Immediately after getting off the airplane, I met my mom and Natalie for paella. Mmmmm... Welcome to Spain! After dinner, we went back to the apartment, watched some Glee, and got some rest. We had a lot of touring to do!
Wednesday began with the changing of the guards at the Palace. We walked through the gardens to the Egyptian Temple, which was given to Spain by the Egyptian government.
We took the funicular across a HUGE park (7 square miles!) that used to be the palace hunting grounds. After a VERY long walk with very few signs, we finally made it to the zoo! Our feet were a little worn out, but we discovered something that Americans have yet to figure out: you can rent golf carts to drive around the Madrid Zoo! One look from Natalie, and we were off on our very own safari.
After the zoo, we went to Mercado San Miguel to get food for dinner. The market is AMAZING! All sorts of tapas, counters where you can sit to have a snack while you're shopping, bright colors, fresh fruit... sensory overload! We got some Jamon Iberico and a few types of Spanish cheeses, bread, tomatoes, and delicious desserts. Who needs to go out to a restaurant when you have this market nearby?
On Thursday, we went to the Museo del Prado and the Reina Sofia. We saw an awesome mime/statue guy on our way, definitely one of the best I've ever seen! At the Prado, we went on a scavenger hunt trying to find the most visited paintings in the museum. Our map seemed to be wrong, so we spent way more time wandering than we had expected, but saw some fantastic art! The Reina Sofia was even better. After a lunch break, we made our way into the building (which is absolutely gorgeous) and had our fill of surrealism! We saw Guernica, which is way bigger than I thought (I'm used to the Mona Lisa being deceivingly small...), and tons of Dalì. They have a great garden in the courtyard, so we took advantage of the beautiful weather before grabbing an ice cream and heading back to the apartment to get ready for dinner.
To celebrate our last night, we had AMAZING tapas for dinner! Three kinds of Spanish meats, tomato and avocado salad, shrimp bruschetta, delicious anchovies, potato omelet, asparagus and egg bruschetta... I'm still amazed that we ate it all!
The next morning, we went looking for shoes for Natalie (WHAT? Natalie wants to go shoe shopping?!), then made our way to the airport. My mom and Natalie left a few hours before I did, so I wandered around the airport, got some lunch, and found a few English magazines. Back in Paris, I re-packed and went to bed early, because on Saturday morning I was off to Charles De Gaulle to pick up JP!
I wish I could have spent more time in Spain, and I can't wait to have the chance to go back. I want to spend more time in Madrid and visit Barcelona, there's so much to see and so many cool things to do! Thankfully the volcano didn't cancel my trip!
Gros Bisous,
Jaimie
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