March 18
Madrid
The weather forecast makes us glad we are indoors today. Although it is a bit warmer, the rain clouds bode ill for most of the day from 10 – 4 PM anyway. We both slept well last night. Our jet lag drill seemed to have worked again. Upon landing in Europe, we endeavor to stay active until the local time of our normal time to retire occurs. Then force awake the next day when local time matches our normal wake up time. There are naps – or siestas when in Spain throughout the next day. Then, by the second day we are pretty much accustomed to local time.
After a filling breakfast we got ourselves ready for a museum trip. Today we are at the Prado. The rain is steady today, but it was a short walk to the Prado from our Hotel. Sara had the reserved tickets in her phone, and we were quickly inside the museum.
Last November Shirley and Paul visited the Prado twice, once on our own and once with Sara as our guide with a group hitting the highlights. It was then that we were so impressed with her passion and knowledge that we decided that when we returned, we would engage her as our guide. That feeling proved out for the best.
The Prado was just as amazing as we had hoped. Sara took us past the highlights of course, but spent most of the time explain in depth the works of Bosch, Velasquez, Goya and Ruebens. We went to galleries off the beaten path where she could explain the times that influenced the different schools. She went into great detail – it was like taking a class when it came to Bosch. Then a Master class in Goya. Sara likes Goya a lot.
We went to the area where the art restorers worked, to an exhibit of glassware with their accompanying cases – all custom made in the strangest shapes. We toured through Gallery after Gallery making bee-lines to the next exhibit of interest. By 1:30 we were worn out and our brains were full. It was time for lunch. We took a cab to the gay district to a café called Casa Salvador.
These people were serious about bull fighting. Every inch of wall space was covered with pictures and programs, paintings and memorabilia about bull fighting. I suppose these were the rock stars of their day. The glitterati were shown with matadors.
We walked back in the rain only a half of a mile, but our pants were soaked. We dried off at the Hotel and proceeded to that time honored tradition of siesta.
Rested, we decided to take another walk. We were just exploring, and so we generally went east to a wide boulevard, taking in the sites and the people. Balconies were festooned with straw donkeys, plants, flowers and whatever came to mind. We ended up at the Puerta del Sol, where the bear is. From there we decided to shop a bit and went into the Nordstroms of Madrid, El Corte Ingles. That was a nice diversion.
On the way back we passed the Museum of Jamon – had to have a picture.
Interesting concept – a museum dedicated to ham. Paul didn’t go in as it looked just to be a shop selling hams, expensive ones too – like several hundred Euros for one ham.
The closer we got to the Hotel, the more police we saw. As we neared the entrance we heard chanting. And then it became apparent, there was a protest going on. Assuming it was a pro-Palestinian effort as there were Palestinian flags being waved.
We took a right up the street to Lamucca for a Hawaiian Pizza before walking back in the rain to the Hotel and retiring for the night. We walked close to 4.5 miles today, about half in the rain. I think tomorrow will be good weather.
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