In Madrid!

After about 13 hours of traveling, I made it to Madrid this morning around 7:40 a.m. local time, or 1:40 a.m. Indiana time. It was a great flight ... Iberia Airlines really takes care of its customers!

My first task was to try to find an ATM to take out some Euros, as I decided to wait until I got here to get local currency (And a big thanks to Angie for loaning me $50 Euros just to be safe.). I found an ATM, or a cajero automatico in Spanish) before I left the airport, sin problema. Afterward, I used my map of the metro to make my way to central Madrid. At such an early time, the metro wasn´t busy at all. I had to transfer lines two times but about 30 minutes later arrived at my hostal, located near Gran Via. Public transportation is great!!!

It was too early to check in, so I left my bag and decided today would be a good time to visit The Prado Museum. It was back to the metro and within a few minutes I was out walking again en route to to Prado, one of the world´s top museums. It is home to a collection of Spanish and European art, and is home to more than 7,000 paintings. I saw paintings from Velazquez, Goya and countless others. The highlight for me was seeing Velazquez´s Las Meninas, a painting of the family of Felipe IV. Jet lag set in more and more as I walked through the Prado, so I spent about one more hour there and decided it was time to come outside for awhile.

My next stop was at Retiro Park, thanks to a recommendation from Tish! I spent about another two hours in the park. Sunday is said to be the best day to visit because so many people go there on the weekends, so my timing was perfect. And the park was full. All across the enormous park are momuments, beautifully landscaped lawns and gardens and even a big lake where people were taking boat rides. There were puppet shows for kids, people sitting on benches reading the Sunday paper and just a general sense of relaxation. As I crossed the park, I came across a classical musical concert. Many people were sitting in lawn chairs listening while others were stretched out in the grass. Since I didn´t have a chair, I used my backpack as a pillow and listened for about an hour. It was great ... and a great day taking in Madrid´s culture in the park. The park was laid out in the 17th Century by Felipe IV, my Lonely Planet book told me. It was once a park of kings and queens, and after spending just a couple of hours there this afternoon, I understand why. The landscaping is perfect, the gardens and flowers are beautiful and all the trees provide several patches of shade where you can just sit down and watch the world pass. The monument to Alfonso XII looks over the lake, including the enormous marble lions.

Afterward, it was back to the hostel to check in and get organized before heading back out to explore the area a little bit. I´m planning an early dinner tonight so I can catch up on some sleep and put the jetlag behind me for tomorrow. I´m planning to do a 3-hour tour of Madrid tomorrow and a stop at the Royal Palace. The palace is only occassionaly used for royal ceremonies because the Royal Family moved to another palace several years ago, I read. I´m thinking of doing day trips to Toledo on Tuesday and Segovia/Avilia on Wednesday with a final day in Madrid on Thursday before making my journey up north to visit a student who is participating in the IU Honors Program for Foreign Language.

It´s been nice to be in an all-Spanish environment again and I´m looking forward to the practice for the next four weeks. I´ve had to stop to ask directions several times today, and everyone has been great, from the police at the airport to the hotel manager. I feel very welcome here as Day 1 comes to an end.

My hope is to update this blog every couple of days ... and for those of you who have been to Spain, please feel free to give me suggestions! I hope everyone has a great July 4 holiday tomorrow!