After we all showed up we got on the tour bus AIFS had rented, along with a guide, to show us some sights. First we passed a square with a giant statue of Cortez, surrounding the statue are more statues of his characters like Don Quixote. They also planted a bunch of olive trees around the square because those are the native trees of Sevilla.
Then we arrived at the Royal Palace. Here we got out and unfortunately I had to leave my camera on the bus because there were no pictures aloud in the palace. I was very sad because then I didn't get to take any pictures of the outside either, but I'm going back because it's amazing. The courtyard to get in is massive, and all grey stone like a granite in big square stones. They also have a place that overlooks the gardens but it turns out that there is actually winter here and all the trees turn brown, so we couldn't really see much, plus it's been so cloudy that everything looks dull and grey.
So when we finally got in to the palace we split up into two groups so we could hear our guides more easily. It turns out Madrid has only been the capital of Spain for the past few hundred years, before that it was always Toledo. The first palace that was built in Madrid was made entirely out of wood and eventually burned down. They then had a new palace built out of stone in the same location.
First we walked up this giant grand marble stair case. Each step is a long single sheet of marble from Toledo, and you can see the little hooks where they attach the carpet for the royal events. On the ceiling over the staircase they have amazing frescos, pretty much all over the entire palace. There are also a few statues of previous Spanish kings. Our guide told us it's easy to remember Spanish kings because they are either named Philip or Charles. So one family line have very long faces, while the other line has extremely large noses – just like Princess Sofia.
From there we went into the throne room. The palace is considered a working palace, though the royal family does not live there, because state dinners and such are always held there. When the palace was first built they had three factories just for the palace: one for the tapestries and rugs, one for all of the bronze and metal fixtures, and one just for the chandeliers – they are huge! It turns out this is the only palace in the world that has not been affected by any political turmoil or revolutions like some of the others such as Versailles. During the Spanish civil war the palace already belonged to the state so the revolutionaries never had a reason to damage it. On the walls of the throne room are velvet tapestries with silver designs sewn along the edges, so when they have to replace it they have to cut the silver off and attach it to the new velvet.
In the throne room, and every other room in the palace, all the furniture and fixtures are the same they are never updated so everything is super old. The thrones are surrounded by four gold lions that were res cued from the old palace where they used to be table legs. The thrones are still in the room but are not used because the King and Queen prefer to stand among the other people in the room.
We also went into a room called the porcelain room which is covered in white wood panels with porcelain decorations screwed onto the panels (the screws are very visible).
The dining room features a giant, long table which has to be set by walking across the middle. There are also two very large courtyards in the middle of the palace. There is also a smoking room decorated in the oriental fashion of course. I had no idea but apparently that's how it should be done; keep that in mind for all of your smoking rooms.
From there we had a forty five minute lunch break where we went to a little café for sandwiches. After that we went to the Prado, a classical art museum. Here we saw some paintings by El Greco, Goya, and Velazquez. There are some other great paintings there that I didn't get a chance to see so I am going back soon to see the rest.
After the museum a few of us took the metro back to the apartment so we could relax and look at homework before our big dinner at eight. For dinner AIFS took us all out to a small restaurant across the street from the school where they served small plates of everything on the menu. We had a tuna and potato cold salad, pickled seafood and radishes, green salad with tuna, mushrooms in a red sauce, Chorizo, Tortilla, and an ice cream for dessert.
After dinner we ran to the metro to avoid the worst of the rain and were happy to discover that after the elevator being broken all weekend it was finally working again.
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