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Royal Palace

Day 2 in Madrid was terrific!

We had a 7:30 wake up call, grabbed our 'whispers' and headed out for a full day....



Started with the beautiful Royal Palace, which is a working palace even today.  Charles III was the first king to live in residence.  At its height, 6,000 people lived at the Palace.  The place was grand and featured lots of interesting things:  more than 2,000 working clocks from Phillip's collection, a hall of columns adorned with tapestries made in Brussels, a throne room (with thrones; but the king and queen do not sit on them today), antique china, silver and crystal, a chapel, the 'royal quartet of musical instruments' and magnificent statues, paintings and murals.

From there we walked through old town Madrid and grabbed lunch near Plaza Mayor - very European, reminding us of Venice and Prague plazas.

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