National library / weird fashions of Madrid

So I went on a field trip to the Biblioteca National yesterday, and on the way I saw some disturbing fashion trends I would like to point out. I found these in the most "posh" area of town.

First we have machine knitted cotton sweaters (that part fine, I like sweaters), that have been painted with metallic colors. Yes I said painted, and it is just as soft to the touch as it sounds. In fact I saw these back in January in H&M and I was kind of hoping that I was hallucinating at the time, but I guess I was not.

Second, apparently snake skien is apparently all the rage. I think all of it is fake, at least I hope so. Here you see a snake skin sun hat.....yeah, that is just wrong. I also saw a lot of other snake skin objects including... paper napkins! I just can not think of a theme for a party where your guest would want to pretend to wipe their mouths on snake skin. Shudder.

This sweater was in one of the most expensive stores in Madrid. There are so many reasons I do not like it. When did drop shoulders come back?

DH and I walked around Colon for the first time, and it is a pretty area. The building with the green roof reminds me of an old fashioned battery.

Colon is home to possibly the worlds largest spanish Flag, please look at the people walking in the plaza for scale.

The statue of Columbus himself.

There are a lot of buildings in Madrid that have angels of top of them, in this picture I just managed to capture two of them at the same time. (Click to enlarge.)

I have seen the "Super Dink", a motorcycle whose name caused great hilarity, but never the "Grand Dink". That is just awesome.

So, we went to the Notional library, a very grand and picturesque place. If you go please be aware that they with not let you into the actual library (where they house all of the really old books) unless you have a valid research pass. Don't worry, I have a researcher for a husband and a plan. ;)

You can, however, go to the free exhibition on the grond floor. They also have, until the 13th of May, a special exhibit of old, mostly hebrew bibles, that are quite lovely.

Click to enlarge and look at the lamps, their shades are enlarged images of old texts! Super cool!

Afterwards, we had a reservation at an Argentinean restaurant and to get there we walked through Retiro Park. 

It was a part I have never visited before (next to Calle O'Donnell), that park is huge! There is a part with a man made mountain with waterfalls coming down (sorry no picture). It is right across from these ruins from a  church (11th century) moved here from up North.