Friday March 7 - Madrid

Friday
We went to the Palacio Real (royal palace) and took the self-guided tour, in which you see the beautiful old palace built for King Felipe V between 1738 and 1755 following the original palace’s total destruction in a fire on Christmas Day in 1734. The original building was considered a Habsburg Alcázar, if two such contradictory things can even be combined in one building. The new building is Bourbon, and served as the official royal residence until 1931. Not a bad looking place from the outside:
There’s an entire wing of the building that houses royal armor, which is considered one of the most important collections in the country. There are original Francisco de Goya portraits of King Carlos IV and his wife, María Luisa de Parma, hung in a dark hallway without any indication that they’re originals. The Throne room has all its original decorations, from velvet wall hangings to its ceiling painted by Tiepolo, all dating to the reign of Carlos III. Unfortunately, you can’t take photos inside, but here’s the official palace website, where there are some good photos: http://www.patrimonionacional.es/en/preal/preal.htm. The palace also has its own royal chapel, which is humongous:
Next we headed to Plaza Mayor (Main Plaza), which was built beginning in 1619. It has been used for everything from mounted bullfights to autos da fé to proclamations by Felipe V, Fernando VI and Carlos IV. The plaza is HUGE and has some giant buildings painted with cool murals, which you can see if you look close enough:
Next it was on to the Parque del Buen Retiro – the most famous park in Madrid. It’s enormous, occupying over 300 acres, and has tons of trees and flower beds. It also has this awesome pond, where you can rent a boat and paddle around:
Afterwards everyone was pretty long day with tons of walking, but I really wanted to see the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, which has art ranging from Italian primitives from the 13^th century through Impressionist paintings by Monet and Manet. To get there, I had to walk all the way back through the park, but it was ok, because the views of the park included the following:
And that was Friday. Not bad.