Madrid

I am really fed up with this winter. Therefore I have decided to go to Madrid and seek a bit of sun.

On the list of the biggest tourist attractions of Madrid I found "Plaza de Toros de las Ventas". Indeed, this is a monumental building.

It is big and round shaped - not so easy to show it on the pictures.

Unfortunately, only after coming there I realised what is the purpose of this place. This is a bullring so in other words the place where people kill bulls for fun. They even build statues to commemorate their most skilled matadors. Did you know that in Spanish "matar" means "to kill"? I really cannot approve such things! Brothers bulls, we horses are with you with all our hearts.

To calm my nerves I moved to the city center to see the Almuneda Cathedral. It seems very old but in fact it was only completed in 1993.

The porch of the Cathedral ....

... faces the Royal Palace of Madrid. Actually, the Royal Family does not live here, they only use it for official ceremonies.

When you walk to the other side of the palace you will realise that it is actually located on a hill.

Below the palace you will see the Sabatini Gardens. Unfortunately even in Spain it is not warm enough now for the flowers to bloom so the garden cannot show all its beauty now. Again, the garden seems to date back to the eighteenth century while in fact it was only completed in 1970s.

I moved down the lane and passed by the Spanish Senate building. In fact, the Spanish king is not really ruling the country, Spain is a parliamentary democracy which means that the parliament and the government take the most important decisions.

Finally, I arrived to the Plaza de España or Spanish Square. This huge monument in the middle is devoted to Miguel Cervantes, one of the most famous Spanish writers.

Of course you all know that his most famous book is "Don Quixote", a brave man who travels on the back of his faithful horse Rocinante. You can see both of them (together with Sancho Pansa and his donkey of course) in front of the monument. 

In the back of the monument there is a nice fountain. The lady sitting there is supposed to represent the Spanish litterature. 

 

Finally, I moved to the Plaza Mayor (or Main Square).  It is rectangular in shape and is surrounded by residential buildings.

It is not easy to show its beauty on a picture so I will only show you one of these buildings. To see it in full, I recommend you this 360 degrees panorama.

Hi friends! Nice to meat you! You have a very nice city here.

Just a few steps from Plaza Mayor you will see the Puerta del Sol. You will see there the heraldic symbol of Madrid, the bear with the Madroño tree.

I am sure you noticed I did not mention so far one of the major attractions of Madrid, the Prado. Well, you will hear more about it next time.

UEFA EURO 2012 (part.2)

In a recent pool my firends postcrossers told me that the story from the opening match of the UEFA EURO 2012 was their preferred one. So I decided to share with you one of the semi-finals as well.

The semi-final was played on the National Stadium.

Already when I was approaching the stadium it was obvious who is going to play.

Football is a game that unleashes strong emotions. As a result, not all fans behave the way they should. To prevent incidents, the stadium was surrounded by policeman. Of course, I liked best these ones.

I booked a comfortable place in one of the skyboxes.

Before the match started we could watch a little dancing show.

Then the call for respect began. Both captains read a message in their native languages. The supporters had their part too.



The national anthems were a moving moment. Unfortunatelly the supporters of one of the teams did not understand the "respect" message and were booing, whistling and hissing during the other country's anthem. Very bad behaviour folks.

During the German anthem a huge flag arose.

The teams shook hands.

Finally, the game began.

The German supporters were all excited.

No surprise, since Buffon was very busy in the first minutes.

A relief for the Italian sector - no goal this time.

And then out of a sudden the ball was in the German goal. Balotelli is an amazing player. The Italian team was more than happy.

If you rememebr well, the opening match included a penatly. Well, this one as well. This allowed Mesut Özil to score his first goal in the chapmionship.

The match ended with 2:1 for Italy. As it was the last match of the championship played in Poland, a huge "thank you" message entered the field.

That was really a great match and I enjoyed it a lot. See you in 2 years in Brazil!

P.S. Thanks to Mariusz for his support with the pictures.