Madrid: Thursday Night

After resting up a little bit, we headed out for dinner. We had picked out a tapas bar not far from our hotel, but when we got there it was too packed to accommodate two more for dinner. So we wandered up the street a little bit and into another random tapas bar. But the food was fantastic. Tim even had "Tostas Gulas con Gambas." We knew what Tostas and Gambas meant, and the waiter seemed to think this was a good choice. Basically, what it looked like was a piece of toast with lots of little worms and three little shrimp. We're thinking maybe baby eels? (Jeannette, get Xavi to let us know...) I couldn't bring myself to try it, but Tim thought it was pretty good. In any case, after dinner, we wandered over to the Palacio Real and the Cathedral for some night pictures.

Madrid Day 2b: Walking to dinner and Royal Madrid

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Madrid: Thursday

Happy Thanksgiving everybody! While you're eating turkey, we're wandering around Madrid. We don't really expect to be able to find turkey and stuffing for dinner tonight. But I guess the sightseeing is an ok alternative. This morning, we accidentally slept in a little bit. After breakfast at the hotel, we walked over to the area of town where the major art museums are. This walk took us along the Gran Via and through the Parque del Retiro. In the park are several monuments and cute paths. The first museum we visited was the Reina Sophia, which contains mostly modern art. Any of the pictures of art below are from the Reina Sophia; it was the only museum that allowed photographs. Most famously, it houses Picasso's Guernica. After the Reina Sophia, we walked up to the Prado (the most famous of the three), which houses mostly Spanish art collected by the royals. We had a quick bite to eat there before continuing on up the hill to the Thuyssen-Bornemisza. Here, there was a really nice collection of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. We then walked back along the Gran Via and then down to the Plaza de Puerta del Sol. We did a little bit of shopping then stopped off for a snack of churros y chocolate. We continued on to and through the Plaza Mayor for some more shopping before we headed back to our hotel for a little siesta.

Madrid Day 2: Gran Via and Paseo del Arte

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Gran Canaria/Madrid: Wednesday

Today we moved from Gran Canaria to Madrid. Since our flight wasn't until the early afternoon, we slept in, then wandered around the hotel and the park behind it. From above the park, Tim was actually able to get some great views out over Las Palmas. In the second picture of the hotel, our room was the one on the far left on the top floor. The picture of the dog is basically a sign for the hotel; the story is that the Canary Islands are named for dogs, not canaries. Once we arrived in Madrid, we took the metro (during rush hour, apparently) to our hotel in the city center. The hotel is fabulous. It's a great location (right in the middle of everything; I'm not sure we're more than 10 minutes walking from any of the big sights), we got a great deal, and it's very fun. To top all of that, they upgraded our room to a "duplex," which means our bed is in a loft upstairs from a living room. After we got checked in to the hotel, we went on a walk around Old Madrid and then had dinner at Casa Alberto, a restaurant in the building where Cervantes apparently lived. The story is that he wrote part of Don Quixote while sitting in the restaurant. In any case, the food was GREAT. Tim has a big day planned for us tomorrow, so we'd better get some sleep...

Madrid Day 1: Walking and dinner

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Gran Canaria: Tuesday

Today, while I was at the conference, Tim drove around to the other side of the island and did a 10 mile round trip hike into Playa de Guigui. It sounded like a treacherous hike for which he did not take enough water, but it sounded like he had fun. He assures me I wouldn't have made it back out. Here are photos from his trip. But first, some pictures of our hotel room.

Gran Canaria Day 3: Hike to Playa de GuiGui

This afternoon we went on a little shopping walk. Here are a couple of photos of shops (a jewelry shop and a computer shop):

Gran Canaria Day 3: Shopping

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