Palace Patrol and Paella Party

Saturday, November 15, 2025 

The Royal Palace (Palacio Real) in Madrid is a must-see attraction. Rick Steves considers it Europe’s third-greatest palace after Versailles and the Schönbrunn in ViennaThe current incarnation of Madrid’s Royal Palace was built in the 18th century in the Baroque style.

It is Europe’s largest palace, and it still makes a statement about how wealthy Spain once was, back when the treasures of the New World helped Spain become a super-power.

The current palace was built by Spain’sKing Philip V, who wanted a Versailles, the place of his birth. Philip’s grandfather was Louis XIV of France. (Philip’s own son is someone we have previously met - Charles III.) The palace has over 1,000 rooms. The royal family no longer lives in this palace, but it is still used for ceremonial functions. It is lavishly decorated and filled with antique furniture, frescoes, tapestries, chandeliers, porcelain, bronze, and gold leaf.

We saw maybe 20 rooms. It was an overwhelming experience to try to take it all in. Here are a few of the photos we took. In the interest of getting this post done in a reasonable amount of time, I am going to provide minimal captions.

A luxurious room

A ceiling

The Gala Dining Room seats 144

The Gasparini Hall

The Gasparini Hall

Ceiling of the Royal Chapel

The Royal Chapel

The Stradivarius Hall contains a viola, a cello, and two violins made by Stradivarius

The Royal Crown and Scepter

The Throne Room

We emerged from the palace just before 1:00 pm and as we gazed across the courtyard to the Almudena Cathedral, the bells began to toll.

Twelve seconds of bells:

Instead of going out to dinner, we went to a “paella workshop with bottomless sangria.” This was a lot of fun. The two leaders of the workshop were very good - a chef, and a lively guy from Colombia who was good at team-building and getting everyone involved. I was expecting a small group so late in the year, but we ended up with a good-sized class. There were two Italian women and a passel of Americans. I will explain why all the Americans were here in my next post.

We started out with introductions, Then we made lots of sangria, to lubricate the cooking process.

After taste-testing the sangria we learned how to make two kinds of paella - one with chicken and seafood, and one vegetarian.

The only things you need that you might not already have are some saffron, a special cooking pan (called a paella), and some kind of large burner to cook on.

The secret is to refrain from stirring it after one good mix at the beginning. This results in a desirable crust (called socarrat) forming on the bottom. (Make sure everybody gets served some of that crust!)

Scott adds some chicken

And when it was done we all sat down to drink more sangria and enjoy a hearty meal.             

Buen provecho!

Today’s fabric is brocade. Brocade is a rich decorative fabric, often silk, with a pattern woven in. The pattern is often woven with gold or silver thread.

An eye-catching circular sofa in Madrid’s Royal Palace is upholstered with a baroque
gold-on-blue brocade.