Madrid - Palacio Real

Our first evening in Madrid we walked around and ended up near the Palacio Real. We couldn't go in, but noticed that it was very nice architecture with golden accents (obviously). We put taking a tour on our list of possibilities for our few days there.





Before we left Madrid we did indeed go on said palace tour. It was very interesting, especially because we decided to wander the palace instead of being in a tour group. This meant that we could go at our own pace, and usually ended up around a tour guide speaking a language we at least marginally understood so we could find out more if we wanted to.





As one might expect we weren't allowed to go everywhere in the palace, but we saw many different rooms including the throne room, dining room, sitting room, and a spare bedroom. The decorations were always extravagant but still beautiful.









Many of ceilings were painted with different scenes, usually related to gods or angels (And yes, in the second photo that is indeed a security camera). It was very nice to have a decent camera with me, especially when trying to zoom in on ceiling details. Even the larger rooms like the throne room had the ceiling covered in a continuous painting. Unfortunately none of the pictures in the throne room turned out well since we weren't allowed to use a flash and it was very dimly lit. Many of the people in there used a flash anyway and nothing happened except that they got yelled at, but we decided not to further increase the damage to the old items in the room. Those hooligans.





Across the courtyard from the inside rooms that we were allowed to visit was the armory. The top floor showed all of the horse armor from the many centuries, and the lower floor showed the human armor and weapons. There were some very interesting swords, and even armor for small children. It felt very much as though I had stepped onto the set of Bednobs and Broomsticks, only it was just not quite the right nationality.