Madrid

On Monday Hollis and I ventured into Madrid for our first day trip. Well, I had to go to Madrid anyway to finish applying for my NIE (resident card) so I can be legally in Spain. It's been nice because the Ministry of Education has taken care of all the filing of paperwork and I've just had to show up when they say to show up and bring the things they say. Also, there are no long lines when we go (because I think they make special appointments - yay working for the government!). So after that, Hollis and I headed to the Modern Art Museum - Casa Reina Sofia.

On our way there, we passed the BIGGEST Nutella jars that I have ever seen. Yes, they are bigger than my head.

Then we went to Reina Sofia. Awesome side note: because we bought Youth Cards, we got in for free! Yay being under 26!

There were some cool things that you would only find in a modern art museum. One of our favorites was this room full of embroidered world maps, each contry colored by it's flag. There were several different backgrounds, but we picked our favorites and had pictures next to them. We also LOVED this random stack of animals: a cow, pig, and sheep. They all had UNICORN HORNS! And they were carved with the skin missing and all the cuts of meat labeled. We also needed pictures next to those.

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We also really liked Guernica, but you aren't allowed to take pictures where it is displayed. So I found one online where someone broke the rules and took a picture so you could see how big it is. It was really cool because they have several pictures and preliminary sketches of the work. You can see how Picasso deliberately designed everything in the painting to be the way it is. Yes, he purposely made the bull face weird and be different colors. I know because it looked different in the original sketch. He kept changing it until it looked as it does here.

After the museum, we were quite thirsty. We had already eaten the potato chips, sandwiches, and cheese that we had brought from home, but we wanted more. I decided that what I really wanted was a Jamba Juice, and then we walked past this smoothie bar. So we got some smoothies.

Totally a coincidence that our cups spell out the company's full name: faborit. They weren't that good, but somehow still felt very satifying. I guess I really needed blended fruits with no sugar or anything else added. Mine was oranges and carrots. Yep. Only ice was added.

We then went to Parque de Buen Retiro. It is what used to be the royal summer grounds. We first walked past this large pond. I learned that mock Naval battles used to be staged in the pond for the King's entertainment. Or education. I'm not sure which. We then went to look at the summer palace, but it was closed (I'm in front of the closed doors). I was excited to see the crystal palace because it was sunny and it sounded beautiful. And it is beautiful (it's the glass building below). It too, however, was closed. Sad. But at least we could see inside the building.

While we were there we saw wildlife! I saw some beautiful black swans, eating a fish that they might have killed (you can kind of see the fish's tail if you look closely).

Then Hollis tried to call this squirrel over to him. I put my camera on high speed and managed to catch it mid-leap.

After all the walking we had done that day, our feet hurt. And Hollis's brown shoes wore out (sad!!).

Finally, we went to Atocha to catch the train home. I made Hollis walk even farther to show him the turtles inside the main atrium. I was surprised to see so many! So I included a picture of the turtles from four years ago so you can see the massive increase in turtle population.