Weekend in Madrid

Well, we haven’t been very good at staying on Madrid time. Friday night we didn’t get to sleep until 4:30 am (damn jet lag). There was still a lot of action happening on the street until about 4 am. No, we weren’t out and about at that time. Instead, we were in our hotel room watching Dexter and trying to fall asleep. So, Day 3 (Sat) was our much needed rest day. We left the hotel only to eat lunch (Indian) and dinner (Thai). It was also a much-needed alcohol- and meat-free day. Our bodies were protesting from all the meat, meat, meat and limited vegetables.

On Sunday (Day 4), we had lunch around the Santa Ana Plaza. Chris (smartly) opted for the grilled vegetable plate and I had a three-course tapas option. Of course, my tapas option had pork, cheese, more pork, some fish, more pork, some gazpacho, a little beef, and a more pork. Oh, and chocolate for dessert. And, I will not ever have pork again. Never. {shivers}

[This is where I’d normally insert pictures of our lunch but I can’t even look at them right now without wanting to barf. It’s too soon.]

After lunch, we walked to the Opera House and Royal Palace. We just walked around the outside of the Opera House but decided to go inside the Royal Palace. It was spectacularly gaudy but beautiful. We weren’t allowed to take any pictures inside the palace so you’ll just have to believe us. Think: gold, porcelain, frescos, and marble. Thinking about how difficult it must have been to build and decorate something so ornate in those days is mind-boggling. And, I can’t even imagine living in a place so grand. I complain about having to go upstairs to my bedroom to get something when I’m in my living room and my house isn’t that big. It would suck to have to go through twenty rooms just to get some socks. But, I guess if I was a royal I’d have someone to fetch them for me, eh?

Front of Opera House

Back of Opera House

Fountain and gardens outside of Royal Palace

Statue of a man dusting a statue of a man

KB outside the gates of the Royal Palace

CH at Royal Palace "inside the gates"

Two non-royals at the Royal Palace. We toured several of the rooms in the building behind us.

We headed back to the hotel for some downtime before the flamenco show at 10 pm. The show was at a club called Cardomomo. It wasn’t a typical flashy flamenco show but, rather, a “working-class” tablao flamenco show. We had first row seats in a tiny club two blocks from our hotel. It reminded me of The Conservatory. There were only about 20 people in the audience.

There was one guitar player, three singers, and two dancers. I’m not lying when I say that the first dance brought tears to my eyes (some may think that’s stupid but I was seriously moved). It must be from my flamenco dance background. When I say “background,” I mean those two or three classes I took from the City of Norman arts program a few years ago. It is amazing that all the music is created with one guitar, singing, clapping, finger snapping, and stomping. I had no idea what they were singing about since they were singing in Spanish but it was probably about love.