Spain Day 13-Odds and Ends in Madrid July 26, 2015

Sunday is not a day we sleep in. I was up at 7:45 and my daughters and I were at breakfast by 8. At 8:45 we left for 9 am Mass at St. Peter's Superior (S. Pedro Apostol), which was across the park and around the corner from the hotel.

It is built in the traditional cross shape. There is a side entrance, but we went around one more corner to enter at the main entrance. Homeless people were begging at this entrance. Mass wasn't packed, but I was glad to see that there were some young families in attendance.
What a Mass! No music, no missal, no sermon and no sitting by the priest. It was over at 9:25. I've never even been to a daily Mass at home that was that fast. It kind of made your head spin. We just struggled to do the prayers in English as quickly as they were done in Spanish.
I've realized that I haven't included a picture of the interesting street entrance to the interior street and park where our hotel was located:

We were back in the hotel by 9:30. We took our time getting ready to head out for the day and met at 10:20. At 10:26, we bought our tickets to La Latina for 1,50 on the Metro. We decided to save the last ticket on our multi-trip tickets for the trip back, which would be longer. At 10:30, we were on the train to Opera. At 10:42, we were off at the La Latina Flea Market. It was a popular destination-so many people!

It stretched for blocks. On the main street, it was mostly new items that were for sale. We had to go down a side street to see what was basically garage sale merchandise. A different side street was home to art galleries, but not the fancy kind. Here, artists set out their paintings on the sidewalk, while the shops sold other art. One place was mostly frames. Each of my daughters picked out interesting small paintings of books painted on thin wood for me to give them later as gifts. I took a long time picking out a long, thin (2"wide, tops) painting of the ocean for myself. I also got a lovely small painting of a fountain.
Here's a sign we saw that made us look twice. We only recognized Stubb's.

In the main flea market, I found a nice suede coin purse for 7,50 Euros. I got one of those crystal blocks that have city symbols etched inside for my collection. This one was the Cybele fountain. We each got some weird key chains with figurines made of string. One of mine was Yoda!
At 12:50, we were finished with the market and hot and hungry. At 1:00, we saw a place on a side street (Calle Toledo) that looked inviting called Cantalejo Restaurante. We were led upstairs, where we were the only diners. We had a really nice view out the windows of the folks passing by. My older daughter ordered Filet de ternera (10 Euros), which was veal. I had Solomillo iberico (12,50 Euros), which was a delicious pork sirloin. And, my younger daugher go Entrecot de buey, beef rib (14 Euros). All came with fries, of course!

Due to the heat, we each drank 2 sodas. We agreed on three desserts that turned out to be delicious:
Arroz con leche(3,90 Euros) was rice pudding. Natillas caseros (also 3,90 Euros) was custard. Leche frita (4,50 Euros) means fried milk, but they were cake-like pastries.

We waited a long time before the waiter reappeared so that we could pay. We finally left at 2:15.
The Metro was nearby and at 2:20, we bought our Retiro ticket for 1,50. Once again, we took the train headed for Opera, which left at 2:28. It took only a minute to get there. We waited for the Retiro train and boarded at 2:35. We were surprised by two beggars roaming through the cars on the trip. That had not happened before.
At 2:40, we reached El Retiro Park and met my husband, who was now finished with his conference. It was incredibly hot. He hadn't eaten, so he grabbed an ice cream and we set off through the park.

There were a lot of formal plantings, but the sides under the trees were busy with people just trying to cool off. I imagined that if you lived in an apartment with little or no air conditioning, this would be where you'd retreat to try to get some air.
At 3:03, we saw stand with churros con chocolate for 5,50 and decided to have one last taste of this and to give my husband the experience, too. Disappointingly, the chocolate was not nearly as good as we'd had at the other place.
At 3:20, we were on our way to our last destination, the Crystal Palace, which was in the park and we were there in under 15 minutes. Today had been the day to go to those last few places we'd been interested in and this was the final one. It looks a lot like Disney's Crystal Palace. Maybe, that's the only way they can look.

Of course, Disney doesn't have the nice lake and fountain in front, so there's that. They also don't have an artificial cave that you walk through on the way to the entrance.

But, like Disney's Jungle Cruise, you can see the back side of water!
When you get up close to the palace, you can see all of the nice architectural details.

There is no entrance fee and we happily we inside. However, once inside, we found out why it is an incredibly impractical structure-that glass really concentrates the heat. There was a temporary art exhibit and there were restrooms down the stairs.At 3:55, we moved on, leaving by a different path. We came to the Estanque Grande (large pond) where folks were boating. Beside it is the Monumento Alfonso XII, which is huge!

At 4:32, we reached the Metro. My husband paid 1,60, but we used our last trip on our passes.We were on the train at 4:34. We got off at 4:36 at Anden and walked to the Liega platform. Our train was there by 4:45 and ten minutes later we were off at Arguelles.
We decided to head up to the department store at the end of our street, as we hadn't visited it yet. It was only a 6 minute walk to El Carte Ingles. I bought a terracotta salsa bowl for just 6 Euros and we bought jelly, candy, coffee and pastries like those we'd had at breakfast for a total of 12,99.
Like many European department stores, there was a restaurant on the top floor, Mas Q Manos. The view was unlike any we'd seen in the area. We didn't realize the mountains were so near.

My daughters and I were still fairly full from lunch, plus the heat doesn't make me hungry. My husband, of course, not having had lunch, needed more. He ordered a pavo (turkey) sandwich(6,90 Euros). My older daughter had a cup of gazpacho (3,90 Euros), while my younger daughter had an interesting salad of rikula (rocket lettuce), virutas de Parmet (parmesan shavings) and tomate seco y pinones for 6,90. I had a delicious Ensalada Mediterranes for 5,90. My husband's red wine was on 2,80, while our Coke products were 2,50 each.

At 7:16, we headed out and we were in the hotel at 7:40 to do the packing. Not a fun job!