Mediterranean Iconic Shores Ocean Cruise

Day 34: Tuesday, December 02, 2025 - Madrid, Spain

The day's statistics:
-  Weather: upper 50s
-  Steps: Linda: 12,019; Steve: 14,250

This is our last full-day overseas. 😞
After awaking, showering, and getting ready for the day, we headed to the restaurant for breakfast which was a typical buffet (I'm sure the churros under the heat lamp were not nearly as good as the one from the shop in Barcelona were).






After the meal, we returned to the room to brush, and grab our jackets and such for the excursion.

We headed back downstairs to Tom's desk / table near the conference room we met in last night. Near this area was a fountain.

And near the lobby was a large seating area.


The group gathered in the lobby at 8:30 for our 9:00 excursion departure.

The VOX devices we were given were a little different. The ship-based VOXes have a receiver with a wired single in-the-ear piece. These were over-the-ear single piece receivers with more of a speaker than an in-the-ear piece.
Tom was our hotel host. Our excursion guide was Marta.
We boarded the bus and headed out, seeing some of the same sights we saw yesterday - and our route, before our first stop, took us past the post office that is now city hall, some fountains including Neptune's fountain that was built in 1775, and even the train station where we arrived yesterday.




















Our route took us to Plaza Mayor that was already being set up with a Christmas market and decorations.



After passing through the plaza and out the other side, we continued on.


This is an iconic symbol in Madrid - a bear and a strawberry tree - that is the crest of the city, and has been since 1212. The berries aren't really strawberries but are a fruit closer to a fig. The symbolism is that the city is responsible for the land, ala the tree, and the church is responsible for the bear, and the two have to work together for them to be successful.




Not much further on we came upon the Cathedral Church of the Armed Forces. There is a memorial dedicated to the victims of a bomb attach that occurred when someone tried to kill the King and Queen, but failed.


We continued our route heading toward the royal plaza, or the Plaza de la Armeria.
The route essentially took us around the Cathedral de Santa María la Real de la Almudena as we also passed by a Bentley.



We arrived at the plaza, but didn't go inside the church as we didn't have enough time.




Across the plaza from the church was the 3,000 room royal palace.



At the end of the plaza between the church and palace was an overlook. I walked over to it, but the gate was locked.

After grabbing the above, I notice a guard letting someone into the area through a gate door. I ask her "Una photographia?" And she said its closed until 10:00. It was 9:57... "OK, gracias". Two travelers in our group took a selfie outside the gate and I let them know the gate was going to be opened in a couple minutes. They said "thanks" and as we all walked back a little to the gates, the guard was already opening them. It was also at that time that I heard Marta in my VOX telling thee group that the gate was open if anyone wanted to take a look.
I took a couple shots of the more interesting looking sights from here, including carnival tents in the distance.



The royal guard was either doing a drill, changing, or whatever. But I got a quick clip of them anyway, along with a landscape pan from the patio area too.

A quick selfie before heading out.

The group departed the plaza and turned left - having arrived from the right - and passed the visitor's entrance to the palace on our way to the parking garage - which was under a statue garden - to board the bus and head to our next destination.









The bus wove back through the city and onto the Prado Museum.















The bus passed by the front of the museum, turned, and briefly parked on the side road to let us out.
On the walk to the museum entrance - at the rear side of the building - there were a couple sculptures (there were three similar but different versions of the sculpture in the second photo).


A church was on the hill overlooking the museum entrance.

Photography was prohibited - except for in one area at the end - in the museum, so there were no pictures of the interesting pieces we saw (and there was a lot of security throughout the facility so "accidents" couldn't even take place). I wound up just leaving the camera on the bus so as to not cause any issues.
We didn't have to wait on line long as we had timed tickets to enter.
After passing through security, the group gathered near a statue in the foyer area by the museum store.
When the group was ready, we first headed upstairs, weaved through the a number of the rooms, headed downstairs, and continued through a few more. There was one spot that photography was permitted - it was in a room with statues wherein international leader events have been held.



The museum visit highlighted [at least] three main flaws of the VOX devices: 1) since they are little speakers without earbud ear canal inserts, ambient noise interferes with some of the sound, B) the range isn't as far as with the other devices; and 4) partially due to the issue of the noise and having to keep the volume a little higher - the batteries don't last as long as the other devices.
When the tour was complete, the travelers in the group were given a couple options: 1) do what they want to and make their way back to the hotel whenever; or B) take fifteen minutes on our own for the facilities and or peruse the gift shop before taking the bus back to the hotel (it was a half-hour or so walk).
Those that wanted to return to the hotel via the bus headed out at the allotted time - including us.

After returning to the hotel, we talked to Tom about local restaurants for lunch.
Restaurante José Luis was our target destination.
At the end of the block, and across the large intersection, and up the hill a bit - generally toward the church in this picture.

This statue was near the intersection we were passing by.

When we arrived, we were seated at a table for two, and given menus.



Rather than try to focus on any one or two particular regional dishes, we went with the Assorted Pincos. And even with those, rather than choose just one, we did both the Cold and Warm selections, and cut them ~60/40. The assortment included cold pinchos of spicy tuna, salmon, prosciutto, and crab; and warm pinchos of brie, sirloin, chicken croquette, chips, and Spanish omlet.


Of course we had to try the "World Famous Lemon Pie". With coffee.

This lunch was really good, and we were happy that we went here.

After lunch, rather than head back to the hotel, we headed in the other direction to try to get into the church of San Francisco Borjia.
At the first entrance we encountered, the gate was closed and locked. Based on the hours, we were in between Mass times - sometimes churches, especially Catholic ones, are open during the day.

We walked further on, turned, and found an open door that had a reception booth. I asked if the church was open and was told it was not, so we could not get in. At least we tried.
So we headed in the direction whence we came, and discovered that the entrance to the church was across the street from the US Embassey (with the armed guards out front, I didn't try to get a picture of it).

And we continued on back toward and to the hotel.

By now it was midafternoon.
After trying to make our luggage such that we only had to deal with PJs, toilet kits, and an outfit for the next day, we still had some free time. So we grabbed the cards and headed to the Exploer's Lounge lobby area where there was some seating and tables - just to get out of the room.
While we were playing, a bartender / attendant / whatever-role-he-had stopped by and asked if we wanted anything. We asked for water, and he obliged.
Not far from our little table for two was a door to the courtyard area that had tables and a sculpture.

After playing, chatting, and gaming on the phones for a little, we returned to the room to grab our coats so we could head back to the market for another light salad dinner.
Eggs - in the European countries we've seen - aren't stored in the refrigerated section of the market like they are in the US. And while the seafood prices seemed comparatively really good, the egg prices not so much. We can get, at home, a dozen large eggs (huevos) for $2.25 whereas these are $3.75 for a dozen medium.

Tonights dinner was from the same refrigerator case as last nights, but this time I pushed for the ensalada de marisco which had shrimp, some veggies, and pasta - and octopus, but I didn't notice that at first. And a bottle of wine. Dessert was the last of the cookies from Séte.
This salad was really good. Really, really good.

We watched a little more Antique Roadshow like program, and a game show too, as we finished the wine.
Then we washed and went to sleep.

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