Soup of the week

**This post has 2 soups, this week's and last.**

This week we had Lentil Soup. I'm trying to come up with a more creative name for it since it's not anything like the mushy, gross stuff I had to eat as a child and that name conjures up all kinds of memories. So I think I'm going to call it Creamed Veggie Lentil. Or something like that.

So here you go:

Creamed Veggie Lentil
Serves: 4-6
Time: 1-2 hours

25g butter
1 TBS veg oil
2 large carrots
2 onions
2 celery sticks, diced
175g or 6oz red lentils (or green lentils)
2 pints of chicken or veggie stock
salt and pepper
5 fl oz milk or cream

4-6 pieces of bacon, optional

Melt butter with oil in large pot, add diced vegetables (and bacon, if using). Cook for 2 minutes, add lentils and cook for 2 minutes. Add stock and bring to simmer. Simmer on low heat for 45-60 minutes until lentils are tender. Season to taste. Liquidize if you prefer. Add milk or cream.

Results: Scrumptious and healthy! I don't like regular lentil soup because I think they have a strange consistency and absorb too much liquid and it just becomes mush. That being said, liquidizing the soup totally fixes that. And the flavor is really nice. The best thing about this recipe though is that you can stick whatever vegetables in it that you want. I didn't have any celery but had some potatoes that needed to get used. I've had a version of it with apples and green lentils. It's really up to you what you stick in. Oh, and I didn't put any cream or milk in at the end, it didn't need it. I doubled the recipe so as to have plenty of leftovers. The lady that gave me the recipe makes quadruple batches at a time then freezes it to have on hand. I'll do that someday when I have a pot big enough.

_______________________________________________

Last week's soup:

Chicken Stew with Cornmeal Dumplings
Serves: 4-6
Time: 1-2 hours

1 14oz can chicken broth
1 10oz package frozen mixed veggies
1 cup frozen small whole onions
1/2 cup water
2 tsp snipped fresh (or 1/2 tsp dried) basil, oregano, or dill
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp black pepper
1 cup milk
1/3 cup flour
2 cups cubed cooked chicken

-In a large saucepan combine broth, frozen veggies, onions, water, herbs, salt, garlic powder and pepper. Bring to boiling.
-Meanwhile, in a small bowl combine milk and flour, stir into veggie mixture. Stir in chicken. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly.
-Drop dumpling dough from a tablespoon in to 4-8 mounds on top of the bubbling stew. Simmer, covered (do not lift cover), over low heat for 10-12 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted into a dumplings comes out clean.

Cornmeal Dumplings
In a bowl stir together 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese, 1/3 cup cup yellow cornmeal, 1 tsp baking powder, and a dash of black pepper. In a small bowl combine 1 beaten egg, 2 TBS milk, and 2 TBS cooking oil. Add to flour mixture, stirring with a fork until just combined.

Results: Yummy and the dumplings were a nice alternative to rolls or bread which we usually have with our soups. Although, I didn't quite stick to the recipe. I didn't cook the chicken before hand, I put several breasts (frozen) straight into the liquid (which I doubled) and herbs/seasoning and sliced fresh onions (rather than the frozen baby ones) and let it simmer and cook for about an hour. Then I broke the chicken up with a fork and dumped some handfuls of frozen veggies in and let that simmer for another 30-45 minutes then put the dumplings in. I bought a bag of veg that had broccoli, carrots, peas, corn and red pepper (we hate the mixed veggies with lima beans...yuck!).

Top Ten Portugal

So, all I'll say is that 2010 is really kicking my butt so far but I think the fog is lifting. And one of the first steps to getting back on track is blogging.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After our 2 days in Madrid, we flew to Portugal.

While there we went to these cities in our rented car: Braga, Ponte da Barca, Valenca do Minho, Viana do Castelo, Porto, Aveiro, Tomar, Mira de Aire, Sintra, Lisbon. There were 4 or 5 other places/areas we wanted to check out but had to cut for time reasons.

So without further ado, our Top Ten (in no particular order).

1) Cathedrals - Portugal is a deeply religious country and there are cathedrals, chapels, churches, convents, monasteries, sanctuaries, etc all over. Usually we aren't too interested but we read through our travel guide and picked 3 or 4 to see. Each one we saw was unique and had something very cool that made it stand out.
Santuario do Sameiro: We actually found this on on accident because it is just up the hill from one we had been looking for. It had amazing views because it was at the top of a mountain. It had a large square which led to a really long set of steps but from the top it looked like it dropped off the edge of the mountain. It was a little foggy which added to the atmosphere. We didn't go inside, we didn't need to since the outside was plenty awesome. And we showed up just as the bells were chiming the hour, which Brent got on video.

