These are pictures from Puerta del Sol. It literally means "Door of the Sun." This is the heart of Madrid. There are many plazas here, and the shops are incredible. Not only that, but the number of restaurants and bars are too many to count. This is about a 15 minute walk from our house (actually we live in an apartment. Pictures of that will come later. I don't want to weird my family out too early by being the creepy American with a camera. But this area is absolutely incredible!

This is El Palacio Real, or the Royal Palace. The king and queen of Spain used to live here years ago. You can now take free tours, and it's pretty riduculous inside. There are lots of gardens and parks. Actually El Parque del Campo del Moro is right across the street from it, and that will be the sight of project "Get Emily Back Into Running Shape..." The Palacio Real is about a 5 minute walk from my house.

¡HOLA!

Bienvenidos a mi página para mi viaje a España! Since I can't be there to show you these pictures and tell you my stories, I am putting them on this website. Feel free to make any comments on here. You all know that I love when the whole family gets together, so this is the next best thing since I'm in Spain and you're there. I'm hoping that this can be like an online conversation among all of us. You don't have to post comments addressing me directly. Feel free to respond to each others' comments. And if you want to post any pictures you can do that, too. I brought pictures of all of you and of my friends to show my señora and my family here the awesome people that I left in the U.S. Oh, and you may have to create a blog account to respond to my blog. I'm not sure, but if you do it's free and really easy. Go to "www.blogger.com". If you don't have a google account you have to create one. This is also free. All you need is an existing email address (it doesn't matter if it's g-mail, hotmail, aol, etc.) Make your google name something that makes it easy for anyone to tell that it's you that made the comment so they can reply appropriately. Anyway, enough rambling. Onto the pictures...