Thursday, April 25, 2013

Madrid - Day Twenty-Seven


Day Twenty-Seven

Date:     April  2013

Place:    Madrid

Weather:   Sunny

Accommodation:  Exe Colosso Hotel, Madrid

After a breakfast at a café we were on our way to the hop-on-hop off bus on Grand Via one of the major streets in Madrid.

The day had started off cool and as we chose to sit on top of the bus it was even chillier!  We went most of the way around and decided to get off at the Prado Museum (much excitement!) to enquire about ticketing.  I had read if you subscribe for the three major art galleries which I had wanted to visit then it was a lot cheaper.  You have to love guide books as this was the case so our ticket included the Museo de Prado, the MuseoThyssen-Bornemisze and Centro de Arte Reina Sofia.
Just a little bit excited .....(me anyway!).
 
As we were already at the Prado we decided to spend the time there.  The Prado is huge with vast galleries and smaller rooms over four levels.  As you can get desensitised pretty easily even when viewing the great masters I decided to concentrate on the  Spanish three I was most interested in:  Goya, Velasquez and El Grecco.

The leaflet highlighted the masterpieces not to miss so having the ‘cheat list’ we set off to find them.  Needless to say, it is a pretty wonderful experience standing in front of huge paintings painted two to three hundred years ago.  The Rembrandt was near van Dyke and Pieter Brueghel!  What a feast of art!

The stand out for me was the Velasques painting Las Meninas (The Handmaidens).   It was in an entire room of his work – all large and lead on to other rooms of his work as well.  As we were intending to leave we once again passed by a gallery of Rubens…..wow!

After quite a few hours we had ticked all the boxes in the leaflet so we retreated to the Prado café and had some lunch about 2pm.  Our feet were sore and we needed a break.

A quick look around  the Prado shop was in order before we were back on the bus.  David and I decided to hop off at the Botanical Gardens and we enjoyed a leisurely stroll around these huge gardens which includes a large pavilion, a lake, many fountains and shady grassed areas.

Met these very strange Australians on the tourist bus!  David and I made a quick exit at the Botanical Gardens.
 
Magnificent.....boating available as well.
 
After a big day it was time for a break so we headed back to the hotel for some R&R (afternoon nap!).

Our dinner time date was for 7.30pm so we set off to the same district as last night just behind the Praza Mayor.  There are so many choices and we had some great food and wine after walking past restaurants and reading their menus.

Our next stop was the Market of San Miguel which was in fine form at 10pm.  We chose our desserts of delicious little tarts and cakes and stood at the counter.  Then on a whim we decided to end the evening with a sangria.  All four of us stood with our large glasses of sangria with soaked fruit and boy was it alcoholic!
Mercado de San Miguel.....lots of little shops with tapas, wine and desserts.


Getting our sangrias organised!
Caught up with those strange Australians!
 
It was all such fun!  You have to admire the way the Spaniards enjoy themselves.

 

 

 

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