Bom Jesus do Monte: This is the one we had been looking for when we found the first one. This church is one of Portugal's most famous buildings and pilgrims come from all over to worship here. The church itself was pretty cool looking but the reason we went was to see the double stairway leading to the church. It has over 1,000 steps and each landing has a fountain and represent the five wounds of Christ, the five senses, and the 3 virtues. The architecture was amazing and it had some pretty great views as well.

Convento de Cristo: This set of buildings was once the headquarters of the Knights Templar in Portugal. It was built in like 1160 or something. It was really beautiful and it was surreal walking around a place that is essentially the same as it was almost 900 years ago (without all the knights and monks of course). The complex had a small "castle" which wasn't much more that the main gate of the surrounding walls, a church, cloisters, cemeteries, monk's dormitories and a few other surrounding buildings (kitchens, stables, etc). The high altar is located in an eight sided section of the church which has a 16 sided charola inside which basically a small chapel. It was fascinating. I'm not much for religious art but this was pretty incredible. It was really hard to get a good shot without a flash or a tripod. The carvings and sculptures around the exteriors were so ornate and they had some circular stone stairwells that we had fun with. We gave up seeing a castle on an island in a river to go there and I'm glad we did.

2) The Fortress at Valenca do Minho - The town of Valenca do Minho was built up inside of a fortress, and not just any fortress, a double fortress enclosed in two massive linked fortresses overlooking the river that separates Portugal and Spain. Most of it was built in the 1600's by a military architect. The town grew up inside of the walls of the fortaleza and is pretty self sufficient now. There are shops and restaurants and a chapel or 2, houses, businesses and it all has a pretty wicked view. The 2 fortresses are connected by a dry moat and we were there at sunset. Amazing. Plus we could see Spain, which was fun. Oh, and we saw a cat on a leash, one of the most hilarious things I've ever seen.

3) Grutas de Mira de Aire - There are quite a few caves systems in Portugal but we only had time for one so we did a little research and decided on these, which happen to be the largest. It stretches for 2.5 miles but the tours only cover about 750 yards. It was a rainy day and the caves are in the middle of a small town (I kid you not, the entrance is in a neighborhood of houses) pretty far away from any major cities so it was just us and one Spanish guy on the tour. It was great because the guide would let us take our time while he practised his Spanish on the other tourist. Or he'd talk to Brent while Caractacus Potts (my camera) and I had some fun. I don't have enough adjectives to explain these caves. Seriously. Now, I'm all for keeping the beauties of nature in their natural state but the caves had artificial, and sometimes colored lighting, man-made pathways and steps that were made to look like the rocks, fountains and a speaker system which played classical music as we walked along. The entrance to the caves was pretty even with ground level but by the time we got to the end, we had climbed down 110 meters (360 feet). One of the rooms was bigger than I could have ever imagined, especially for a cave. They call them "show caves" because that's what they are, big and sparkly and showy. Not your typical ranger guided trek through what the inside of a mountain looks like (which is also cool). It was an experience. Loved it.

4) Sintra - The town of Sintra is about 30 minutes outside of Lisbon. It is home to several of the past royals summer homes. We went to one of those, called the Palacio Nacional da Pena. It was built sometime in the early 1800's by the same quirky guy that designed the Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany (featured in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and one of the items on my "must see before I die" list since I was about 9). It was one crazy castle. Bright colors, interesting and mismatched carvings, and the interior had some pretty strange decor. Many of the rooms were themed and had some really crazy furniture and paintings. No photos were allowed inside but my mental camera was going nuts. There was a painting of a barbershop run by monkeys whose clientele was cats. Weird and awesome. It was really rainy and foggy and we were at the top of a mountain which I'm sure had amazing views that we couldn't see. It was really spooky and cool though.

After the Palacio, we walked about 10 minutes through the rain with our umbrellas, if you could call mine that (I swear it spent more time inside out that not) to the Castelo dos Mouros. It is ruins of a Moorish castle that has been there since like the year 900 or something. It was getting dark and it was really rainy and windy so we were the only ones there. It felt like if we closed our eyes and held really still we'd go back in time to Robin Hood days. It just seemed like at each turret there should have been a soldiers and archers with a giant torch ready to sound the attach or something. We were so soaked and probably shouldn't have risked taking out the camera but we did anyway. By the time we got back to the car, we were soaked to the bone and freezing and the car fogged up the whole way to our hotel for the night. Good times.

