Downtown Madrid, Spain

I am beginning this month’s Blog Challenge with pictures and comments from a spring vacation through Spain and Portugal. Insight Tours planned everything and provided the best in coaches, drivers, guides, and venues. When the hotels are in the centre of the city, it is easy to walk to many of the historic sites.

The view from the hotel window showed the main street and one of many parks.

The Royal Palace is only a few blocks away and it is possible to travel part of the distance underground to avoid the traffic on the surface.

There is a grand plaza in front of the palace, and of course, there are statues and flower gardens.

The secret to balancing the statue is to make the rider and the front part of the horse hollow and fill the horse’s rump with lead so that it balances over the hind feet.

At one point in history, Spain aligned itself politically with Germany and to keep up, they also aligned their time zone with Germany. This resulted in about a two-hour shift in the rising and setting of the sun from its actual time. Can you imagine high noon at 2:00 PM?

The evening meal is prepared for 9:00 PM or later. That means we have more time to stroll through the Mayors Square before heading for the restaurant.