Day 1: Plazas y Plazas en Madrid

First, jet lag is definitely not being fun right now. It's a fun-sucker and making us all tired! And I may have just woken up from a 3 hour siesta. I'm a regular Madrileño already!

Second, the Europeans of the Middle Ages? Yeah, I don't think we'd be friends. But more on that later.

So far today (it's only 6pm right now), we have gotten a good bit of walking under our belt and saw La Plaza del Sol, La Plaza Mayor, La Plaza Oriente, and El Palacio Real (Royal Palace). One of the guide books suggested this and it seemed like a good choice for our first day so away we went!

The plazas were all pretty cool and offered some good-looking architecture. La Plaza del Sol lived up to it's name and was, indeed, sunny. La Plaza Mayor was quite large, enough so that I had to do two panoramic photos to capture it all! It also gave us the fattest Spiderman I've ever seen, so there's that. La Plaza Oriente was my favorite as it was situated right in front of the Royal Palace and had a lot of trees and shade (don't ever underestimate shade).

Plaza del Sol

Plaza Mayor

 

Plaza Oriente

After our journey through the plazas, we ended up at the Palacio Real. It kind of reminded me of Versailles except it wasn't pink or at that level of opulence. I only wish I had some pictures of it but noooo, those are not allowed. Spoil-sports.

Also on the grounds was the Royal Armory. This was probably my favorite thing of the day although it led me to the second conclusion mentioned above. Why, you may be wondering? Let's lay out the facts here:

• These Middles Ages men were short. I'm talking 5'5 here. Not just shorter than me. Just plain short.
• Some of these men liked skirts. As in skirted armor. What?
• They had armor for dogs. Who sends their dog into battle with them? Someone alert PETA on these guys.
• They had armor for boys. Like little boys who don't even know what war is. I seriously hope this was just for looks and not function.

Other things of note in the armory: they had guns in the 1500s? Why did I not know this? And these things look more sophisticated than the guns our good ole boys were using in the Revolutionary War in the late 1700s. I clearly need to brush up on my history.

But enough about the armory, after that it was lunch at a Tapas Bar on the 9th floor of a building near us. They were delicious! And came complete with Coke Light, my favorite! And check out that can please.

And then it was naps. And now I'm watching Scandal while the others nap. It's been a good day so far!