Museum Hopping in Madrid

We were up and out the door early this morning since the Prado opens at 9:00. Our favorite little breakfast place wasn't yet doing business when we arrived so we ate at a chain cafe, "Cafe & Te," nearby. With my brilliant Spanish I managed to order a cappuccino and a slice of cheesecake! Not the worst possible breakfast when you think about it.

A lovely stroll away, partly through a construction site, is the Museo Nacional Del Prado, one of the world's great art collections. Among other things, there are acres of Spanish paintings. Think El Greco, Ribera, Murillo, and Velazquez. There are over 100 Goyas and I'm pretty sure we saw most of them. Lots of other paintings you would instantly recognize, too, like Bosch's "The Garden of Earthly Delights." The holdings take you up to the end of the 19th century. We had lunch at the museum cafe, one of the best meals we've had here. Fruit! There was fruit! Fresh fruit! Jamon and melon.

Then on to the nearby Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum where I wanted to see the impressionists and post-impressionists especially. I was a little disappointed in the collection, but it was still fun. I think I most enjoyed the fauvist paintings and the modernists.

We were both in pretty pitiful condition after nearly 10 hours on stone floors and concrete sidewalks, but we made it to Faborit, Spain's answer to Starbuck's, for coffee and refreshments. After a great deal of debate on the way back to the area of our hotel, we decided just to dine on tapas at Mercado San Miguel again. It was the right decision. Since we were early (7:30 p.m.) we had no trouble finding standing room at the olive bar. We bought iberian jamon sliced paper thin, more of the seafood tapas we had last night, 2 euros worth of assorted olives, 2 little bread things (one was a chile empanada; the other had cheese), and 2 different cheese slices. Randy had wine while I reprised last night's fresh lemonade. Even though we ate standing up at the olive bar, we left feeling quite refreshed and relaxed. And stuffed.

In 2.5 days one can't even put the barest scratch into the surface of Madrid. It's a terrific city for tourists. There is so much street life! It's clean, safe, friendly and helpful. Although it's rather more modern than many European cities, there is still plenty of interesting architecture and dozens of museums of various kinds. This was a good time of year to come, jacket weather, although bullfight season ends in October.

Tomorrow we take the high-speed train to Barcelona.