5) The Oceanario de Lisboa - While in Lisbon, we decided to do something a little different. We went to the aquarium. We never do that, especially when there is architecture and museums to check out. We are so glad we did. The set up for the Oceanario is really interesting. It's built over the bay and is 2 stories tall. Imagine a square-ish building. Each of the four corners are dedicated to the oceanic zones (Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic) and the top floor (entrance level) has exhibits of what kind of life is above water in that zone (penguins, otters, etc) and is even the correct temperature (cold and dry in the arctic, hot and humid in the Indian, etc) and the bottom floor is all about what lives under the water. Am I making any sense? Anyway, now imagine a giant circular column in the middle of the square that goes both levels. That is a MASSIVE 1.8 million gallon tank. Sharks, rays, sunfish, schools of mackerel, you name it, it was probably in there. It. Was. So. Cool. And huge.

6) Driving - We aren't the type to go to one place and stay there our whole vacation. We don't have time to do that. We're only here for 2 years and *need* to see as much as possible every time we go anywhere. This trip was no exception. We got our rental car first thing and hit the road. It was nice to be on the right side of the road for once. Brent had fun driving (the motorways are really nice and open and clean, albeit expensive since they're privatized) and I loved looking out the window at the scenery. Portugal is very hilly and in the north there are lots of grape orchards and rivers. We even drove along the coast for a few hours but it was night so we didn't see a lot. The central part of the country was still hilly but felt very different from the north. It was all very beautiful though. I loved all of the red tile roofs. I also really loved the freedom of having a car. We took a few stops that weren't planned and skipped some that were which wouldn't have been as easy taking trains or buses or if we had been with a tour group. Plus we just enjoy road trips with each other. We're a pretty good team. Brent does all the driving and I try my hardest to keep us well snacked and not lost. I only got us really lost once this trip. That's what you get for following a diesel that *should* know where he was going. He did not.

7) Fun and Unique Lodging - We were in Portugal for 3 nights and each night we were in a different town. We were able to find 3 very interesting hotels.
Castelo de Santa Catarina: A gothic inspired villa in Porto built in the 1920's. In the guidebook it is described as "ostentatious and possibly gaudy" which is so true. The outside is covered in typical Portuguese tiles. The inside is decorated with chandeliers and gilt mirrors, bright and ornate carpets, wallpapers, reproduction furniture but with updated bathrooms (thank heavens). It was really fun. Breakfast was really good too. And it fit very easily into our budget.

Estalagem de Santa Iria: This was our hotel for the night in Tomar. The hotel itself wasn't anything spectacular (very tired and 70's looking decor) but we had a room with a nice balcony overlooking the river on which our hotel's island was. Yes, it was located on a tiny island in the middle of a river. And the island had great views of the Knight's Templar Cathedral up on the hill. We took a walk after we checked in and got some fun pictures of the river and the Christmas lights that lined the roads (most of the towns we went to had Christmas lights up along the major roads) . In the morning we were privy to some really amazing homemade rolls. 3 different kinds. Yum! Brent really enjoyed driving on the tiny bridge to get there.

Residencial Alegria: Our last night was spent in Lisbon and we stayed in a pretty standard pensao, which is a hotel with no frills, just the basics. It was clean and warm though and a nice breakfast in the morning. The appeal was that is was one street off of the main tourist street in Lisbon and was in a cute little square with a tiny park in the middle. It felt like a pretty good taste of city life.

