packages tied up with string

This afternoon we went to the Royal Palace of El Pardo, where the Spanish royal family use to go reside when they went hunting. We walked down the tree-lined street to get there and it reminded me of the scene from The Sound of Music when she singing 'I Have Confidence' and Maria is skipping down the street with her carpet bag and guitar. I might just do that next time I go down that street with no one else around. That street so happens to be lined with army barracks and I have spotted numerous good looking soldiers.

The palace itself was very old and is undergoing some refurbishments. All the floors made noises as you were strolling from room to room. There were a lot of tapestries and chandeliers and frescoes on the ceiling and some by Goya. I wish I'd taken a photo of the angy cherub I spotted on the ceiling. Whenever I visit a palace or and old castle I always think they should have some actors dressed up in that period in a room or something and pretend they are actually living there so you really can step back in time. Hell, I would even put my hand up to be one of those actors but I don't think any Chinese were in El Pardo at the time. Franco used to live there and he modernised it by placeing a huge tv in his sitting rooms. It looks quite out of place after seeing all the old furniture.

When you buy baked goods here you get them wrapped like a gift and then tied up with string. Is this not the best combination ever? When you get home it's like opening a present and what a better present to get then some baked goods. We stopped by at this little cafe called La Marquestia for some lunch consisting of an empanada and a diet coke. By comparison, the empanadas I had in Argentina were way better. Maybe they taste better in winter as opposed to summer?

In the evening we went to IKEA to buy some more bits and pieces for the pool house. IKEA here is the same as everywhere else on the planet except in their food section they had an ice-cream machine that self serves a cone for you and you just have to choose the flavour. The price of a cone is 0.50 Euro and it was miniscule in size. Sorry, didn't take a photo of it because I ate it too fast. In this area, there is a huge shopping complex with everything you need under the sun. A place called Leroy Merlin (the equivalent of Bunnings in Oz), Carrefour (I'm promised a visit to this humungus supermercado) and Media Mart (a huge warehouse that sells electrical appliances and music/dvds). The shopping malls was huge. The Starbucks where David Beckham who lives in the area was pointed out to me also.

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One of the back streets in El Pardo