Days 3 and 4 Spain and Morocco 2015

We continue to explore Madrid, but for the last two days, we have done so exclusively by foot.  Here is a picture taken from our balcony at midnight. There is a party every evening!  

We’ve been enjoying all the historic buildings, fountains, and parks that the Spanish Kings have built over centuries.  One good thing about royalty seems to be the emphasis on beauty and art.  

I don’t think you’d call Shari and I great art lovers, but we loved the Prado Musuem with such artists on display as Goya, Rubens, Raphael, Rembrandt, Da Vinci and a host of other artists we’ve never heard of.  These artists are comparable to Michelangelo.  We thought we could handle a couple of hours of art, but we liked it so much, we went back the second time in the same day.  So incredible!  No photographs allowed, but they have individual audio guides that help you appreciate great art.

The highlight of the trip so far was the Walks of Spain Wine and Tapas tour last night.  Our private Spanish language interpreter, Jan Studer, found the tour on Trip Advisor, and it is given great reviews.  

There were only 10 people on the tour including our tour leader, Andres Jarabo.  He walked us through the oldest and most interesting part of Madrid.  We stopped and sampled more than wines and tapas (a Spanish appetizer).  We had some very unique foods including butterfish and roasted Iberian pork on heated ceramic slabs that you’d first think was beef tenderloin.  Those of us on the tour loved the food so much, my camera could not get a picture fast enough (because it got eaten immediately).  Wine is hard to capture in a picture, but it was even more spectacular than the food!

One of the places where we stopped is the oldest restaurant in the world (founded 1725) according to the Guinness World Record.  If you know anything about the restaurant business, being around for 300 years is a very long time.

We’ve had a memorable 4 days in Madrid.  Tomorrow we go to the old town of Segovia, north of Madrid, traveling via Spain’s train and bus services.  We hope we will be smiling when we get to our destination.