The Artisans Market, Christmas Market and Museums...Madrid

I am back from my vacation, had an absolutely amazing time. Now I am faced with over 800 pictures for 17 different places and trying to figure out how to post about each place. I believe the best choice is to post about each place, so I hope you enjoy the posts.

Madrid was my first stop, I arrived a day before the tour to allow myself a bit of time to explore the city on my own. I ventured to the hotel, dropped off my luggage, obtained a map and went wandering around the area. My first stop was the Christmas market. It was spread all over the city, not just in the main plaza, and was a combination of many holidays in one. There were characters everywhere, Mickey Mouse, Spiderman, SpongeBob and a really creepy looking Hello Kitty, plus the additions of the living statues and too many Santa Clauses to count. The poor children must be very confused seeing so many impersonators. I did get picture with one so he would leave me alone. It quite reminded me of Christmas last year in Vegas seeing all these people in costume on the streets. The stalls were filled with toys, wigs of unnatural color, assorted nuts and holiday plants. Nothing tickled my fancy, so it all remained in the stalls. I enjoyed a traditional empanada on the street during my wandering of the city. 

After viewing the main market, I just began wandering the city, visiting various "recommended" monuments according to my map and I happened upon a fantastic art exhibition "La Per Sis Ten De La Cia Geometria." It was a combination of art and mathematics, demonstrating how artists have used shapes over time to make art. The artist Leon Ferrari did three fantastic pieces of a city scape, one with people, one with streets and one combined. It is difficult to describe, but I thought it was neat.

The next morning I wandered to the Royal Palace. It was a gorgeous building with an amazing view of the city.

Following the views from the palace, I decided to walk to the Museum of Contemporary Art. Along the way, I came across a fabulous artisan market. I wandered around the market for over an hour, just looking at the jewelry, ceramics, hats and pictures they had for sale. I bought a few pairs of earrings that I thought were cute and not terribly expensive. I refrained from buying anything super extravagant because I still had my whole tour left and it also meant getting it back to Italy and then eventually back to the United States.

I never did find the entrance to the Museum of Contemporary Art, but instead enjoyed a delicious lunch complete with a salad topped with baked brea, honey and balsamic vinegar and two skewers of meat with a side of caramelized onions. After the busy morning and afternoon, I went back to the hotel, read for a bit, then met my random roommate for the tour.

Brenda-Lynn and I got along fabulously; she is from South Africa and I am very tempted to venture South to see her next winter for some sun and warmth. We are already talking about traveling to Russia sometime soon. Two other women on the trip are also speaking of joining us. The entire group (I think 43 of us) was great fun and the adventures we had are very memorable. Somehow Brenda escaped without a picture...how that happened I am not sure.

More later!