Old Friends

What a day!  I am always pleased to come home and put my feet up after walking about the city streets for nearly 18 km on a cold and windy day.

On a little coffee table in our apartment there sits a guest book.  Here, previous renters talk about the things they did while in Madrid.  A few of the entries made mention of a free walking tour of old town Madrid that enlightened tour-goers on the history and current culture of the city.  So today we decided to attend the tour and take in some of the local sites.

Wow!  What a great way to learn about a city's deep dark secrets and splendid treasures.  We heard about the statue in Plaza Mayor and how for years a foul smell seemed to ooze from the horse's mouth.  This lead people to believe it was cursed.  During an uprising in the plaza hundreds of years after the statue was erected, the horse and rider (King Philip the 3rd) were knocked to the ground, exposing what lie inside the beast's belly: thousands of rotten bird carcasses.  Apparently, for a few hundred years, birds had been entering into the statue through the horse's open mouth and were trapped inside!  Awesome.

We passed the Convent of the cloistered nuns who bake biscuits and sell them to the public and we stood outside the world's oldest restaurant (for real), founded in 1725.  We walked past the Royal palace and the Cathedral that was commissioned in 1879 but not completed until 1993.  We saw the Star of David, aligned with the Moorish city walls, aligned with the Catholic Cathedral as a representation of the religious tolerance of the Andalucian region of Spain.  Overall, we learned a ton of interesting and entertaining facts.  It was well worth the $15 tip we left for our guide at the end of the tour.

The day continued with a reunion of sorts.  Our friend Aldo moved to Spain just over a year ago and we were thrilled to be able to meet with him for a late lunch and a second walking tour.  He and his lovely lady-friend Laura led us through a maze of streets pointing out the Prado museum (we'll see this tomorrow), the best jazz clubs in town and of course where to find the best deals on food and drinks. They also toured us through the beautiful and incredibly grandiose Parque del Retiro.  People rowed boats around the large pond, paddling along side the ducks and geese (a lot of Mallards here!) while dried leaves slowly danced across the sun-kissed, tree-lined pathways. 

Just a bank in the background, but a damn cool one.

Parque del Retiro

Aldo and Laura then walked us home through the bustling streets, pointing out the wall of plants and other interesting sites.  I don't think we could have asked for a better way to end our day.

The wall of plants

Aldo!!!!