Spain, Part 2

Okay, these pictures are in no particular order because my computer is an old piece of junk and I'm way too cheap to buy a new speedy fabulous one. In other words, it takes a painful amount of time to rearrange pictures on here with my crummy computer so I'm simply not going to worry about it. Okay, ready?

First up, this picture is from the El Retiro park in Madrid. It's an impressively sized and lovely (even in the dead of winter) place one can stroll about for hours. Which Mr X and I did, much to my delight. I thought these trees or shrubs or whatever they are were very unique so I snapped a picture.

Mr X has a sort of fascination with gargoyles and fountains and such so he always takes pictures of interesting ones he comes across. These were found in El Retiro park.

There's decent sized lake in the center of the park where you can rent small boats and float about lackadaisically if you wish....for a price. We did not wish to pay that price.

Me in the park:

Mr X in the park in all his dapper gloriousness (not a real word, I know).

Here we are just outside the entrance to the park on one of the main thoroughfares in Madrid.

This beautiful yet simple cathedral is happily situated just behind the famous El Prado museum.

Just outside of the museum we snapped this photo:

One thing that I am endlessly fascinated with in Europe is the beautiful architecture and city layouts. Below is a picture of the neo-classical Plaza de Cibeles. It hosts the mayor's offices and the fountain in front of it is the Cibeles Fountain (of course). The fountain depicts the goddess Cibeles, the Phrygian goddess of fertility, sitting on a chariot pulled by two lions. This view and the plaza in general are seen as a symbol of Madrid.

Just looking down the streets in downtown Madrid. For a thriving metropolis that generally is not known for being particularly beautiful, I found that with me it was not the case. I loved it. The 'things' hanging across the streets are holiday decorations. Madrid did a fantastic job of dressing up for the holidays...it was absolutely gorgeous at night and my attempts at capturing all the Christmas dazzle by camera fell far short. I'll post some of those pictures later.