Spain 2011 Day 2 Tuesday May 24

Spain day 2 – Tuesday, May 24, 2011, Madrid

GLOBUS: "The capital since 1561, Madrid today is a strikingly modern city, the showcase of a country resolutely turned towards the future. Morning sightseeing with a Local Guide takes you to the Puerta del Sol, Plaza de España with its monument to Cervantes, the Parliament, Cibeles Fountain, elegant Calle Alcala, and Paseo de Castellana. Then the highlight: a visit to the palatial PRADO MUSEUM with its priceless art treasures. The afternoon is at leisure. An optional excursion to El Escorial and the Valley of the Fallen can be arranged. (Breakfast)”

Another nice big buffet breakfast, then we had a bus tour of the city at 8:30am. Then to the PRADO (again for us) and after a half hour wait for a ticket mix-up our group split up in two being too big a group for the museum. We got an excellent man for a guide, who was quite funny and very informative. He led us around in our smaller group, maybe 20 of us, so it was good to be near him, although we had ear pieces and carried the battery pack or “whisperer” as they called it, as they whispered in our ears I guess. It was light and worn around the neck so not a bother. Fortunately we went to all the rooms we missed on Sunday, being too tired to explore fully. All the Goyas, the famous ones, more Velazquez, etc. etc. were viewed today for almost two hours.

Then at noon we got back on the bus to go an hour north to Escorial, the monastery and burial place of the kings of Spain, as well as the royal palace for some centuries. It was really wonderful, more stairs than you could count, up and down, and all granite stonework, not plastered or painted over. Rather austere but elegant in an understated way. Quite the opposite of the later Royal Palace in Madrid. That was an extra trip, but well worth the money, and in fact nearly all of the tour people went on it.

Back to the hotel around 5:30 for a rest up and then went out to find some dinner. We took the metro again to the Gran Via stop, not very far, as that was a rather large shopping street. However we didn’t find any restaurants there, so after walking too much and asking a group of policemen where we were, which they finally found on our map (but they were national guard so that explains it), we finally found a main street again, and decided to try the Westin Palace Hotel. Very ritzy of course, not our usual kind, but there was a restaurant as well as the lounge in the rotunda, which had a fantastic stained glass dome over it. So we sat there very elegantly and very tired, but had wine and a little dish of prawns with guacamole—very very tasty combination.

Walking back was amazingly short, as we took some back streets, having finally figured out the map, and were really surprised at how close we were. But the streets wind up and down and back and forth, as in old cities, so it’s hard to go in one direction easily. Very tired and had to pack up to be ready to leave next day at 8am – but bags out of the room at 6:45am!