8) Tiles - Portugal is pretty well known for its use of tiles in building. Most buildings, especially in the bigger towns have at least some tiles on the exterior, and many are completely covered. Houses too. I love the tiles. I think are beautiful and it's amazing how many different uses and types there are. I knew, before we even got there that's what I wanted for my souvenir. Some of my favorite tiles were in Porto, Aveiro and Lisbon. We saw some that were hand painted 300+ years ago and some that made up huge murals and some mass produced ones. You name it, we saw it. It took a lot of searching and some frustration but I found 2 sets of 2 tiles for my souvenir. They are new but hand painted in the original style. Brent though, we discovered has expensive taste. We were browsing through and antique tile shop and he decided that he really wanted an original tile. An old one. Unfortunately, those are expensive. We saw one mural (it was huge) that was 24,000Euro. Yikes! We were searching through a pile of tiles from the early 1700's because we figure we might be able to afford *one* of those, if it wasn't too much (tiles with people, especially babies, are considerably more expensive than those with say flowers) and he kept coming back to a half piece of tile with a castle and a river on it. It may just be half a tile but he loves it. I think he may have seen it in the pre-existence. AND since it was only half, it was in our usual souvenir budget. Phew! If we had a couple hundred to spend on souvenirs I think we could have found a nice small mural but we are too cheap for that, hence my choice of a reproduction piece. Maybe someday... Anyway, tiles = good.

9) Sun, glorious sun! - We love England, we don't mind rain and snow can be fun but we had really great weather while we were there (except for the second half of the third day which was rainy). The sun was so warm but the air was nice and cool. It was perfect during the day and got chilly at night but not too bad. I never got hot but my skin got to soak in loads of glorious Vitamin D. The second day, we walked around Porto which is a city on a bay. It's very hilly and has sets of steep steps to get from the main part of the city down to the waterfront where a lot of the housing is. It was so nice to be able to do that in the sun. After Porto, we went to, Aveiro, a town built on canals and we took a boat tour of the canals and bridges. The sun kept us warm over the water and it made everything shiny and pretty. Mmm, sun...

10) Portuguese People and Food - The Portuguese people we came across were so lovely. They were very friendly and helpful and became even more so when they discovered Brent could speak their language. He says he had a hard time but other than a few times where Brazilian words and Portuguese didn't match up or he forgot a word or 2, he took care of us. I felt very safe knowing we could communicate, since a lot of our time was spent in smaller towns and villages where most people didn't speak English. One time we had a bit of a mix up was at the fortress where a woman from a local church/orphanage was selling easter cakes, tiles, wine and "caramels". She asked if we wanted any caramels and Brent confirmed in Portuguese so we went for it. It wasn't until we went to eat one that they were menthol cough drops. Oh well, you always need cough drops on hand. Also that evening we stopped in Viana do Castelo, a beach town, for dinner and to walk around and see the town's Christmas lights. We had a hard time finding a restaurant but finally came across a very authentic cafe. The food the owner offered us was not on the menu and we though we were given a choice between fish or beef so we chose beef but Brent realised about 2 minutes before they bought it to us that we had ordered beef liver. Oops! Oh well. We choked down most of it and considered ourselves covered on the whole iron front for a long while. The rest of the food was really good and they had a really yummy pastry/eggy/custardy cake with chocolate on top. Portugal, as we found, has mastered the dessert and pastry scene. We stopped in many Pastelaria's for pastry treats, both sweet and savory. In Ponte de Barca, we got a chocolate mouse (yes, mouse, not mousse, it was shaped like a mouse) which turned out to be a sort of mince-pie-meets-brownie covered in chocolate. Another night we went to whatever restaurant was closest to our hotel and tried to order from the menu but the waiter (no, he was not a server, we was a waiter, bowtie and all) kept saying they didn't have any. So eventually he suggested something with fish and rice and potatoes and we agreed. It was actually really good. We really loved the breakfasts in our hotels, too. Each morning we were offered rolls, usually fresh and homemade, a selection of meats and cheeses, yogurt, fruit, juice and hot chocolate. They had coffee and tea as usual but they also had cocoa readily available. If you try to ask for that in the UK, they'll say they don't have it because that's dessert. Well, in Portugal, it's perfectly normal to have hot chocolate with breakfast. But man, those rolls...

So there you have it. Congrats if you made it this far. Portugal is probably the most favorite vacation I have ever been on, and by default Madrid gets thrown in there too, because it was the same trip and we did have a lovely time there as well. I would LOVE to go back to Portugal someday and I think that anyone who can, especially if you speak Portuguese, should go.

Here's the online album for a larger selection of our pictures.

Soup of the week x 2

As penance for not posting in over a month, I offer 2 new soup recipes.

This week's soup was Sunday Supper Soup.

