Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Madrid Day 3

I have a cold, and didn't sleep much last night...to tired. Mom and dad left at 7:30 this morning, and they slipped their breakfast passes under our door before leaving.

We got up and had breakfast, went back to the room and just hung out, watching tv and whatever. We're moving to a hostel today, and check out at the hotel is noon, and check-in at the hostel isn't until 2:00, so we're just waiting.

At noon, we checked out and walked over the hostel and left our bags and walked down to the Royal Palace. There was a huge lineup, but if we buy tickets in advance online, we can skip the line and get right in, so we'll go another day.

The Catedral de la Almudena is right there as well, and it was not busy, so we decided to check it out. It took over 100 years to build, because of wars and lack of funds, but was finally completed in 1992.

It was pretty impressive, as are the crypts below the cathedral. The lighting in the crypts gives it a very creepy feeling, but there's lots of tourists mulling around, so not spooky, despite all the dead people you're walking on top of.

We stopped for a late lunch at Plaza Mayor on the way back to the hostel, and then got checked in, and just wandered around the twists and turns of the south side of Puerta del Sol. Madrid is such a bustling city and the whole old town is really amazing. So many restaurants, shops, little parks and plazas, squares, with so many little windy side roads (some pedestrian-only), it's really easy to get lost, but so much to explore, it's pretty awesome.

After getting checked in, we just wandered around, went to a brew pub for some craft beer, and generally didn't do too much.

The weather today was quite a bit nicer, it rained the morning, but stopped by mid-morning, and by afternoon the sun was shining off and on. The weather is only supposed to get better from here on it.

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