Nobody ever lives their life all the way up except bull-fighters.
~Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

We lunched upstairs at Botin’s. It is one of the best restaurants in the world. We had roast young suckling pig and drank rioja alta. Brett did not eat much. She never ate much. I ate a very big meal and drank three bottles of rioja alta. —Ernest Hemingway, Ibid

This wine is too good for toast-drinking, my dear. You don’t want to mix emotions up with a wine like that. You lose the taste.
—Ernest Hemingway, Ibid

Not to get too Ernest Hemingway about it, but this is Madrid, which we will celebrate with words and pictures. Our Madrid is not the bull rings, or the Restaurant Boitin of Hemingway, but it does include the Rioja wine and good food and starts here at radial zero for all of Spain (as miles are measured) … our plaza, the Puerta del Sol.

The journey, as they say begins at the first step.

Our “audience” view of the puerta.

The local city hall at sunset and (below) morning light. The bell tower officially rings in the New Year in Spain.

Charles III on horseback.

Arcade of the Plaza Mayor, the largest plaza in Madrid.

A protest on April 22 in the puerta to protest for the right of workers in the helping industries.

Mariachi band performing after the protest dies down.