Skill Level: Easy-Medium (depending on if you make your own meatballs)
Serves: 6
Cooking time: 2+ hours (including simmer time)

3/4 lb turkey or beef mince
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/8 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp chopped parsley
2 cups water
1 (10.5 oz) can condensed beef broth
1 large can tomatoes, undrained
1 envelope onion soup mix
2 cups sliced carrots
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup frozen peas, zucchini or string beans
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp basil
1 bay leaf

Prepare meatballs by combining meat through parsley. Shape into balls. In large saucepan, saute meatballs until browned. Drain off fat. Set aside. In same saucepan combine rest of ingredients. Bring to boiling and simmer on low, covered for at least 30 minutes. Add meatballs and simmer for a further 20+ minutes.

Adjustments: I used store bought beef meatballs because I did not have time to order groceries to get the turkey meat delivered. Yes, I have my groceries delivered. That's what happens when your local grocery store is smaller than your house and you have no car. But back to the subject, the meatballs turned out fine but I definitely want to try turkey meatballs next time. Also, I used onion gravy mix not soup, because again, that's what I could get. It was good, not onion-y enough though. And my meatballs never brown properly without breaking up into non-meatball shaped blobs so I lightly browned them then gave up and put in all the liquid (I substituted veggie broth for the water) and let the meatballs boil for 20-30 minutes, THEN I added the rest of the ingredients and let it all simmer on low for like an hour. I didn't put any peas/zukes/etc in because I forgot but we're not really pea people anyway so I'll put zucchini in next time. But not til 20 minutes before serving because I don't like them mushy.

Results: Very yummy. It was a nice tomato-y twist on pot roast. It went really well with the homemade wheat rolls. Nice warm, hearty soup for these cold, gray winter days.

For Christmas Eve dinner we had soup. Mostly because it's my family's tradition but also because I was feeding 11 people (8 of them being guys so I needed lots of easy food) and I just love soup. Obviously. We had Italian Wedding Soup and Roasted Winter Squash Soup. Both are far from the traditional Clam Chowder I always had as a kid on Christmas Eve but I have a feeling that of the 11 people eating, 3 of us would have liked that one. So without further ado...

Roasted Winter Squash Soup

Skill level: Medium
1½ hours | 1 hour prep
SERVES 4 -6

2 lbs butternut squash (acorn, or other winter squashes, etc)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, mashed to a paste
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 tablespoon black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon fresh parsley
4 cups chicken stock
salt & fresh ground pepper

Heat oven to 400. Cut the squash in half, seed it, and quarter it. Brush well with olive oil and season liberally with salt and pepper. Place cut side up in a baking dish and roast until squash is soft and browned at the edges, 45 minutes-1 hour. When squash is tender throughout, scoop flesh from skin and set aside. These steps can be done ahead of time and frozen for later use. Cook onion in butter over medium low heat until soft. Onion should be sweated, not cooked till brown or caramelized. Add the garlic and cook for one minute. Add the wine and cook, stirring frequently, until reduced to nearly dry (about ten minutes). Combine the herbs and spices (thyme through fresh parsley) in a cheesecloth bundle/bouquet garni, add it to the pot. Add the squash pulp to the pot. Gradually add the chicken stock to desired thickness (you may not need all 4 cups), and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer, season with salt and pepper to taste. Simmer soup for 20 minutes. Remove cheesecloth bundle/bouquet garni, and puree soup with hand blender or food processor until it is the desired consistency.

Adjustments: I doubled the recipe but since I hadn't bought enough squash I filled the rest of the requirement with pumpkin. We were a little short on time so we cooked the squash in the microwave rather than in the oven. It looked dry but it was just fine. I didn't buy white wine because I'm cheap and not that gourmet. I used chicken broth instead which doesn't reduce as much as wine but works just as well. For those of you who do not know, when cooking a savory dish, chicken broth is the generally accepted substitution for white wine. There you go, you learned something today. I did not "mash" the garlic into a "paste" so much as use a garlic press which worked just fine. And lastly, I let it all simmer for an hour and a half before removing the herb bouquet to puree.

Result: A-ma-zing! Seriously. I always say I don't like squash but this was heavenly. The herb bouquet left the most delicious flavor and it was smooth and thick without being creamy. Everyone loved it. I think the reason I loved it so much more than the squash soup I tried last year is because it was more savory than sweet and although it didn't have enough pumpkin to taste pumpkin-y, it cut down the squash flavor. Yum. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it...

The Rain in Spain Stays Mainly in the Plain

**There is a link at the END of the post for an online album in case you don't feel like clicking on each individual picture to see it larger.**

Last week we went on a 6 day holiday to Madrid and Portugal. This post is just about our 2 days in Spain. Portugal will be the next post.

