To Madrid!

Saturday morning we walked through the historical part of Madrid starting at the Puerta del Sol where peopled were gathered in celebration of the 2nd of May, a holiday which commorates when the Spanish people rose up against the French occupation in 1808. We passed by the Royal Theater and stopped at the Plaza del Oriente and moved on to the Jardines de Sabatini. We visited the neo-gothic cathedral de Almudena, which was consecrated by Pope John Paul II in1993. We walked to the Plaza de la Villa where the oldest building of Madrid still stands, Torre de los Lujanes, and then we passed through the Plaza Mayor. On our way back to there Puerta del Sol, we ran into the May 2nd Parade. Then we made our way to the Parque del Retiro for our picnic lunch. After wandering around the park we headed to the Prado Museum. Our favorite paintings were: Las Meninas by Velásquez, The Triumph of Death by Bruegel, and The Family of Carlos IV by Goya (just to name a few). Then we wandered around and shopped til we dropped. El Corte Inglés, the equivalent to Macy's, surprised us with its size, number of floors, restaurant, and even a travel agency.