Rewarded for Persistence

Yesterday made up for the prior day - I batted a thousand.  Every building was where is was meant to be on the map, and those that were meant to be open were open.  I got a Church (the Oratory of the Caballero de Gracia,

a private collection (where they were snooty as could be about who they would let in, but the collection was worth it,

and an Egyption temple (dug up when they were building the Aswan Dam  and presented to whoever was king at the time.

Not to mention my continued love affair with the architec ture, old and new...

and the parks and circles

If that's not an El Greco sky, I never saw one!

And Cervantes, with Don Quijote and Sancho Panza

I even found a craft market in the park (not stellar, but different.  I think I forgot to mention the food market I found yesterday).  All in all, a good day.  Today was great too, but I will save that for next blog!

Want to close this one whith a few general thoughts.  Madrid seems determined to be very green.  Every place has lights that seem to be motion activated and go off automatically.  They have built all the new neighborhoods with recycling bins everywhere on the streets.  For a city as large as it is, it seems very clean, not only the Metro but the streets as well, and I always see people throwing trash in bins rather than on the ground.  I think I have mentioned the politeness in the Metro; that follows through on the streets as well, where there is hardly ever a horn heard in anger.  There are signs of the 20% unemployment - lots of beggars, as well as street musicians (different music than Italy.  Italy there were accordians, here there are guitars and fiddles!).  I hope their financial woes don't bring too much change - they seem to like their life the way it is, and it certainly is a joy to visit!