A&J's Travels: WHY WE DIDN'T VISIT THE ROYAL PALACE

When we were on our city tour I had noticed a sign for "Templo de Debod" which the tour didn't explain. I was curious as "Debod" doesn't sound Spanish at all. So, of course we had to explore. We learned that this is a 2,200 year old Egyptian Temple dedicated to the worship of Amun and Isis that was given to Spain in 1968 in thanks for their aid in rescuing temple ruins at Abu Simbel in Nubia.

I was blown away thinking about taking apart something that old and then transporting it Spain and reassembling it.

This is a lovely park with a really nice overlook to the Royal Palace.

That was our destination as we had read about the "Stradivarius Room" which houses the only existing quartet of Stradivarius instruments - 2 violins, 1 viola and 1 cello - which get played when the Queen wants to hear live classical music. King Juan Carlos (and the Queen) doesn't actually live here (they are a few blocks away) but do come back for ceremonial activities. The palace has a huge park out front with more statuary of important people, mostly kings.

We got to the ticket area of the palace and this is what we saw:

and

Jim and I don't do crowds or lines, so we gave the Palace a miss. Right next door is the Cathedral, Santa Maria La Real De La Almudena, with it's "Neo-Romantic Crypts" so that's where we headed.

Jim chose to sit in the sun and smoke a pipe while I headed in. This is the first thing I saw.

It was far more beautiful in my mind than the stain glass windows which were making the patterns of light and color.

I was struck as well by the beauty of the decor on the ceilings of this massive cathedral.

Mass was being given while I was taking these photographs and I couldn't help but think about the tremendous amount of pain, suffering and death the Catholic Church caused to people historically, especially in this country. I can still appreciate the beauty of the artwork, however, such as in this tile work,

and in these stained glass windows:

I was very curious to see what the "Neo-Romantic Crypts" were all about so I went down the hill to the lowest level of the cathedral and this was the first thing I saw:

I was a little surprised because I was expecting something more like I had seen in Paris at the Pantheon, which was a little creepy and dark. This wasn't dark and it was immense. I didn't see anyone entombed who was in the class (in my book) of Voltaire but I did see this family crypt in the floor which may or may not be someone related to the royal family.