Madrid: Oct 29th-31st

Three days in Madrid was enough time to get a good feel for this big city. The roads are small and crowded, concrete dominates well beyond any sort of green, and the train station has a jungle in it.

Our first full day in Madrid included a self-guided walking tour that took us by the Royal Palace, an impressive Spanish church, and the bustling Grand Via street. Lunch at a local restaurant gave us our first taste of Spanish paella and more of the tortilla Espanola (potato omelet). Our evening was spent at the hostel meeting other travelers, playing pool, happy hour sangria and relaxing.

The following day was spent seeing more of the city. The downhill walk to the train station found stores selling all types of goods (mostly Asian imports such as cheap jewelry, toys, clothing and watches) and food – even an American style hotdog place (we decided to wait for our next stop in Chicago). We made it to the train station to make plans for our next stop and surprisingly found an indoor jungle dominating the interior of the train station. The humidity was there and so were the turtles, tons of turtles in the pond surrounding the jungle, inside of a train station. It was a pretty wild sight to see.

Our next stop was at the Prado museum were we spent a few hours admiring the art from Godi, Rembrant, and Valesquez. Our entrance to the museum was made special by the classical music of a Spanish quartet.

Next stop, Sevilla!