Grocery Store, Reina Sofia Museum, and American Store

I have lots of pictures for you today.  I wanted to pick out just some, but decided to put them all as you can easily scroll through if you don't have the time to look at them all.  Yesterday I went to Cortes Ingles with my host mom.  It is a huge department store that has more than one building and from what I understand they are working on another.  The main building has 7 floors and two basement levels with four different parking garages below that each of 3-4 levels.  I cannot begin to explain how crazy it is.  They have everything from housewares to clothing, a grocery store, toys, a cafeteria and restaurant, travel agent, comestics (like jcpenneys or macys), souvenirs, and name brands like Jimmy Choo.  It is crazy.  We went to look around and ended up spending the entire time in the grocery store.  It was like a classroom for me.  I think my eyes were huge and mouth open the whole time.  We had to come home due to the time, but are going to go another time to look at the other things.  I took one picture of a ceramic display that is popular here.  It is also very expensive and I was told I am not allowed to take pictures of it for security purposes.  However, I was able to take pictures in the grocery store.  The first thing that amazed me was the entrance.  You can either leave your previous purchases at the cloakroom or if you have a small bag, you place it in a clear plastic bag that is laid flat along this thing with an arm.  The arm is brought down and after a few seconds it pops back up.  It uses heat to seal closed the plastic bag to prevent you from putting other things in the bag.  We then toured the grocery store as my host mom gave me information.  Keep in mind the grocery store is in the large store and is not typical.  It is very large and has many options that you do not find in the regular stores.

My housemate and I then went to the Reina Sofia Museum which has more modern art.  I was actually allowed to take pictures without flash at this one, except in one place.... the place with the picture I came to see - Picasso's Guernica.  However, I still was able to see it up close and personal.  Amazing.

After that we went to the American Grocery Store (small shop).  I wanted to see what was deemed "American" here.

DUE TO STORAGE SPACE ISSUES, I HAVE MOVED MOST OF THE PICTURES TO FACEBOOK.

 Lladró is a brand of ceramic/porcelain statues that are well known in Spain and expensive.  This is the picture I got just before I was told I cannot take pictures for security reasons.  To give you an idea, the larger cylindrical looking statue in the front left of the picture had a price tag of 4990€ which is about $6,132.

 The fish laid out for purchase

  The fish laid out for sale

 Variety of Shrimp

Olives

 Prepared food (like our potato salads, etc. that you can take home)

 The bacon/sausage section

 A price sign

 More sausages

 The pork area (yes those are large pig legs hanging in the background)

 Cheese

 Milk section - most milk here is store in bottles or cartons on the shelf.  This is actually common in Europe.  Once it is opened, it has to be refrigerated.

 I nearly laughed out loud when I saw this.  Don Limpio is the name of it which is Spanish for Mr. Clean.

 This is for my Dad and Sister Carolyn, at first I thought it was pimento cheese, but no, it's red peppers with tuna, but it has orange in it too so there must be mayonaise or cheese or something in there.

 This is for Jessica Rinks :)  It's spaghetti sauce made by Jamie Oliver (The naked chef)

 I actually laughed when I saw this, which confused my host mom.  They also had the regular Cream of Mushroom and Cream of Chicken.

 This is Saffron  -  Saffron is an expensive spice that is used in different dishes, one of them being Paella.  The pink flowers on the package are where they get it and they take the stems or whatever you call them from the middle of the flower.  These are sold in very small packages (think like a few flower pistoles) for anywhere from 10€ to 45€ and up.  I googled Saffron and one place had 1/2 oz for $141.

 This is the fresh milk area (what we are used to)

 Reina Sofia Museum (Queen Sofia Museum)

 Penguin in front - they have many of these throughout the city decorated differently

 Cubism artwork  (this is not Picasso's)

 American Grocery Store (More like a small convenience shop)

 I think these pictures speak for themselves

 Peanut butter is imported here

 Cereal, pop-tarts, syrup, icing

 Candy

 Me in front of Taste of America