Today we headed back to the Royal Palace, this time to go inside on a tour booked through the palace. San Miguel Market was on the way and we decided to try visiting again, arriving when the market opened. This was so much better than the day before - we could actually walk around, grab a bite, and sit to eat. The only tough thing was deciding what to get - everything looked good. We continued on to the palace and had some time before our tour to walk around outside. The palace exterior is in the French-Italian Baroque style built with local stone. After the previous castle burnt down, little wood was used in building its successor.

When Madrid was established as Spain’s capital in 1561, Philip II converted a medieval fortress on this site to a palace for the kings of Spain. King Philip V was in residence when the Alcázar burned in a fire on Christmas Eve 1734 and legend has it that members of his court were responsible for the fire so the palace could be rebuilt in the French style. Philip V was born at Versailles and rebuilt the palace to recreate his French surroundings (this makes sense when visiting the Royal Palace as it is quite extra, just like Versailles). The first stone was laid in 1738 and construction was completed in 1751, but that was just the beginning for the palace. Philip V’s son, Charles III (the statue we saw yesterday in Puerta del Sol) left his own mark on the palace to reflect his Italian upbringing in all its splendor. He hired the most famous painters of the time, such as the Venetian Giambattista Tiepolo, and The Throne Room and the Gasparini Chamber done in the rococo style are the most representative of Charles III’s taste.

Each successive king expanded and added his own touch to the palace, bringing it to its current size of 3,418 rooms - the largest in Europe - full of sparkling chandeliers, rich tapestries, priceless porcelain, Tiepolo frescoes, the world’s only Stradivarius quartet, intricate clocks, countless lavish decorative details and valuables, and enough gold leaf to rival Versailles. Today the royal palace is used ceremoniously and the royal family lives in a mansion several miles away.

We met our tour guide and group and entered through the palace lobby and up the grand staircase. The first room we saw was the Hall of Halberdiers (Royal Guard) with a Tiepolo fresco and a large portrait of the royal family that took 20 years to complete. We moved on to the Hall of Columns which is used for ceremonies, such as when Spain formally joined the EU and when Juan Carlos signed his abdication. This was the last room where we were able to take pictures. I wish we could’ve had pictures of some of the other rooms - there were so many gorgeous details. On the other hand, I guess we were really in the moment listening to the guide and taking it all in (and there was a lot to take in!). Overall, we really enjoyed the Royal Palace - it was opulent and beautiful.

Although we visited Almudena Cathedral the prior day, we didn’t have a chance to go up to the rooftop, so we took the opportunity after our Royal Palace tour to visit the small museum and dome. On our way up, we stopped at the balcony to see the views of the Royal Palace then continued on to the museum. The museum preserves religious relics and artifacts relating to the history of the diocese of Madrid and its patron saints, the Virgin of Almudena (Santa María la Real de la Almudena) and San Isidro Labrador. There was a lot of bling on some of the items, but pictures mostly weren’t allowed (my picture of the portrait decorated with hair just doesn’t compare to some of the fancy items they had). The museum is tiny and was quick to pass through on our way to the dome. The dome is at 70 meters (230 feet) and is adorned with statues of the 12 apostles. It was chilly on the rooftop and we even had a few flurries of snow, so we didn’t linger long - although we did like the views.

We had tickets to visit the Reina Sofía museum and started to make our way in that direction. We stopped to eat lunch at La Sanabresa, a highly rated restaurant serving traditional Spanish fare and hearty dishes. While we waited outside for a table, we were kept company by a cute dog keeping an eye on the comings and goings from across the street. After a tasty lunch (Norah would reminisce about the delicious almond cake the rest of the week), we visited Reina Sofía, a modern art museum with a focus on 20th century Spanish artists such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, and Joan Miró. The premiere artwork at Reina Sofía is Picasso’s Guernica, painted in response to a horrific event during Spain’s Civil War. Guernica is a Basque town in Spain that during the civil war was an important Republican center. On April 26,1937 it was the target of the world’s first saturation-bombing raid on citizens. The town was leveled and the destruction was terrible. Hitler was responsible for the bombing; he was given permission by his fascist confederate Franco to test out Germany’s new air force.

