Madrid at Christmastime

Arriving by plane in Madrid on December 21st, it didn't take us long to discover that Christmas decorations were very much in evidence -- especially at night. Beyond that, we observed that Madrid is definitely a "night city." When the picture at the top was taken we were walking back to our hotel on a pedestrian-only street that was so jam-packed with people strolling both ways that it was only with difficulty that we were able to walk at a decent pace. On our only full day in Madrid we did visit the Prado and were especially impressed with a special short-term exhibition that contained paintings of "the young Van Dyke," and also several paintings from Rico and Titian.

Then, on a walk back from the train station -- where we were unsuccessful in getting all of our train tickets printed out that applied to our 6-trip rail pass -- we stumbled-onto a fascinating clock that on the hour (3:00 p.m. for us) had large figures emerging from the wall and cavorting around for 2-3 minutes! (And then at Playa del Sol [a very central plaza in Madrid] at night we encountered M&M Mouse, Santa Claus, and a couple other figures. - rw