May 8, 2023. Madrid rest day

What a well deserved rest day at last. We slept in (along with everyone else) and had a nice leisurely breakfast (along with everyone else).

After doing some laundry we set off to explore Madrid. After ten miles of walking here are some of the sights we saw.

San Jeronimo el Real or Saint Jerome the Royal is a Roman Catholic Church from the early 16th century. Notice the size of the painting behind the altar.

And the only dark skinned Virgin Mary we’ve seen.

Catedral de Santa María la Real de la Almudena or the Almudena Cathedral is a Catholic church “dedicated to the Virgin Mary”.

Parque del Buen Retiro or simply El Retiro is one of the largest parks in Madrid. The park belonged to the Spanish Monarchy until the late 19th century when it became a public park. It covers over 290 acres and is quite beautiful to wander through.

And one more sighting to share. It’s outing day! You can see the next group coming up behind the first.

May 7, 2023. Distance: 61 miles. Elevation: 1,690 feet

Today was a good day for cycling. Perfect temperature. Not too hot. A nice breeze although it was a headwind most of the day. It was a 3 cue sheet day. Mostly a straight shot but LOTS of roundabouts.

Our only stop of the day (besides a quick bathroom and water stop at a petrol station) was at the Royal Site of Aranjuez or the King and Queen’s “summer palace”. Established in the 16th century as a royal hunting lodge, the palace was built by order of Philip II. We only stopped to take a few pictures.

Here we are on the other side of the palace, all hungry and trying to figure out where to get food and water.

Here’s a close up of the roses in these planters.

I forget to mention that we’ve been seeing poppies beside the road for the past several days, just a few here and there. As we got closer to Madrid the poppies were more and more prolific. This pic doesn’t do them justice ’cause I took it on the fly.

Madrid is a HUGE city but amazingly there is a bike path from at least 12 miles out of town all the way into the city center (and maybe beyond). We were biking along this lovely path with highways running this way and that everywhere. It was quite amazing.

We got to our Hotel NH Ribera del Manzanares by 3pm.

After showers and settling in a bit we headed out for some food. Chris found this tiny place several blocks away from the expensive hotel row eateries.

Here Chris had his Radler and I my vino blanco. Since they were known for their burgers we split a bacon burger and had a lovely rest. Here’s something we hadn’t seen before – potato chips with anchovies on top.

And one last tidbit for you. Today is Mothers Day in Spain. Chris pointed out that I get two Mothers Days this year!