Neighborhood walk and the Prado

After our breakfast we met for our neighborhood walk.  Mostly old town.  

this is a close up from the above building

The street signs are gorgeous tile work.

the moon, the moon 

Opera House

We got over to the Royal Palace.  We were supposed to do our tour of the palace today but there is some event going on, ambassadors for 6 countries coming to visit, so the palace is closed.  We will go tomorrow.  The amazing thing is that there was a great parade of horses and carriages all morning.  We took a ton of pictures and I am afraid that we did not always listen to Federico.  

the tourist office.  We picked up some city maps.

They were everywhere

note the reflection on his armor!!  He must spend a lot of time buffing it.

We visited a cloister where 9 nuns live.  They do not interact with the public

If you ring the bell they unlock the door so that you can come in.  There is a "lazy Susan" where you put down money and they give you a cookie.  

We had lemon shortbread cookies which were quite good. 

The van was waiting for the center post to go down so he could drive down this narrow street.

We went into a market

this dog looked like a lion, I wonder if that is natural.

Waiting at the Prado while Federico got our tickets.

there is a person in there

the Prado, no photography allowed.  

It was 99 degrees outside and I was tired and hungry. We took a taxi to the Platea, which is a high class market with a food court.  I no longer could make decisions so Jeanne very nicely took care of me and found me a sandwich.  I took care of getting the drinks.  I am afraid that I was getting a little bit grouchy by this time.   No pictures of my lunch.  Sharon and Kris were a little more relaxed.

Sharon's lunch

The food court was 4 levels.  Pretty impressive place.  It was air conditioned.  We took a taxi back to the hotel.   Time to relax until we gather at 6 pm.  The AC in our room is on but not very efficient.  We moved our beds so that they are directly under the vent.   That helped.