Me and Eric at the Retiro park.

Eric and his niece by one of the fountains in the Retiro park.

We're not sure what this building is. It seems to be a market square which has had a glass roof added, but there were no market stalls this day.

Metropolis is widely considered the first science-fiction film. It was a German silent film from 1927. It probably has no relation to this building, but the font suggests it is from about the same era.

Steak N Shake is very much a St. Louis thing. I have never seen one anywhere else (although my friends have sighted them around the US). This is certainly the first one I've seen overseas... and odd that we spotted it while wandering around with two Saint Louisians.

Eric with his niece at the Plaza de Oriente.

Of course, one of the first things we did was find a big tower to go up and look over the city. In this case, the tower is the Faro de Moncloa.

I'm not sure what the building in this photo is, but it is certainly apparent from this vantage point that Madrid is a *much* bigger city than Amsterdam.

Obligatory tourist shot.

The Museum of the Americas had all sorts of great artifacts, gifts, and loot from the Spanish exploration in and exploitation of the Americas. This lovely gold-plated silver object is a bowl with a bezoar mounted inside it. Bezoars are concretions of grass, hair, or other material found in the digestive system. Bezoars were long thought to neutralize poisons, which is likely why one is mounted in the cup.

This piece is Mohican, from around the year 0. I rather like the face, and the fact that he has a staff topped with an A. muscaria mushroom. The museum had many (many) vessels of this general construction: a container with a capacity of about 1L, with two exits forming an arch, joined into a single exit in the middle. The label just called it a vase or vessel without further explanation. Given the consistency of the design, I'm sure it had a purpose.

Eric and his niece by the Temple of Debod. Surprisingly, this was not stolen, but was a gift from Egypt to Spain in 1968. The construction plans for the Aswan Dam included the destruction of many important historical sites and artifacts in Egypt, and Spain was one of the countries leading the efforts to preserve them. In gratitude, Egypt had this 2nd-century-BC temple disassembled and shipped to Spain.

Eric and I have a fine tradition of visiting zoos in various places that we visit. The Madrid zoo has several neat things - one of the neatest is the rather large population of storks. There are stork nesting areas literally all over the zoo, and the air is filled with the storks' clacking (which is apparently Stork for sexy and I know it). Video here

The zoo's pair of Iberian Lynx, demonstrating that lounging in a sunbeam is an essential property of Cat.

Eric's niece *loved* the koala.

The koala was indisputably cute. Eric's niece was disappointed to learn that you cannot keep koalas as pets. You can, however, run a koala rescue. And the only thing cuter than a koala is, of coure, more koalas. (Reports vary on whether koalas are actually nice. The Auzzies like to say that anything cute is just trying to lure you in so it can kill you, but given the Australian sense of humor, they would probably say this irrespective of whether the koalas had actually started executing the kill plan.)

Bear selfie. Okay, it's not a selfie, and the bear is behind a fence. But still.

There were a number of peacocks roaming the park. This one is trying very hard to impress the peahens - or maybe the pigeons; he seemed a little confused on that account. Video here

The zoo also has an aquarium. One of the neatest things was their tank of lungfish. You could watch them swimming around, looking just like any other fish, until one popped up out of the water and started walking across the rocks. It certainly gives a feeling much like watching a very convincing historic re-enactment.

Yeah, coral. Whatevs, big deal. Except I'd never watched anyone feed the coral before. That's a hand in the middle, with a syringe presumably filled with Coral Chow.

The aquarium also had sea turtles...

... and some very big fish.

Every time I visit the primates, I wish I could explain where it is they come from, and why they can't go back. (Lowland gorillas come from places we know as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Camaroon, etc., which are not terribly safe places for any primates.)

The rhinos were just standing in this position for several minutes. It was hard to tell if they were nuzzling or in a slow-motion argument. Given the scars on the face of the rightmost one, I expect it was an argument, and one that they've had many times before.

My mom tells me that when I was a toddler, I loved the yaks. I don't remember this, but I still rather like yaks, and bovids in general.

The Iberian sheep were *very* interested in the cart of hay being unloaded on the other side of the walkway.

Very, very interested.

The lions are also enjoying the lovely spring day.

The spring sun even manages to make the flamingos look stately rather than gaudy.