Jardines de Sabatini, Madrid

The grounds of Madrid's royal palace are a well-manicured garden dotted with sculptures and fountains, and in the evenings, the area is packed with people out strolling.  I wandered through at sunset one night and made friends with an elderly Spaniard whose English was even worse than my Spanish, but he showed me around very enthusiastically and tried to tell me all about the kings and queens immortalized there.  I don't think I understood more than a quarter of what he was trying to tell me (a *lot* about Ferdinand and Isabella) but we both had fun anyway.

Public Art in Madrid

More flavors of Madrid

Interior of the Catedral Almudena, Madrid

Given the very traditional, neoclassical building facade, this interior was not what I was expecting.  :)

Statues on the roof of the Catedral Almudena, Madrid

I've been searching the internet trying to find the name of the sculptor(s) who did the statues on the roof of the cathedral, and I can't find it.  It's too bad--I really liked the sense of these figures watching over the people hurrying around hundreds of feet below them.

Catedral de Santa Maria la Real de la Almudena, Madrid

Madrid's cathedral, Santa Maria la Real de la Almudena, sits directly across a square (la Plaza de la Armeria) from the royal palace (Palacio Real).  Construction of the cathedral began in 1879, but it stopped during the civil war and didn't resume until 1950.  The building was completed and consecrated in 1993.  Its neoclassical exterior isn't exceptional compared to the other buildings in the city, and its interior was a little goofy (some strains of gothic revival, some ultra-modern touches that seemed very out of place for a cathedral).  BUT it's possible to get out onto the roof of the cathedral, and the views are terrific.

Here are a couple of pictures of the building's facade and three from the roof, one of which overlooks the Palacio Real.  I'll post some pictures of the interior later, as well as some photos of the sculptures adorning the roof, which I did like very much.

Madrid at Night

Summer nights in Madrid are such a pleasure.  The heat of the day finally eases a bit, and everyone heads out for a walk to enjoy the relative cool and watch people.  Sometime around 10 pm, the dinner hour begins in earnest, but if you don't get there right away, don't worry.  The restaurants stay open late.  Very late.  At last, I found a city that matched my own weird circadian rhythm!  :)

From the top: 
Madrid's city hall building, El Palacio de Comunicaciones
The Cervantes Institute
Fountain on the Paseo de Recoletos (thank you Google Street View for the help identifying this!)  ;)
Metropolis building
Museo Reina Sofia--my favorite art museum in all of Europe

Architecture in Madrid

Madrid is a beautifully preserved city, which is a heroic achievement given the damage done during the civil war.  I spent hours just wandering the streets admiring the buildings.  Here are pictures of some of the things I liked.  More coming later tonight.

Mercado de San Miguel, Madrid

My favorite place in one of my favorite cities in Europe: Madrid's Mercado de San Miguel.  It's the perfect place to find a great glass of Spanish red, the best olives you've ever eaten, and new friends.  :)  And yes, everything tasted as good as it looked!

New Photo Project--Madrid May 2011

I came home from my trip about three months ago with about 10,000 photographs to sift through and edit.  It was a ridiculously time-consuming process, but I'm finally on top of the project (yay!!!!), and I'm going to start posting some pictures each day so that there's a better record of what I saw and did than the cell phone pics that I was posting while I was on the road.

I still think about this trip every day, and it's still affecting me every day.  The time I spent traveling has woven itself into the core of who I am and how I think about things.  It's permanently changed how I view the world and my own and my country's place in it.  Buying that one-way plane ticket overseas was one of the best decisions of my entire life, and even though the transition back to the real world has been taking some time, it's been a small price to pay for such an incredible experience.  I wouldn't trade it for anything.

One of my favorite parts of this trip was the sense that I was able to bring so many friends and family members along for a vicarious ride.  Hopefully getting a peek at some better photographs of the trip will provide additional entertainment.  :)

My current plan is to go through the trip more or less chronologically and post a few pictures each day.  The first handful of shots that I'll post below were from my first day in Madrid, back in May.  I was staying a couple of blocks off the Puerto del Sol, where thousands of students had constructed a tent city and were protesting austerity measures and bringing attention to the tremendous unemployment rate among young people.  I remember arriving completely exhausted, overheated and overpacked, very worried that I was making the biggest financial mistake of my life, and downright scared of the prospect of traveling to Morocco alone.  Really, as I think back on it now, it wasn't an optimal state of mind for one's first day of vacation!  ;)  As soon as my room became available, I collapsed in my bed, beside a big open window letting in a welcome breeze.  I woke up a few hours later, totally refreshed, hearing strains of Schubert's Ave Maria bouncing off the cobblestones five stories below as a busker played his cello for tourists.  I'll never forget the sense of peace that settled over me as I listened to the notes dance below me.  Somehow I knew everything would be okay.  I was right.