Madrid Day 1: El Palacio Royal

No, Palacio Real doesn't mean the real palace, it means the royal palace.  It is where Spanish kings and queens lived from the 1500's to 1931.  This palace is in Madrid (Spain's capital) and is used for ceremonies and for tours.  This is the first place I toured yesterday and it was really cool.



We first started in the armory where they showed a collection of Spanish weapons and their adaptation through the years.  At first they had really long swords and spears, but by the end they had guns and guns with wheels.  It was interesting to see how the weapons changed little by little.  Even the first guns they had did not resemble the final rifles.  Then we toured the royal rooms where royal meetings would take place and where the king and queen would live.  They had a dining room that could hold 100+ people at one table.  What you would need that big of a table for, I don't know.  It would be really awkward if the salt shaker was all the way down on the other end. Another room we saw had been converted into a billiard room and then right next door was a smoking room because one king partied, I guess (this was in the 1900's).  We didn't have a tour because it cost too much extra, so we gathered all of the information from the little tarjetas, or cards (pronounced tar-hate-tas), that would tell more about the artist or the sculptor and less about the significance.  But then I went back and looked up some stuff on Wikipedia.
After we spent a good hour and a half in the palace we went out for good old Spanish fast food called Rodillas (two l's make a y sound) where we had small sandwiches which held us until dinner at 8:30.  Actually, 8:30 is early for dinner and most places serve food at 9 or later.  But I had paella (remember the double l) and a steak fillet which were both pretty good.  And then I came back to the hotel and slept for 12 hours.  I am very energized for today though.  We are going to see el Museo del Prado which has some royal artworks as well.  Though our hotel is equipped with Wi-Fi (pronounced wiffy here) I doubt it will be as easy in Granada where I'm moving to on Thursday.  So even though I should be proud that I made a legit blog post, I don't know how probable it will be in the future.  But at least you get to hear from me now :)
¡Hasta luego! (Until later, literally, or talk to you later)