The Palace Hotel, where we moved yesterday, is kind of the quintessential European old-world luxury hotel.  The lobby looks like a hotel you might see in an old Hitchcock movie: very ornate, marble and crystal everywhere.  In short, it could scarcely be more different than our prior perch, the Hotel Silken Puerta de America.  The main advantage (other than living in the lap of luxury) is the fantastic central location. We are literally across the street from the Prado, one of the great museums of the world. And many of the city's sights are within easy walking distance.  My favorite thing to do when travelling is walking around, so we really love the hotel's location.  

When we last left you we were departing the Hotel Silken and heading to the Palace.  We had a short cab ride along the Castellana, a beautiful broad boulevard lined with government buildings, luxury apartments and embassies.  We came upon a large group of police vans and asked our cab driver what had happened.  He said there was a demonstration by restaurant and bar owners protesting the new law (effective 1/1/11) prohibiting smoking in bars and restaurants.  You have to understand that smoking is a really big deal in Spain. It seems like everyone smokes. So it's taking some effort to get used to the new law.  I remember we had similar protests when smoking was outlawed in California bars and restaurants. Although I am personally not very fond of much of the government regulation imposed upon us, I have to say that the law outlawing smoking in bars and restaurants was a really great thing for California, and I expect it will be an even better thing for Spain, once they get used to it.  Do you remember how awful it used to be if you went out to a bar and came home smelling like an ashtray?  (Seems like a very long time ago now.)  Our cab driver was firmly in the "For Smoking" camp, so I more or less agreed with him that it was a shocking abridgment of the people's rights.  (Don't ever get into an argument with a cab driver if you can help it; sometimes you have to (like when they are driving you around in circles for no good reason)).  

Check-in at the Palace went without a hitch.  We were given what is referred to as a "Deluxe" room, and it is very nice indeed. We had a small problem with the A/C not working but they came and fixed it as soon as we reported it, and all was well. There was a welcoming bowl of fruit and a note from the housekeeper asking us to let her know if there is anything they can do for us.  And they comped the Internet access, which is a nice benefit, since it costs something like 16 euros a day.  I don't know why it bugs me to pay for Internet access, but it does. 

We decided to go see the Reina Sophia Museum, which is the home of the Guernica by Picasso. The painting is huge and very significant to the Spanish people as it depicts the bombing of the town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.  No photographs are allowed, but strangely you are allowed to take a photo from the next room, so I did: 

In most other parts of the museum photography is allowed, so we took quite a few photos of various works of modern art. I'm not sure why or what we will do with them but I did have fun shooting photos of some of these famous works of art.  We arrived at a certain gallery and I continued to shoot (as I had been doing without incident) when I was accosted by a guard who scolded "NO FOTOS!" She was going to make me remove the photo from my camera, but just then someone else took a picture of the same thing, and she ran off to stop them. So I skidaddled out of there.  I still don't know what I took a picture of but I may as well show you, since it was so hard-won: 

Cath says this work is called Triadic Ballet, by Oskar Schlemmer.  Somehow she knows this type of thing.  

I get serious "museum feet" after about two hours in any museum, so that's always my signal to move on.  We walked back towards the Palace and enjoyed seeing the Madrilenos out in the late afternoon walking about.  Madrid is a very "liveable" city, in that it isn't too tall, and not all that crowded, but it does have a style and sophistication that is really appealing.  

When we got back to the Palace I took a "siesta" (really I think that's Mexican but I took one anyway) while Cath enjoyed the free Internet access on the iPad.  The iPad is really a tremendous device; great for web surfing and email.   

Around 9:00 p.m. we went to dinner. That's a bit early but acceptable around here.  Our friends Carol and Jim Spowart had recommended we go to a restaurant called "La Ancha" which is right next to the Spanish Congress.  Apparently it's really popular with the political types.  When we arrived at 9:00 there was just a few people there. By 10:00 it was filling up nicely.  We left at 10:30 p.m. and the diners will still arriving.  Here is a shot of La Ancha's sign: 

We really enjoyed our dinner. Since we were eating three meals every day during the Ford Focus portion of our tour, we felt we could light up a bit on the calories, so we didn't at lunch yesterday. We arrived hungry and weren't disappointed.  First up was "gambas al ajillo" which is small very tender shrimp cooked in olive oil and garlic.  The flavor was amazing.  Cath then got some Artic Cod  with a stew of tomatoes and peppers on top.  I got merluza (hake) cooked with chipirones en su tinto (baby squid in its own ink). Then torta de queso (cheesecake) for dessert. The owner treated us to some type of digestif after dinner (think Galleano) which was a perfect end to our meal.  We walked off our dinner a bit  and headed home for bed. 

There you have it.  I don't have as much to write about now but I still seem to have written a lot.  Several of you have written to tell me you are enjoying these daily missives so I hope they won't get boring. Only a few more to suffer through anyway.  Today we are going to take a long walk and maybe buy something.  

Hasta la proxima!  

Jim S., reporting from Madrid

P.S. You may recall we said that each floor of the Hotel Silken was done by a different architect. Yesterday before we checked out we went and visited each floor and took a picture. If you'd like to see the other floors you can go here.  There are ten floors in all.  I really do think ours (the 4th floor) was the best one of all.