El Rastro, etc. (Madrid día..cinco?)

Yeesh, talk about backlog. I already gave my disclaimer/apology a while back, so we won't waste time with that. You know how it is. Anyway, let's get back to Spain, shall we?

On Sunday mornings in one particular section of Madrid, there is a large street market called El Rastro. Fernando and I ventured down there to check it out the giant flea market, and it reminded me so much of Thailand. We mostly just looked/walked around though, because unlike Thailand, there was no bargaining, and it wasn't dirt-cheap. Oh well, still an experience...

We also ventured over to Museo Sorolla, which was probably my favorite museum visit, but I'll share more about that in a later post on Madrid galleries...

On the way home, I finally snapped a shot of...oh I forget the name, but it's basically Spain's version of the Arc de Triomphe, which of course could not be considered complete if it didn't have a statue of some horses on top. [Man, maybe I should compile all of my horse-statue pictures...that would be a long post!]

When we got home, Fernando's mom had made the most delicious meal, and we sat down for la Comida, which, at midday, is Spain's main meal of the day (not dinner like Americans). It was delicious, and it makes me miss being there already!

We had some sort of [delicious] fish, an amazing potato/onion/creamy casserole-like dish, fresh Spanish bread, and the most incredible "pumpkin cream," which was like a potato/pumpkin bisque.

After siesta, it was time to pack up. (Their home is far from the airport, and because my flight was very early Monday morning, I went and stayed at a friend-of-a-friend's place downtown. More on that later.)

I had a sublime sojourn with the García family, and cannot thank them enough for their hospitality.

 Haha, we kid, we kid!

Till next time,
M