Palaces, Dignitaries, High living and beautiful streets

Morning walk led us to the Royal Palace, only to find out it was closed. They will not let us in because some one from Montenegro was visiting. It took us all day, six engineers and a long distance help from our very smart neighbor to figure out who it was that had higher priority than us. 

So, we visited equally impressive Cathedral and climbed up the dome to see beautiful vistas of the city and see a sample of riches that were in the cathedral museum. The cathedral is for "Mary of the Wall" from the legend that she revealed herself from the ancient wall after the Muslims were driven out of the city. She has several gold crowns studded with precious stones, jewelry and gold embroidery clothes that will rival any earthly queen. ( It is fascinating to see the fan fare and amount of riches spent  on something that Jesus was supposed to teach to get away from) .

The art and splendor of the cathedral is beautiful and surrounding gardens are amazing too.

Inside the Cathedral

 Cathedral doors. All doors very heavy bronze with very ornade carving

Palace is huge and beautiful from outside.  Big procession of the soldiers, horses and then police cars, secret service , motor cycle entourage of the Important person lasted several hours and we watched quiet a bit of it.

Walking back from the Palace, it was afternoon and people were just relaxing in the shades, in the parks or  cafes. I have to say that I ate the most delicious dessert ( it was lunch actually but i skipped the real food.....we are not vacation) of my life. It was Flan but they called it white chocolate cake.

 we took the road going through "new" Madrid and is supposed to be the fanciest road in the city. It is impressive because it has all the necessary brand names and they are housed in ancient buildings.

 It was relatively a short day. We needed to relax a little. Made dinner and hung out in the balcony watching the non stop party. We thought ( wrongly) that the plaza was busy during the weekend, but today being Monday, it seems more lively and full. I am not sure where the unemployment is and when do these people sleep.
Time for me to try to rest up for the palace trip tomorrow. Bunos Noches and be well.