We planned this holiday around the idea of meeting up with the Pires' (from Paris) in Madrid and going to the temple there, then using their native Portuguese speaking skills to accompany us to Portugal. Unfortunately, due to several different circumstances they were not able to come but we carried on with plans as scheduled.

On Friday night we flew to Madrid and took the metro to an apartment near the temple where we would be staying (with members of the church). Our plane was really late so we didn't get to the apartment until almost 2am.

Sat morning we went to the temple and spent a few hours doing work there. It is so beautiful. Having now been to temples in several US states and 2 in other countries, I am amazed at how the decor and furnishings really represent the location. This temple was very obviously Spanish. The fabrics they used were probably the most beautiful fabrics I have ever seen and there was engraved marble as a sort of chair rail in every room and hallways and don't even get me started on the chandeliers! It was just beautiful. I took lots of pictures with my brain.

After the temple, we walked back to the apartment (about 10 minutes away) got changed and headed into the city for some sightseeing.

Our first stop was the teleferico, a cable car that goes from one park at the bottom of a big hill (Madrid is very hilly, much like San Francisco, which we did not know until we got there) to an even larger park at the top of the hill. It took 11 minutes and we got an incredible view of the city and the gorgeous autumn colors.

At the top of the hill at Casa de Campo, we walked around for a few minutes, snapped some pictures of the view (and the amusement park within Casa de Campo) and headed back down the cable car.

After getting back down to the Parque del Oeste, we walked to the Plaza de Espana to check out the statue/monument to Cervantes and Don Quixote. Don Quixote is one of our favorite stories and the movie adaptation starring Peter O'Toole is pretty great too.

Next we walked to the Palacio Real, where the royals lived until they were banished in 1920-something. It is a massive palace at the top of a hill, right in the city. As far as European palaces go it measured up size wise but we were both impressed at the lack of ornamentation and gold gilding that we've seen elsewhere. It was refreshing. At taking a closer look at the statuary on the building though, we noticed an awesomely hilarious pattern in the statues of revolutionary heroes. Can you spot the out of place item with the man in the third picture?

How about now? That's right! It's a head! A decapitated head!

And he's not the only guy with one, after looking more closely at him, we checked the next guy who totally wins the "most triumphant" pose. Seriously, hilarious. At this point I knew I would like Spain.

After the Palace and surrounding grounds and some delicious gelato, we headed to Puerta del Sol, in the heart of Madrid. The plaza is massive and packed with tons of people and lots of street performers. Some of them were very strange like this headless guy, and after seeing him, we noticed lots of variations of this same thing pretty much everywhere we went in the city.

There were a few musical performers that we enjoyed. Our favorites were these guys banging old pianos with xylophone mallets. It was pretty cool. The traditional band was fun too and we saw an even better one later in the evening but didn't video it.

This statue (which you can't really see because it's night and I didn't want to use my flash) and the billboard behind it are pretty well-known symbols of Madrid, or so we hear.

Here's a picture of the statue with the flash. Weird. A bear eating a tree? Madrid sure is "quirky".

We found a great souvenir shop in the Puerta del Sol. I picked this hand painted wooden fan and Brent picked a resin statue of Don Quixote. I think he is fabulous and comical and he will be a very well-loved, permanent fixture on our bookshelf. Now we just need a copy of the book for him to stand next to.

Then we made our way to the Plaza Mayor, another major hot spot in the city. It is a plaza lined by gorgeous building with hand painted frescoes. They were in the middle of setting up a Christmas market so it was more of a construction site but we got some nice pics of the buildings and this "art" display someone had made out of toilet paper.

It was pretty big and you could walk through it like a tunnel. We didn't, but we did stop to watch the toilet paper arch blowing in the street-vent breeze.

Right off of the Plaza is a street with loads of restaurants including, Botin, the oldest restaurant in the world (according to the Guinness people). We got there right as it opened and luckily managed to get a table even though we didn't have a reservation. They stuck us in this tiny back room (we had to walk through the kitchen to get there) with all the other "low life's" that didn't bother to make a reservation. I was just glad we got a seat! And we were seated next to some Brasilians so we had someone to talk to while we waited for our food. We both had chicken rather than the roast suckling pig they are famous for. It was yummy and the dessert was "flantastic"! (Bonus points if you know what that's from.)

