It's Good to be King

Here I am in front of the Palacio Real near Madrid. I toured the reception areas and salons, the armory, and the Farmacia Real. The King had his own pharmacist, not surprising but it was cool to see the glassware since I know quite a bit about glassware for chemical reactions from college. NO, I majored I chemistry, I don't do that other stuff!

The pharmacy reminded me of something else from college. There was a tradition of passing down items with names and class years to the next years group with the names of the all the people that guarded the item engraved on it. The list of Royal Pharmacists dated back over 200 years. Far more impressive than a bunch college kids scratching names on a block of wood for the last 20 years.

I liked the armory the most there was plenty of suits of armor, swords, and small cannons. I couldn't help but compare it to the military museum just outside Vienna (Wien). The Spanish version was considerably smaller and not as impressive. To be fair, it's difficult to compete with the Austrian collection that took 3 hours and over 100 photos and was still not fully covered. Not only that, the actual car that Archbishop Franz Ferdinand (that started WWI) was shot in was in the musuem. There was nothing on that level in Spanish collection, and the Spanish monarchy was subordinate to the Holy Roman monarchs. (Correct me if I'm wrong, please!)

At any rate, I fully enjoyed the visit. The sheer size of the place was by itself worth the trip. As you can see from the picture the plaza can accomodate a large assembly. Also, it occupies a strategic position in relation to the city with views to the north and the south completely unobstructed.

On an unrelated note, yes, I cut my hair rather short but not purpose. I really did tell the barber, in Spanish, what I wanted but I didn't realize how short my request really was. This happens to me at least once a year, I don't know why.