SPAIN PART 3: Madrid

Our final and favorite stop was Madrid!  We got off the train took our bags to the hotel and went out for the night and did some exploring of the city.  There were so many people out on the town.  I think it was like 11 or 12 at night by the time we got out and they were just starting their night.  I'm telling you, they are party animals!

                       

The next morning I snapped this picture.  A view of Madrid out of our hotel window.

Later on we went on another bike tour because we loved our first one so much.

Looking over the part of the city and a well-known park that I can't remember the name of. 

This is an Egyptian temple that we thought was pretty cool.  We went inside but it was pretty dark so I didn't take any pictures.

In front of the Royal Palace.  

It reminded me of a smaller version of Versailles.

Our bike tour also took us to the Plaza Mayor.  Too bad they were having a car show that day, so we didn't get great pictures.

The La Puerta De Alcala arch...

In front of the capitol building on the La Gran Via.  Sitting at a stop light where we almost died shortly thereafter.

After the bike tour we went to Retiro park to have some lunch and hang out.  

 Harv talking into a baguette...

Hanging out eating some lunch.  This was one of our favorite parts of the trip.  The parks in Madrid are amazingly pretty and clean.

 A pond by Retiro park.  Earlier in the day our bike guide told us that when you want to make your relationship official you take your partner on a rowboat ride.  Very romantic and quite funny!  

Walking to the Prado Museum.

The next day we decided to go to the temple.  So we hopped on the metro in the pouring rain and went on a hunt to find it.  Finally we found it but it was a bit hard especially in a full on down pour!  The temple president was so awesome!  He did the sealings in both English and Spanish.  It was really cool.  After that he gave us a tour of the inside of the temple and we grabbed some lunch in the cafeteria.

Such a great way to start off the day!

 The rest of the day was spent shopping, site seeing, and eating....

On La Gran Via

 This is what the street signs look like in Madrid.  They are individual tiles that are mounted to the buildings.  It's a pretty way to do it but they can be very hard to see.

 Some of our delish tapas!  I wish I would have gotten more pictures but they were gone by the time I could get my camera out.  Fat Americans!

More hot chocolate and churros!  They gave us an enormous tub of hot chocolate.  We probably ate only an ounce of it!

Our last night in Madrid we went to some a Turkish bath.  Can I just say A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!  Seriously though, it was the perfect thing to do at 10:00 at night.  They have you sit in a series of pools, hot, warm, and cold.  Super relaxing and it made us feel like we were getting into some more of the awesomeness that Spain had to offer.

 Our last morning was spent at a flea market we found.  Not sure what I expected but it was a little disappointing.  We were also bummed to be going home.

Us on the plane flight home.  Lara being very sad and I think Cody was sick of pictures....what do you think?

So there you have it...SPAIN!  Thanks for hanging in!