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"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." -Morrow
"Take care of the minutes, and the hours and years will take care of themselves." -Anonymous
"Love doesn't make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile." -F.P. Jones

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2004-02-04
'For thine is the power, the kingdom, and the glory...'

1:25 p.m.

Madrid. I'm really disappointed in that I have barely and pictures. I took almost 300 that weekend, and don't really have anything to show because there are (were?) all on my laptop. So, what pictures I do have on here are taken from here. Nick says that he has more than are what are on his webpage, which is good because I know that I burned him a CD before Switzerland that had everything on it. So, if I ever get my picture page up and going, I'll put those on there.

One thing that I forgot to mention about our visit to Barcelona was that immediately upon arrival, we came out into this huge group of pigeons that were eating something. I'd never seen so many in my life. There were standing on top of each other. Nick, of course, decided to have some fun and went and ran around and jumped in the middle of them and scared them off. Everyone was giving him some pretty strange looks and laughing. I'm sure that racked up some bonus points for Americans.

Anyway, we got up early and headed to the train station. In order to board, we actually had to go through a security check. Never done that for a train before.

It was a four-hour ride and passed fairly quickly, and we arrived in Madrid aound noon. Our first thing was to find the information booth, and we accosted the woman behind the counter with, 'We've never been to Madrid before, and we have 12 hours. What do we do?' She was highly amused and gave us an excellent itiniary. Obviously, I don't remember everything, but we did see a lot. We walked through the 19th century Botanical Gardens park located in the center of town; the park is so large that it was easy to forget that you were in the middle of a bustling city. There were hills, trees, and even a tinkling little stream with a mini waterfall.

We came out at the 'El Retiro' Park. It was a large open area with little shops and street vendors and outdoor cafes. There was even a band performing. This pool area lined one side of the park. You could rent paddle boats or canoes and go around the pool. It was a beautiful day! So clear, and fairly warm and I swear we must have seen the entire city. I don't remember exactly in what order we saw the rest, but there were the Walls of Madrid; the Plaza Mayor; Fountains of Cibelis, Neptune, and Apollo; the Puerta de Alcal� and Puerta de Toledo arches; Bridge of Toledo; Banco de Espa�a; Kilometer 0; and more. One of my favorite sights was the Palacio Real. It was absolutely gorgeous and impressive.

I know that we hit the Salvador Dali museum around 4ish because that's when the helpful information lady told us it was free. Nick was really impressed, but then, he really likes art. I like paintings that are of something, even if they are abstract. Most of his fit that, and it was interesting to watch his progression from normal portrait paintings to his famous works of melting clocks and such. Such talent to be able to do so many different types of painting! The only ones of his that I was less than impressed with were the ones that consisted of blocks of color. I mean, there was one painting that was just red. That doesn't impress me.I can do that.

In walking through town, we passed three weddings in about 10 minutes. Well, it was Saturday in Spain, after all! The weddings were huge deals, with many tourists (including us) stopped to watch the parade. The third one was in the Iglesia Colegiata de San Isidro (pictured here). This church was breathtaking. Very majestic, surrounded by trees, nestled on a hill with a great view of the city, and had its own gated courtyard. Nick and I went inside and discovered that they were holding Mass. We decided to stop and stay for the rest of the service; I could tell exactly where they were despite not being able to understand the language because it was a Catholic service and they're all almost exactly alike. I could understand why people built such large churches - it really made you feel holy and humble and reverent.

That's pretty much all we did that day, and ended up walking about two hours to the train station - I really thought that my feet were going to give out! We finally made it, and caught the sleeper train back to Barcelona. There were six little bunk beds to each 'room'. One of the occupants spent the entire night snoring away; I have never heard such noise. Fortunately for me, I brought my ear plugs. Unfortuantely for Nick, he didn't. Even worse, his CD player was not working, so he didn't get any sleep, while I slept just fine. Thank heaven for those earplugs!

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