The Royal Palace at last!

By Friday we both had recovered enough to think about heading to old town again.  Today seemed to be about seeing how many things I could cross off my tourist list. To minimize walking we took a taxi to the Palace.  We purchased tickets to the Palace before we left my apartment so we did not have to stand in line to get them.  Instead could just walk in a separate door.  You cannot take photos in most of the rooms of the castle.  It is still in use by the current royal family for official events.  It is indeed one of the most grand ornate castles I have seen.  The photos below were all taken with my iPhone.  

The castle from outside the gates.

In the courtyard inside the gates.

The grand staircase and large entrance way.  

This is an open public area and the last place you could take photos.

La Familia de Juan Carlos I

Antonio Lopez took twenty years to paint it.  Since than the king has abdicated and the son is now the king.

There are many tapestries throughout the rooms we saw.

This carpet was all rolled up and off limits - I presume it is unrolled on state occasions.

There are 3,418 rooms in this castle of which we only saw a small portion.  But they are very ornate and beautifully decorated.  It has a room decorated in porcelain.  There was a band room. a couple of music rooms, the kings bedroom, the throne room and the room where the king abdicated.  Also a private church in case the king is not in the mood to mingle with the public.

Since we were right there we went next door to La Almudena Cathedral.  The drawings for this church were started in 1879.  It was finally declared finished in 1993.

You can see all the very modern influences in this church as you scroll through these photos.  I enjoyed seeing something a little different.  And was so happy that during this visit there was not any service going on so I could get some photos.

We were pretty hungry by now and so headed off a few blocks to the San Miguel Market.

We again passed a rendering of the Bear and the strawberry Tree - this time on the sidewalk.

The San Miguel market is behind the seating for a couple of restaurants in this plaza.

There are two electric tuk tuk's in front - waiting for customers.

When we went inside it was very crowded.  I tried to take some photos - but too many people - and this was during a week day!  It was not very big - and the aisles were filled with people trying to buy food.  We ended up getting some empanadas that were quite tasty.  I also found some chicken fingers that I took home for later.  Then we headed for dessert.

This is the famous ice cream place called Rocambolesc.  The ice cream is soft serve.  You could only get chocolate or yogurt or a twist of it  OR  pasticcio or pomegranate or a twist of these two.   I tried the chocolate - it does not taste like gelato or ice cream to me - but more like a creamy chocolate mousse.  It was not as cold as I expected it to be.  

That was four things ticked off my list - so time to call a taxi and head home.