Changed our minds about Salamanca after finding out that it was a 6 hour round trip, so decided to visit some museums and galleries. It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm, around 25 so T shirts again. I was feeling a lot better, no more fever and not tired and aching.
Went to a cafe next door for breakfast, just a coffee and croissant, then walked 5 minutes round the corner to the palace and the cathedral.
Decided not to go in to these today, so took some photos and walked around to the Market and got some food. I had some toast which had mozarella cheese, spinach and ham on, and another with smoked salmon. I´ll post some pictures because the description doesn´t do it justice. Song had some shell fish.
Carried on walking, through the Plaza Mayor which was very impressive, and very busy. In fact Madrid was busy all day, really packed. The square, and other public places, was also full of street performers and they were very annoying. People dressed up as Disney characters, people pretending to be statues; they were everywhere and made the place look very tacky. Quite a few beggars as well.
We walked round the corner and found ourselves in the middle of an anti-monarchy demonstration. I sang a few bars of ¨God Save the Queen¨ then we carried onto the Prado museum. Song thought it was the Prada museum and was disappointed in the lack of handbags on display. Not really.
This is one of the top attractions in Madrid and is quite large, but it is mainly 17th century works. These are mostly religious imagery and in my opinion if you´ve seen one painting of Jesus on the cross you´ve seen them all.
There were lots of works by Goya (not surprising considering he´s Spanish), some Titian, quite a few Reubens, but nothing really special. We´re going to look for a place with Picasso and Dali over the next couple of days.
Spent about 3 hours there, then headed back to the hotel, stopping for food on the way, even though it was only about 17:00. We´ve noticed that the restaurants shut around 16:00 and open again around 21:00, but we managed to find a place. The menu looked really good. I ordered a burger with caramalised onions and goat´s cheese, and Song ordered a Tripe stew. Hers cost $12.50 and was an entree sized serving, so she was not happy. She said it tasted nice but the price was a rip-off. My burger was also on the small size but was good, although it also came with a small serving of chips. Nice food but not enough for the price, and to top it all they tried to charge us for bread which we didn´t get.
Walked about 30 minutes back to the hotel through some lovely side steets – such a change from Portugal; very little graffiti, the buildings well-maintained and clean. Weather was still fabulous, and lots of people out and about and in the parks enjoying it.
Haven´t anything planned for tomorrow yet.