Madrid, day 3

On Sunday, we went first to the Palacio Real, to see the amazing home of the Spanish kings. One photo below shows the gates and the palace at the end of the large courtyard. At night, you can see that the lights are soccer balls -- just kidding. Inside, my neck hurt from looking way way up at the paintings on the ceilings of the very large rooms. In the dining room, there were at least 60 chairs set at the huge long table. Too bad they don't allow photos inside.

After seeing the palace, we took a long walk to the Madrid Rio Parque, which is so new that maps don't show it. A highway that ran right beside the river was rebuilt underground, and the new park now has all that space on top for trees, gardens, playgrounds, and a wide path for people to walk, ride bikes, or skate. One playground has jumpy-swingy things that kids use together; the tall pole in the middle can rock from side to side as kids on the ropes bounce each other around. Very fun!

In all our walking today, we went almost 7 miles and we climbed 32 flights of stairs (or steep hills). But I didn't bounce on the jumpy-swingy thing.