So we started Monday later than we wanted but hopefully we are completely adjusted now.  We started the day at Arcade, the restaurant where we killed two hours on Saturday while we waited for our apartment to be ready.  As is often the case abroad, they treat us better on subsequent visits than we get treated when we frequent restaurants in our own backyard.

Then off to the Catedral Nuestra Senora de la Almudena (closed, we’ll try again tomorrow) and the Palacio Real.  The Palace is spectacular (no pictures allowed inside so few pictures today) with most of the decorative highlights being imported from Italy.  Then it was one of our walking tours hitting Plaza de Oriente, Jardines de Lepanto, Jardines de Sabatini, La Rosaleda Parque with its Templo de Debod, then past the Monumento a Cervantes (Don Quixote), past Plaza de Espana, down the Gran Via and back to our neighborhood near Plaza Mayor.  So far there is no comparison between the gardens here and those in London.

We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant called La Mordida de Fuentes (but they spoke Spanish so it counts!).  It did have many dishes that we do not see in the states.

Tuesday we will try to focus on the cathedral and other churches.  We’ll see how many we can catch open.