March 10
For the 12th straight day, we’ve had to deal with rain but luckily, we were indoors for several hours at the famous Prado art museum. But, because the line was long, we got pretty wet, although, not as wet as we could have. We had been standing in line for about 30 minutes when a guy starts walking down the line talking about free tickets. Apparently, a couple from LA were tired of standing in the rain (without umbrellas…. really???) to get into the museum so they were giving away their tickets. Of course, we snatched them up which got us out of the “buy a ticket” line and into the “get into the museum” line. This line was at least moving, which was not the case in the the buy a ticket line, so it was only another 10 or so minutes before we finally got in out of the rain.
No photos are allowed inside the museum so there’s nothing to show you but here’s a link to the website that shows their collection. We’re sure you’ll recognize some of the masterpieces. Museo de Prado
We bought the audio guide tour, where you punch in a number, and it tells you about the painting. On the lower level we stopped to look and listen at many of the paintings. But the time we got to the 1st floor, we only stopped occasionally. We didn’t even make it to the 2nd floor. After about an hour Peter mentioned that it was all pretty overwhelming (wait until he sees the Louvre in Paris) and it really is. Everywhere you look there’s another amazing painting until they all start to blur together. It is just incredible how the artists were able to make these inanimate objects really come alive and have such depth. All in all, we spent about 2 1/2 hours in the museum. By that time, we were just strolling through the galleries without really looking at anything, so we decided it was time to leave.
The #1 stop for the hop on/hop off bus was at the museum, so we bought a 24-hour ticket and hopped on. We needed lunch so we decided to ride until we found an area with some restaurant options instead of wandering around in the rain on foot trying to find something. We ate at a great little cafe/bar that featured jambon (ham) sandwiches. It doesn’t sound like much, but they were delicious. Spaniards have a love affair with jambon; there are about 50 different varieties. Walking the streets, we pass stores with ham hocks hanging in the window. The restaurant had them hanging over the bar. Peter’s sandwich was listed in the menu as the best jambon sandwich in the world. While we’re not sure about that, it was quite tasty. As we were walking in the streets around Plaza Mayor after lunch, we saw this sign…. think it says it all.
After lunch we hopped back on the bus to take more of the tour. It was still raining so we thought this was a good way to see some of the city while staying out of the rain.
Peter took these pictures from the bus. You can certainly see how dreary it was today.
We got about halfway around the circuit when we got to Plaza Mayor, the main square in Madrid. As luck would have it, the rain had stopped so we hopped off to walk around the plaza. As soon as we got there it started to rain again but not very hard and it stopped fairly quickly. Here’s a video Lynn took of the Plaza. Plaza Mayor
Since it looked like the sun was going to break out, we decided to walk back to our flat which was only about 15 minutes away. By the time we got home the clouds were gone and the sun was out. It didn’t last long and about 30 minutes later it was pouring again. This is getting really old.
Tomorrow we’re going to tour the Royal Palace and Cathedral, then see whatever else we can on the bus. Our bus ticket is good until about 2pm so we should get to finish the circuit.
By the way, here’s a picture of the place Lynn was supposed to turn yesterday to get to our building. Seriously would you have turned into a pedestrian zone? Look to the back right of the picture and you’ll see a yellow building. There’s a street there and our flat is down that street.
Anyway, it’s getting late, so we’ll close for now. Love to all and remember to spring forward! We’ll do that next weekend.