th century with French-style architecture after the original had burnt down. We then toured through the rest of Madrid stopping at the “highlights” such as el codo, the history of an assassination attempt on the king and queen at the Plaza Mayor (the bouquet of flowers hanging off of a balcony is where the bomb was dropped from; intended to land on the recently married king and queen) and Puerta del Sol leading to El Prado museum. 

Walking tour.

Walking tour scenes.

El Prado is a collection of Spanish works that were mainly from the royal house. The most notorious court painters were Diego Velazquez and Francisco Goya whose works are displayed all throughout the museum. Within the museum there was also quite a bit of history imparted on us about Spain, purely through the art, which was exhibited by not only what was painted, but also how. While pictures are not allowed, I would highly recommend searching the paintings, Las Meninas by Velazquez and El Tres de Mayo en Madrid by Goya. These are historically relevant pieces that also showcase their sheer talent of painting. 

Lunch!

After El Prado, we had the day to ourselves to explore Madrid, or as our ISA tour guides suggested, “getting lost within the city.” I ventured around Madrid with Leigha and Ty to grab a filling Spanish lunch with primero (first), segundo (second) y el postre (dessert), which is the typically serving style. We were told by our tour guide Peter that Spanish food was meat heavy, and our lunch only solidified that statement. After lunch, we did mildly get lost in the narrow streetways, but the weather was simply too divine, not to want to walk around in. We then spent our final hours in the older portion of the city shopping with our newly converted euros- which was quite a painful conversion here- and walking back to our hotel. We had a relaxing evening and stayed relatively close to the hotel to enjoy dinner at the proper Spanish time, or 10 pm! Vale?

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