Starting yesterday, there will be an official "Changing of the Guard" at 11.00 am at the Royal Palace in Madrid. The uniforms, hats and horses were beautiful.

It looked quite impressive on TV.

I believe it is composed of more than 400 participants.

Commentators told Spaniards now there is no need to go to London for this type of attraction!

forgot to add "every Wednesday".

Thank you for posting that. Will it be year round?

If that fabulous gelato stand is still operating across from the palace I'm all in.

from what the news reported, i assume it is all year round, as it said "starting today and every wednesday" with no date limit on it.

should be a nice addition to the area and palace experience.

dukey.. i´ll have to go look up that gelato stand...

Once a month they will perform "the whole thing" with about 400 soldiers at the Plaza de Armas, as they have been doing until now. The rest of the month (every wednesday) they will be doing a reduced version with about 28 soldiers on foot and 6 mounted beginning at 11.00 am till 2 pm except in August and September. Each 15 minutes the guard will be changing , first the horses, 15 minutes later the the soldiers on foot and so on.
The info is from the Royal Guard website, if someone wants to read it, it's in Spanish :

http://www.guardiareal.org/noticias/notice.php?id=197

boy, kenderina.. you sure got the facts!!

how are you? cold enough in castellon? hope everyone is doing well up there.

Hi, Lin !! yes, today has been really cold , fortunately no ice here in the city but all day around 7 degrees and now in the night about 1 !!

We have no news..so I suppose that's good news LOL

Hi all! lincasanova, thanks for the notice! I noticed the event on TV last week. Looked nice.

I get that the event will take place every Wednesday at 11am but I don't find on the website @ http://www.guardiareal.org/noticias/notice.php?id=197 on WHICH Wednesday of each month will they have "the whole thing" with about 400 soldiers at the Plaza de Armas.

Just found an article on Madridiario.es @ http://www.madridiario.es/2007/Dicie...s-semanas.html

...which states the event will take place at NOON and "the whole thing" will be THE FIRST Wednesday of each month and lasts about 40 minutes.

Madridirecto.es says:
"No obstante, el primer miércoles de cada mes se realizará un Relevo Solemne en el que participarán más de 400 hombres y más de 100 caballos, con una duración aproximada de 40 minutos."

But the GuardiaReal.org website @ http://www.guardiareal.org/noticias/notice.php?id=197 says "El acto se llevará a cabo todos los miércoles desde las 11:00 horas hasta las 14:00 horas, exceptuando los del mes de agosto y septiembre, siempre y cuando los actos oficiales o la climatología lo permitan."

Hmmmm... Clear as mud. hehee..Well, I'll believe the GuardiaReal.org website about the timing but not sure what to believe about on which Wednesday is "the whole thing". We'll try to let you know on the first Wednesday in January to see if THAT'S when it is.

Saludos, MadridMan/BarcelonaMan @ you-know-where!

MadridMan, most spanish websites are clear as mud , hehehe.

I just thought that what I named "the whole thing" would be as it has been until now and that's why they don't say anything as if everybody should know that...oh, well, this is spain, isn't it ? LOL