Dinner was followed by a Flamenco show. It was in this tiny bar where most of the floor space was taken up by a big stage. It was Tablao Flamenco which is the modern twist on traditional. They didn't wear the traditional lacy, flowing dresses but rather tighter spandex flared skirts. The dancing was amazing and the show itself was pretty fun. They did a set of 30 minutes (there were 5 girls and 2 guys) taking turns every few minutes with a few group numbers added in. Then there was a break and the next set started with a traditional solo number as seen in the video below. The girl who did that one was our favorite. She was really expressive and fun and she is the Spanish doppelganger of my cousin, Heather. After that set they did some comedy and singing (in Spanish so we don't really know what it was about) then took another break. By this time it was 12:30 and as much as we would have liked to stay and see what was next, we went back to the apartment to rest up for Sunday (Brent's birthday!!!).

Sunday morning we went to Sacrament meeting at the chapel on the temple grounds. Again, it was all Spanish so I was pretty lost but Brent could get a lot of it, especially when the American missionaries were speaking.

Then we headed back to the city, where our first stop was lunch in the Plaza de Espana, consisting of some fresh fruit and bread we had bought the night before.

Then we went to check out a private museum but it was closed for refurbishment. Bummer! It sounded really intersting. That pretty much set the tone for the rest of the afternoon. Everything we tried to find was either a really long walk that we ditched out on or was closed or was more money than we had been planning. We tried not to get frustrated though because that would make for a crappy birthday. We did see some cool things whilst we were walking around though. Madrid is a very interesting city and has some pretty great architecture.

We went to the Museo Nacional del Prado, which is supposed to be one of the world's great art museums. It pretty much delivered. Brent and I both saw lots of paintings that we had studied in art history and humanities classes. We saw lots of Goya works (seeing as how he was from Madrid), some Velazquez, Rubens, and some really strange El Bosco works. Our favorites were the Spanish realists and Las Meninas, which as I learned in art history back in college and is said in our travel guide, "is the the finest technical painting in existence". It did not disappoint. And it was Spanish so it was kind of strange. We're not the biggest "art museum people" so we kind of took the whole place at a quick stride unless we saw something interesting. It was worth the stop though.

The rest of the day we spent walking from one monument/statue to another. First was the monument to Alfonso XII (who has become a joke for us due to the massive amount of portraits we saw of him in the museum). It was pretty cool and a great way to watch the sunset.

Next we accidentally found the Jardines del Descubrimiento. Well, we had been looking for it. It was described in our guide book as a garden with a statue of Columbus and 3 other statues of ships sailing towards the new land. Ok, so that's what we were looking for and as we got close we saw these really tall curvy stone sculptures (near the Natural History museum so we assumed they had something to do with that) and after walking all around taking pictures and being awed by the giant-ness of it all for about 5 minutes, realized that *was* what we were looking for. The book said nothing about modern art. We were looking for ships! Either way, it was quite cool and I really wished I had a tripod with me to take some better pics. These will have to do though. Oh, and the "garden" was more of a cement plaza which after dark turns into a skate park for questionable looking teens.

We ate dinner at this little glass cafe we came across whilst walking to the next monument. It was really interesting and cute. We had cheese, tapas and hot chocolate (which was eerily similar to our chocolate experience from our first day in London, but this time we were prepared!).

The tapas were delicious and apparently I'll eat anything if you stick it on top of yummy bread. The tapas included a tuna steak with some sort of chivey garlicy sour cream, pork sausage, a Spanish omelet with more sour cream (yum!), a slice of ham, a slice of lamb with some sort of vinegar-mustard seed relish (super yum!), and black pudding (actually quite good) served with a side of fries.

Oh, and both restaurants we'd been to in Madrid had these just sitting on tables. At least this place was nice enough to cover it with a napkin.

The last 2 stops for the night were the Plaza de la Cibeles (a fountain/statue combo of a woman being pulled in a chariot by lions) and the Puerta de Alcala (Madrid's take on the Arc du Triomphe, which we've noticed all major cities seem to have).

We really enjoyed our time in Madrid which was a surprise. Not that we were planning on having a bad time, it's just that we hadn't really planned anything other than the temple until we were on the plane so everything was a nice surprise. And their metro system is easy to navigate and CLEAN. It made London's tube look like the Paris metro and the Paris metro look like the sewer. Even the trains and stations that were obviously older were still clean and well-lit.

Here is the link to the online album with more pictures if you're interested.