Madrid Day 2

Today we took a tour of the King’s Royal Palace.  We were not supposed to be able to do this because the King actually had an event at the castle, but plans changed at the last minute so we were able to go on a tour. 

Outside of the Palace

 

In the courtyard

 

The girls with some of the guards

 

TJ and me with the view behind us

 

Group

 

After the castle, our bus driver showed us around Madrid a little more.  There are so many parks here that it is considered one of the greenest capitals in the world.

 

After our tour, we stopped and ate lunch and then some of us headed to Segovia.  Segovia is about an hour NW of Madrid.  It is a fun little place a lot like Madrid, but not as busy.

These arches were built in order to carry water from one side to the other.  The two sides were of different elevations so water had a hard time crossing.  If you look closely, you’ll notice nothing is holding the stones together.  It’s just the weight of the structure keeping it intact.

 

The reason we went to Segovia was in order to see a castle.

 

All the rooms were elaborate and the view was phenomenal. 

 We were able to walk up the many, many stairs to the top of the tower.  

The stairs were very narrow and uneven.  As I was walking down, I thought it would really suck if someone fell.  Of course, right after I thought that, I was the one who ate it on the stairs.  I think I slid down only four steps but it still really hurt.  Luckily no one saw me but it was a funny story not to tell.  Plus the scrape needed a little explanation. 

 When we got back to Madrid, we went to another museum to look at some of Picasso’s work.  Since it was just a few of us who went to the museum, we had to catch a cab back to the hotel so we wouldn’t be late for dinner.  We don’t eat dinner until around 8:30 every night.  I thought it was weird at first but considering it doesn’t start getting dark until about 10:30 every night, I started to understand.

We are finally in Barcelona and it is beautiful.  We only get to spend one night here and then we're taking the overnight train to Nice, France.  I will try and post pictures before we leave tomorrow!