God is good…..(and my friend is patient)

We did a bunch of walking today (or so my sore feet tell me).  We started by doing a tour of the palace.  Probably should have done the audio guide. Bummer you couldn’t take pictures in the rooms upstairs.  I would have had a whole page in my scrapbooks of just the chandeliers!!! They were different in each room and were AMAZING!! The rooms, being in a palace, were of course extravagant and over the top.  We also paid a little extra to see the kitchens.  Worth the money to see, just wish I could have understood what was said- it was all in Spanish and my high school Spanish from 30 years ago apparently didn’t stand the test of time.  Still very cool to see all the things they used- there is a beauty in the bowls, pans and molds.  As we were leaving the bells were ringing in the Cathedral de la Amudena next door signaling the beginning of mass.  My very patient friend went with me and we sat in the last pew for the service, which came with the added bonus of a breeze.  Though we understood no words, there is something very comforting in the familiar music, cadence, incense and rituals that take place.  It was a peaceful and blessed way to spend the morning.  It turns out it was a holy day- The Feast of Corpus Christi (as a kind woman near us explained).  After that my friend was EXTRA kind and patient as I then wandered the church trying to capture bits of its beauty- impossible but I tried.  Almost 100 photos and 30 minutes later I was ready to go.  Unfortunately for her there was a small gift shop outside that beckoned me in.  After that we took a nice walk though a park, enjoying the breeze while we walked to our next spot-Temple of Debod.  It is an actual Egyptian temple that was moved from Egypt to Spain when a new waterway in Egypt threatened it.  It was dismantled and brought to Spain to be reassembled.  Pretty neat.  We stopped for a brief bite to eat and then were going to do the cable cars over the city but after waiting for about 15 mins in line for tickets it was announced that there would be at least a 1 hour wait because of the wind.  We took this as a sign to move on so we headed uphill to the metro (didn’t really Madrid was SO hilly).  We rested at the hotel before we headed out to wander, eat, people watch and get our daily allotment of gelato.  So ends another fantastic day with a heavy reminder at the start of how blessed I am and how God is good!

Julie making friends again….

I mean when in Madrid…….get the pulled pork?