Picasso was in Paris when he heard of Guernica and he immediately began plans for his painting. The large mural would raise the alarm of the new fascist movement and unfortunately a precursor of what was to come in World War II. Eventually Picasso’s painting came to represent not just Guernica, but the 500,000 victims of Spain’s civil war, the 55 million lives claimed by World War II, and war in general. Guernica was touring internationally as a fundraiser for the Republican cause when Franco won and took power. Picasso named New York’s Museum of Modern Art the depository for the work and it wasn’t until Franco’s death in 1975 that it could return to Spain, which it did in 1981 and is now one of the premier artworks in Spain.

Guernica is a large mural with a lot to contemplate, so we headed there first to see the famous painting in person. Afterwards we wandered through the other galleries displaying Modern, Cubist, and Surrealist works. It was fun to see a few pieces I recognized in person and we probably spent the most time looking at Salvador Dali’s art. I’m glad we visited the Reina Sofía, although we ranked it third of the art museums we visited, behind the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and the Prado.

We had enough time for a break at our hotel and then it was time to meet our Adventurous Appetites Tapas Tour at Plaza Isabel II. We really enjoyed this tour. We visited four different bars/restaurants and got to sample a number of dishes. It was neat to do this tour on our first full day so we could get the lay of the land for what some of the different dishes were and how tapas worked in the bars. And it was great to be on a tour with a group because we got to sample so many more dishes than we could have eaten on our own. We kicked off the tour with Taberna Los Angeles. First order of business was drinks and Charlie demonstrated the proper way to pour the cider. One of our dishes also had cider (chorizo in cider) and we additionally had cabrales (Spanish blue cheese) and a traditional tortilla (Spanish omelet).

On the way to our next location, we walked through Plaza Mayor and Puerta del Sol where we learned some tidbits about Madrid’s history. One story I hadn’t heard was about the equestrian statue of Philip III in Plaza Mayor. The statue was completed in 1616 and was moved to Plaza Mayor in 1848. Plaza Mayor was plagued by bad smells seeming to emanate from the statue. The source was finally discovered on April 14, 1931 when Republicans put a firecracker in the horse’s mouth to celebrate the proclamation of the Republic and they found hundreds of bird bones in the belly of the statue. In repairing the statue they found there was a hole where birds could enter, but not exit and the decomposing bodies were responsible for the smell. They welded the hole shut so the statue was no longer a bird death trap.

We landed at Museo de Jamón where we learned about the different types of jamón and what determines the quality and price (mainly the pig’s heritage and diet, there are also differences in how long the meat is cured). We sampled some jamón, along with cheese and tinto de veranos (Norah had mosto, a type of grape juice). This was a pretty lively place with some bar seating and the next spot we stopped was more of a traditional restaurant: Prado a Tope. We had a reservation for a table and Charlie went over the menu and his thoughts on ordering - we definitely trusted the expert and agreed with his suggestions. We had red wine, grilled asparagus, cecina (cured beef), padrón peppers, beef entrecote with figs, and a mystery dish. We all tried the mystery dish - which was some kind of chunky spread on bread - it had a rich taste with onions and everybody liked it. There were varying degrees of reaction and finishing the dish when we found out what it was - morcilla de Leon - blood sausage (for the record, Norah and I finished!).

The food was delicious and we already got to sample a nice variety of dishes, but we still had one more stop. We had another walk past Madrid landmarks before we arrived at Cervantes Cerveceria. This stop was all about the seafood - we had gambas ajillo (garlic shrimp), bienmesable estilo Andaluz (Andalusian style marinated and battered dogfish), pulpo a la Gallega (Gallician-style octopus), and white wine. Again, everything was delicious! And I was glad we got to try a dish we probably would not have ordered on our own (i.e. the dogfish) - we ordered it again later in our trip - so I was glad we were introduced to it. Overall, we were very satisfied with our tour - the food and variety were terrific and it was time well spent. As the Spanish keep late dinner hours, it was well after 11 pm when we finished. We walked back to our hotel and fell into bed - it was a full day and we were exhausted (and still fighting jet lag), but happy - we had a great day in Madrid!