A Long Way Down to the River

On Sunday, May 18, we decided to go to Mass at Real Basílica de San Francisco el Grande, a 3 minute walk from where we were staying.

I’m not sure what St Francis would have thought of the place. It was huge. I think you could fit about 10 of the St Francis church we used to go to inside the place.

Still, it was interesting to see how Catholics worship in Madrid. We could mostly follow along with what was happening. Thanks to our friend Valerie’s weekly post, we knew the gospel ended with the words “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” And there was a lot of “amor” in the sermon and throughout the service.

After Mass, we explored the garden beside the church.

After breakfast at a funky, but great restaurant called “Eat My Trip”, we headed over to the Royal Palace of Madrid, about a 10 minute walk.

Looking at the map on Google, it seemed like there was a nice, pleasant walk through the Palace Gardens down to the Manzanares River, so we figured “Why not?” Construction is the answer. And gorillas, of course.

Instead of going directly to the river through a garden of flora and fountains, we were forced to stick to the periphery. Around every bend, we wondered “would this provide us entry to the gardens?” Finally, we found a way to enter, and a waterless fountain in the middle of the garden.

We learned later that it was the hottest day of the year in Madrid. We found an open air market and had a couple of drinks.

Though the line was short, it took us about 15 minutes to get seated. Refreshed, we continued our trek to the river. Finally, we made it. We had expected the Manzanares River to be powerful like the Po in Italy ot the Seine in France. Instead, we found:

Nice, but not impressive. We continued on a bit until we finally cound a fountain with water in it.

Under construction, of course. We hung out in a nearby park for awhile, and found our way to a bus stop for our trip home. It was a long way down, but at least it was down. Getting back up required a bus.