| Nov 15, 2005 - Madrid
| We arrived in Madrid yesterday on the super fast AVE train, 2.5 hours from Sevilla to Madrid and smooth as butter. It's a very impressive train. We spent the afternoon finding a hotel and figuring out the subway system. Walter needed to check on his flight, and we thought it would be a good idea to figure out how to get to the airport when we had time, rather than at 7 am when he would be in a hurry to get there. I am continually amazed at the public transportation system throughout Europe. And we can't even get the monorail up and going! it's riduculous...
Right now I am sitting in the train station waiting for my train to Lisbon. Today has been a long, gray and rainy, Seattle-kind-of-day here in Madrid. I have spent today alone, kind of tired and burned out. Walter left this morning and I was definetly sad to see him go. It was great hanging out with him these last 2 weeks, and we had a blast. I really didn't feel like doing much of anything today, but I had to check out of the hotel by 11:00 and do something until my train leaves, so I went to both the Prado museum and the Royal Palace. Even burned out as I am right now with sightseeing, at least it gave me something to do in the rain. I really enjoyed the Prado, the place is HUGE and full of some amazing works of art by artists like Velasquez and Goya. At one point, I just sat on a bench and stared at a painting by Bosch portraying hell called 'The Garden of Earthly Delights', it's incredibly detailed, and kind of creepy, but also amazing. You should do a search for it on google and check it out.
The Royal Palace wasn't very exciting. Some extremely ornate rooms filled with a lot of marble, art and old crap. It wasn't really worth the 7 euro entry fee, but at least it kept me out of the rain for a while. After that, I ended up siting in one of the many Starbucks that are scattered throughout the city, sipping a latte and reading. Yes, even Spain with all it's cafes serving great café con leche, has been infiltrated by the Seattle coffee mogul.
I will try and burn my photos from my camera card to a CD once I am in Lisbon, then I can add some more photos to the website. Until then, you will just have to be patient. Thanks for all the email from all of you. It's so nice to get news from home when travelling.
cio for now,
Rich |
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