Up early to walk to a highly recommended bakery for our morning pastry. A zoo. All locals, all in a hurry, we had so many choices we finally grabbed a few, then headed across the plaza to McDonald’s for our coffee and ate the pastries there. We then headed out to visit the Palacio Real, (the Royal Palace). Spain’s White House and Versailles all rolled up into one. Top on our list of things to see in busy Madrid. We got there, (looks like Buckingham Palace with over 2,800 rooms, and enough artwork, tapestries, chandeliers, and porcelain to fill a hundred White Houses), and it was closed!!
This is the closest we got, the gates were locked.
They close it two days a year for who knows what, (clean the carpets?!). Both of the days we are in Madrid. Onward…we will check Wikipedia. Next stop is the Royal Tapestry Factory. It looked a bit too quiet on the outside too. Once we found someone, we learned it was closed since the union was on strike! Two for two. Undaunted, we head up to the multiple parks in Madrid. Similar to Central Park in New York, or Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Nice time for Tom and me to take a nap while the ladies investigate where we are eating lunch.
Another great cathedral next to the Royal Palace
After lunch, (more on the cuisine of Spain in the future), hint: excellent. We head over the the Museo Nacional del Prado. The Prado Museum. Over three thousand canvases, the largest collection in the world. Everyday is free after 6:00, so we cue up at 5:30 to take advantage; with hundreds of others. It is overwhelming. We have visited the Hermitage in San Petersburg, the Getty in Los Angeles, the Louvre in Paris, and the British Museum in London. All great, but if you want paintings, this is the place. All the great Masters are represented, some of their greatest works. It is best to pre-caffeinate before entering, keeps you sharp going from one vast room to the next.
You gotta love the way they prune their trees in the park.
Finally, when 8:00pm rolls around, the staff got the cattle prods out and send us to the exits. The problem was, it was pouring rain outside. With lightning and thunder. The porticoes are large around the museum, but not so large that they will hold the hundreds from the inside. None the less, they kept pushing and prodding us to get out of the museum proper, they finally slammed the doors and left everyone outside, somewhat protected from the downpour. We waited, and waited, till the umbrella hawkers showed up and the rain subsided to make a run for the 1-2 miles back the the hotel. No problem, I have the trusty phone map to get us back. Oh wait, after the rain slowed, we had waited so long that my battery died! We had to wing it back to the hotel with a soggy paper map, that did a much better job advertising where the McDonalds were then the street names!
A couple of good links: Prado Museum, and Royal Palace (no photographs in either)
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