This is not the actual center of Madrid. Nor is it the center of Spain. But it is the center of all Spanish roadways. That's right, folks. All roads lead to my foot. Nice nail polish, right?
By the way, Mom, remember how you said you wanted more pictures of me? Consider this a compromise. This is my actual foot and everything. Think of it as a synecdoche, a portion of something which represents the whole.
This statue is essentially the symbol of Spain. The tree represents the state and the lovely bear represents the church. You'll find it all over Madrid: on pavements, street signs and in statue form, of course. In the example, off of the Puerta del Sol, the bear is actually eating the tree. From that you can infer the corruption and take-over of the state by the church, or you can simply infer that trees are yummy. The choice is yours.
This statue of Velazquez sits in front of the Prado, where many of his paintings are kept. As a court painter, he did many portraits of nobility and clergy as well as a series of buffoons and a number of common people. His most famous work is Las Meninas, which is not its official title (oringially intened as a portrait of the royal family, it has been popularly renamed for the maids who fill the foreground of the painting). I would have taken a picture of it, but for some reason those employees are awfully prickly about letting you photograph the artwork.
These paintings by Goya, which depict the May 2, 1808 uprising and its aftermath, also hang in the Prado, but since they're not very photo-friendly at museums, this was the best I could do. The first depicts the people of Madrid rising up against the French, who had occuppied the city and were attempting to remove the few final members of the royal family from power completely by shipping them off to France. The second shows the sad aftermath of the attack, on May 3, when hundreds of Spaniards were rounded up and shot for their crime. It's not very visible in this version of the painting, but when you see it up close, you can see the terror in the eyes of the man in the white shirt. There's also a priest in the back of the group that's about to be shot, praying with his head down.
This is the Cathedral of the Spanish Armed Forces and it was really lovely in the sunshine. It's quite close to the Palacio Real and it's also pretty on the inside, with a cieling fresco of angels, as well as the usual churchly accoutrements. It's free to enter but I wasn't allowed to stay very long because they were preparing for weddings, which is definitely a good reason to kick people out. I mean you don't want to be walking down the aisle on your wedding day just to see some weirdo in bermuda shorts snapping photos of the altar.
I thought if I was including a photo of Velazquez, I ought to include one of Goya also. I couldn't find a statue of El Greco but I don't really like him very much anyway (way too religious for my taste). This is actually on another side of the Prado.
A close-up view of the facade of the Palacio Real, which is still the King's official residence. It's incredibly beautiful on the inside (completely worth the 8 euro it costs to get in) but once again, they don't let you take pictures. You know, so that they can charge you crazy amounts of money for a postcard.
This is the view from the Palacio. It's incredible because the palace was purposely built on a hill to capture these wonderful views. It's much nicer in person.
A peacock from the courtyard of the Palacio. Try as I might, I could not get him to shake a tail feather, but at least he didn't run away from me, the way all of the sheep do.
A broader view of the Palace.
Horsey!!! 
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