Sunday in Spain

Day 2:

I liked the color coding and bright colors of the Metro.

Here's my dwarfing and totally FOBy outfit.

In Madrid the flea market is popular with locals and tourists alike. It was epic. I mean that in the literal sense, not the more trendy and internetsy use of the word. It was quite easily the biggest market I've ever encountered. It covered a decent amount of the city.

We wandered and wandered and it seemingly had no end. It had everything from an alley filled with pet supplies and birds (more birds than i've ever seen in my life) that was populated by old men, areas full of really pushy and very loud clothes vendors, tourist type places with souveniers, pocket knives, luggages, and even kitchen supplies! My favorite part of all were the antique stands (of course). Some were just piles of relics looking things while others seemed like haphazard collections.

It was a certain sort of magical.

 
After spending all morning and noon at the flea market we tried to go to a museum to find it closed.
 
We tried to go to another, got slightly lost, and ended up hitting another attraction we wanted to visit: El parque del Buen Retiro (the park of good rest).
 

Like San Francisco, Madrid has flocks of wild parrots! I assume they were escaped pets, but who knows, maybe they were migrating. And just like the one time I've seen them in San Francisco, the flock was feeding on cherry blossoms in the park!!!

Through pictures one of the things I was looking foward to most was El Palacio Cristal (The crystal palace).

We watched sunset over the huge man-made lake that you could rent a boat and row in. There was a protest in the little pavilion where that statue was. It was just a couple handfuls of people sitting down playing instruments and chanting something.

 
Sunset over El parque del Buen Retiro.
 

Then we had dinner in the Plaza Mayor.

Adam had Paella (other paellas had were better throughout the trip)

I don't even remember what I had. But here I am pretending I drink coffee.