Madrid: Big City, Big Streets, Big Sidewalks

High speed trains are really great. We got to Madrid in a little over 2 hours so we had time to see something today. After we checked into the apartment, we took a walk to have lunch and then onto the Parque del Buen Retiro. It . The walk to the most populated area was a long, gradual incline or, in other words, a big hill. The park is about 350 acres with many paths, fountains, and monuments. It's great to see green grass and trees after spending all this time in cities. The park belonged to Royalty until 1868 when it became public so many of the monuments and statues are relatively new.

Monument to Alfonso XII

We sat by the lake/pond (it's not big enough to be a real lake) and watched people row boats. Then we  went on to the Crystal Palace (inspired by London's) and Palacio de Velasquez. The Crystal Palace is especially beautiful. Both of these buildings house art exhibits sponsored from the Sophia Reina museum. There is nothing in the Crystal Palace now but the other palace had an ultra modern exhibit that was really terrible. Fortunately, it was free. The best part of the exhibit was a display called "When the Shit Hits the Fan."

The Crystal Palace

There were lots of people in the park--joggers, people on bikes and skateboards, many people just sitting and reading or drinking at one of the small huts that serve pizza, drinks, or ice cream.

A fountain in the park

Of course, the walk back to the apartment was down all-the-time down so that was pleasant enough because it was shady. Once we hit the major streets, the sun was blazing and it felt like a big city again.

Currently, I am waiting for a load of laundry to finish in this washer/dryer machine. Our other washers just washed the clothes and then we hung them on the line and they dried in an hour.  I was very excited to see English instructions but they weren't very helpful. I was hitting different buttons when all of a sudden, the machine locked and started. At no time did I touch the on/pause button.  I believe it set itself to run for 3-6 hours. I'm also not sure whether it will dry the clothes since there seemed to be a "hang on the line" option,