This morning we did a walking tour of Spain’s Capital City of Madrid. We toured its beautiful Royal Palace. Unfortunately, we could not take any pictures after a certain area of the interior. There are over 2,800 rooms-if you can even begin to imagine that amount. We visited 20 of them and they were spectacular. The display of chandeliers took your breath away. The King no long lives here but the Royal Palace is used for entertaining etc.
Here are some pics…but FIRST…it was our granddaughter Clare’s First Communion and her older sister, Grace, was a server….have to sneak this in for anyone who is truly following this blog-:)!!They live in Omaha, Nebraska.
This is our son Eric with Emily, Henry, Clare, John and Grace!!! 
Now on to the Royal Palace of Madrid…-:)!!!
The Royal Gardens…
The Royal Coat of Arms…
The chandeliers …hundreds of them….wish they would have allowed pictures….
An example of the beautiful ceiling paintings….
Here Spain’s new King is pictured on the right in the picture below. 
Then we continued our walking tour of the City…with a quick stop for their famous hot chocolate-:)!! As you can see..a bit brisk..
Bud’s favorite local lunch spot where you can get the best calamari in the city….
If you want to ring in the New Year in Madrid…their ‘Times Square’ is a clock in the main gathering plaza of the city. They limit admission to this area on New Year’s Eve to 20,000.
We have watched it many times from the USA as coverage begins ‘panning’ New Year’s Eve celebrations around the world around 6:00 pm our time…
Not quite as dramatic as dropping the ball in Times Square or the Walleye Drop in Port Clinton-:)!!
One more glimpse…
Starting soon during Holy Week…the people of Spain have amazing ‘parades’ and they will carry the Blessed Virgin on this HUGE chariot style platform that will be elevated over their heads.
They say it is one celebration after another…the entire town comes out!! Hope to see a few as we travel on….
Tomorrow off on a day trip to Toledo, Spain, by fast train. We are very excited to see this city as our daughter, Keri, lived there with a family for a semester to learn the language and study🤗!!
Oxleys' Adventures 
Your son’s family is beautiful and what stunning pictures once again! And Toledo, a place I know and visited waaay back in 1973 as a HS student.
Whow…….every place you have shared is so beautiful, and I bet you are meeting some wonderful people……….again THANKS for sharing….
Thanks for following…makes the effort all worthwhile!!