This was our only full day in Madrid. We quickly fell into a European schedule, waking up around 9am and taking until about 11am to get ourselves and Jamie up and out of the room. First stop, the Palacio Real (the Royal Palace). We were able to walk from the hotel, it was great that our guessing about the “prime” location of the hotel was correct so we could walk to almost everything. The Palacio is no longer the official residence of the royal family but serves as the site for most major occasions of state (signing of the agreement to join the EU etc.), The palace was build in the 1700s and has an Italian/baroque feel. Lots of murals, tapestries, beautiful furniture and clocks galore. We mis-timed our arrival and ended up waiting in a line for about 40 minutes to enter, then another 30 minutes until the English language tour started. The line was single threaded through one cashier, finally when we were at the front of the line they had another employee start selling tickets, after that the line cleared out fairly quickly. Obviously they’re not too worried about making money?!? Jamie asked all the “obvious” questions – like when in the King’s bedroom/chambers, Jamie asks “where is the bed?!?). Apparently at one point, the King died in the bed in the official bedroom so his son the new King made that original bedroom into a conversation room and moved the royal bedroom somewhere else. And then several rooms in the Queen’s chambers were joined together to create a dining/party room with a large table (with leaves) that seats up to 150! So, the palace visit took a while longer than we expected so we had to decide between the Parque de Retiro (a Madrid version of Central Park) or the Parque de Attraciones (an amusement park). We let Jamie decide so we took the metro to the Parque de Attraciones. It was actually really fun. With a coupon, adults were 21 Euros to enter. The park was like a 6-Flags but maybe a little nicer. But the safety was a little more lax than in the US – fewer restrictions on height, fewer belts, and a VERY fast set of bumper cars. Jim and Jamie drove (I rode with her) and Jim crashed into us and I swear, I got whiplash?!? After that I had Jamie drive in circles to avoid cars – she did well, she’s had plenty of practice, driving golf carts with us on Sundays.
So, we spent about 5 hours in the park, headed back on the metro to clean up for our 9pm dinner reservation. Our airport friends recommended Casa Lucio (on Calle de la Cava Baja). Boy what a difference from the meal the evening before!! Outstanding garlic prawns appetizer, a local specialty (fried eggs over French fries) and a filet steak that rivals Ruth’s Chris. The steak was served on a sizzling platter, so seared on the bottom. To cook to taste, you would lay down the slices of steak onto the platter and they would cook more because the platter was so hot. We were asking so many questions and were complimentary to the waiter that he took us into the kitchen for a quick tour!!! Small kitchen, VERY old wood burning/charcoal stove/oven. Fascinating. We loved this restaurant and recommend it highly. We headed back to the hotel, shopped a tiny bit on the way at the tourist shops still open at 11:30pm!!! We almost bought a replica sword with a gold hilt and cross with other engravings – 172 Euros but 60 Euros to ship home. We just couldn’t figure out where we would hang/display it when we got it back to our house!?! So, another late night but a great day overall.
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