I booked a walking tour for April 2. The morning sky was grey and the internet and morning tv were all predicting rain. So the first thing we did after leaving the flat was buy umbrellas for Scott and Robin. We then followed Scott as he looked for a store selling men’s silver rings. No luck.

Gran Via

Plaza del Callao, the building contains movie theatres

Instead of shopping more, we went for lunch at a restaurant serving a Madrid dish called cocino, a stew of different meats, root vegetables, chick peas, cabbage and potatoes, and lots of garlic. The liquid of the stew is served separately as a broth and the rest as meat and vegetables. We also ordered lamb and potatoes. The two dishes were more than the three of us could eat.

 

La Bola restaurant

After lunch we walked to Plaza de Oriente which is in front of the Palacio Real, the royal palace, where we were to meet the docent for our walking tour.

Plaza de Oriente

Palacio Real with Cathedral in the background

Palacio Real on the right, Cathedral on the left

Cathedral de Notra Senora de le Almudena

crypt of the Cathedral

We were joined by a mother and daughter from the Phillipines, Marissa and Mika. Our docent, Almudena, same name as the cathedral, has a PhD in art history and has studied in England and Venice.

remains of medieval city wall

Calle de Segovia

 

old city hall

Alvaro de Bazan statue

San Miguel market

Calle Cava de San Miguel

Botin, claims to be the oldest restaurant in the world 1725

remains of an old city wall under a restaurant floor

nice wall

the name of the restaurant

San Isidro, the church is the start of a big Easter processional

Calle de Toledo

Plaza Mayor, used for major celebrations

Almudena, our docent, in Plaza Mayor

Chocolateria de San Gines at the end of the street

Calle de Mayor

We learned a lot about Spanish and Madrid history and got some ideas of what else to do while in Madrid. Our tour ended after three hours and we had not seen a drop of rain.  Good thing we bought umbrellas.

After the tour, we replenished our wine supply then bought ingredients to make a salad to try to balance out our meat-centric diet.