Tourists on Christmas

What being a tourist on Christmas is like......


You get to visit the outside of a lot of places, but not the inside. I imagine the Prado is much more impressive from inside....

But, With it being Christmas day and all, we had assumed that most things in Madrid would be closed, so saved one of the walking tours in our tour book for today. It started off at the centre of Spain....seriously.

This is a plaque on the sidewalk that marks the exact centre of Spain. I've decided that that's a great way to stop wars--once it's in place, it's really a waste to go and move the country's borders.



Visiting a creche (nativity scene) is a big Spanish tradition at Christmas time. This is one of the bigger ones in Madrid, and the lines were often quite long to walk through--so we just snuck a look from the outside.



More places we visited the outside of....
The Palais Royale (royal palace for those of you wanting translations).


And this church...

I don't know the name of the church, but it is right beside the palace, so we visited the outside of it as well (we actually got to visit the inside too, but just for a few minutes. We thought that we were inside the visiting hours, but the guards, apparently, thought otherwise).

I discovered that there are people just out on the street dancing flamenco. Just as I always dreamed Spain would be.



Another of the living statues.....



I love the name of this restaurant--"the museum of ham". It would do well in Israel, no?

Incidentally, the guy in the picture is about to give me the finger. He thinks that I am taking a picture of him. You've got to expect with a great name like the "museum of ham" that there will be people taking pictures, so it's not one of the best places to run away from the cops with your sheet full of counterfit perfume.....maybe he didn't think of that though. Being busy running away from the cops and all....