Madrid in Pictures, Part 2

Today, a few more pictures from our time in Madrid. On Sunday we went to a food market/restaurant just off Plaza Mayor that had an eye-popping selection of fresh seafood for a landlocked city.  It was Sunday at 3-ish - prime lunch hour in Spain - and it was packed with families and groups of friends drinking wine and eating big slabs of fresh fish.

After we took a swing around the market we headed to the Palacio Real, Spain's royal palace.  We took a little tour, which was alright, but then a guard told me that King Juan Carlos doesn't even live there, and really, what's the point of all that? It was a neat place though, decorated in the same tapestry-and-brocade style that is de rigeur for European royal palaces.  I feel pretty sure that at some point in the past, the elite interior decorators of Europe got together and were like, "look, we'll save ourselves a lot of time and effort if we just make one basic decoration scheme and then Pierre can put it in Versailles, Wolfgang can put it in Shönbrunn, Francisco can do Palacio Real, and Harry you take Buckingham Palace.  They'll never know the difference."

I couldn't resist taking this photograph because I don't think I've ever seen the famous King Ferdinand of Ferdinand and Isabella fame looking quite so wimpy.  Look at that 'stache. It screams "someone please pick me for dodgeball. Pleasepleaseplease.  No? Well fine then, all the Jews OUT."  Tsk, tsk Ferdinand.