Madrid

The Vasilik's visit Spain!

I remember stores like this from my semester in Sevilla. Many grocery stores, like this, sold only dry goods. I'm surprised they haven't gone out of business yet, replaced by larger grocery stores.In El Retiro park
We rented a rowboat at the lake
Gotta stop at playgrounds!
Ad for Chinese langauge program. Really? Chinese? English was not very commonly spoken compared to other parts of Europe, it seems like that would be much more useful.A sign saying, "Before leaving your baby in the street, call us. We'll come to you". Yikes!
Frying ChurrosThere was a constant cat-and-mouse game going on with these African vendors of counterfeit goods. They would keep a constant eye open for police, were always ready to run. What a life.
View from the top of our hotel
Plaza Mayor on a rainy day
The Royal Palace, no pictures allowed inside
The Campo del Moro gardens, behind the royal palace and quite hard to get to
The kids collected a TON of horse chesnuts - in Geneva the season is over already
Lots and lots of street performers in the plaza Puerta del Sol. Many were doing a similar act to this, where there's a hidden metal rod used as a support
Lots and lots of police EVERYWHERE!
This guy did an "escape from my chains" routineTaking the high speed train to Toledo. Toledo was great except for heavy traffic invery narrow streets!
This says "insured for fire". I assume in the olden days, the fire service wouldn't come help with a fire unless you had first paid.Breaks for ice cream - always popular
From the top of the Jesuit churchThe roof needs some work!
The tourist information center. The sign says "Closed every day"
View of Toledo from a little tourist train that we took
The train station in Toledo
On the (high speed) train back, I saw this area with lots of little hillsInside the train station in Madrid
On a walk through central Madrid, along Gran Via, this is the fountain at the Plaza de EspanaThere were some derelict building shells right next to this plaza
Another playground visit
This is the Temple of Debod, transplanted from Egypt. A little piece of Egypt in the middle of Madrid!There was an art class painting here
We took the Telef�rico de Madrid - a cablecar to the Casa de Campo. Here's a few views.
In the evening we walked around the pedestrian area. Lots of street performers. This man made toys from aluminum cans.It's a bit hard to tell, but this is a line - they're all waiting to buy lottery tickets!
I enjoyed the music from this groupWe came back to a windstorm, our plane had a very rough landing. The street next to our house looked like this.
Lots of boats next to the lake were overturnedThe heavy swings at Baby Plage, moving in the wind