Madrid - Private Tour - Monday, Sept. 9th

I had arranged for our group to have a private guide to show us the Royal Palace and the Prado Museum on Monday, Sept. 9th.  Mayte, a charming young lady, met us in the lobby of our hotel at 8:55am and we grabbed two cabs and off we went.

Our first stop was at the Puerta del Sol (Gate to the Sun) and is , Madrid's central square, here Mayte explained about how Madrid was built and this was the central point.

 This is marker is "kilometer zero" the symbolic center of Spain (with its six mail highways indicated).

This statue in the middle of the square honors King Charles II (1716 - 1788) whose enlightened urban policies earned him the affectionate nickname "the best mayor of Madrid".  He decorated the city squares with beautiful fountains. 

This building with the bell tower was Madrid's first post office, founded by Charles III in the 1760's.  We were told about the crowds that fill the square on New Year's Eve the locals will eat twelve grapes (to bring them good luck) as the clocks strikes midnight.

The bear pawing the tree is a symbol of Madrid since medieval times.  Bears use to live in the royal hunting grounds outside the city.  The madrono trees have a berry that makes the tradition Madrono liqueur.

This shop sells beautiful fans from 30 Euros up to a couple of thousand…it's fun to watch women flip open their final fan choices before buying.

Plaza Mayor……….
    This large cobbled stoned square is for pedestrians only.  In medieval times, this was the city's main square.  

The equestrian statue honors Philip III, who in 1619 transformed the medieval marketplace into a Baroque plaza.  The square is 140 years long and 102 yards wide, enclosed by the three-story buildings.  The building have slate roofs, steeped towers, and symmetrical windows and balconies.  It reminded of something in Vienna, Austria than in Spain.

The square's building have private apartments ….. it's a great place to live.  The cost of a small tiny attic studio runs about 400,000 Euros to a large 2,500 square foot apartment for 2 million Euros!

Church & Convent of Corpus Christi - 

 

There is a large coat of arms over the main entrance of the church. It belongs to the rich family that built this church and convent in 1607.  In those times the most prestigious thing a noble family could do was build and maintain a convent.  Just down the side of the building is a big wooden door with a door bell next to it.  To buy goodies from the cloistered nuns, buzz the button, then wait patiently for the sister to respond.  This morning we were told the cookies would not be ready for an hour and then had to cool, so we missed buy from them.

We continued our walk to Plaza de la Villa

 The statue in the garden is of Philip II's admiral, Don Alvaro de Bazan.  He was the mastermind of the Christian victory over the Turkish Ottomans at the naval battle of Lepanto in 1571.  This pivotal battle, fought off the coast of Greece, slowed the Ottoman threat to Christian Europe.

This beautiful structure features Madrid's distinctive architectural style…symmetrical square towers, topped with steeples and slate roof.  This building still functions as Madrid's ceremonial Town Hall, though the city council have moved elsewhere.

We now continued our walk down hill toward the Royal Palace - our first view from the hill…..

 Theresa Blazek and Sheila Klein in front of the Royal Palace

I was not allowed to take any pictures inside the Royal Palace…
This is Europe's third-greatest palace, after Versailles and Vienna's Schonbrunn (I've been to both of those).  They say this is the most sumptuous original interior, packed with royal antiques.  It has 2,800 rooms and I'm sure I walked through all of them! 

The palace is the product of many kings over several centuries.  Philip II (1527-1598) made a wooden fortress on this site his governing center when he established Madrid as Spain's capital.  When that structure burned down, the current structure was built by King Philip V (1683-1746).  Philip V wanted to make it his own private Versailles, to match his French upbringing, he was born in Versailles, the grandson of Louis XIV.

Just a short distance down Calle Mayor is the Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Almudena …. this cathedral was opened in 1993, 100 years after workers stated building it.

The church is modern and has a beautiful colorful ceiling.

Lunch and time to rest our weary bones and drink a cold beer.  Our guide selected the restaurant and had a lovely outside cafe that had a beautiful view of the Royal Palace.  

I was so tired from all our walking and trying to remember just a part of Mayte shared with us about all we saw, I didn't remember to take good pictures of our lunch…sorry!

The grand finale…..   The Prado Museum
     I was not allowed to take any pictures inside the museum and that was probably better because I had to listen to what Mayte was telling us about several of the master pieces of artwork.

It was time to return to the hotel for a nap before we went out for our night of tapas hopping in Madrid.