Today we spent in Madrid.
After studying the various options for getting into the heart of Madrid, a taxi turned out to be the best choice - reasonably priced and quick.
Although we'd both been here before, we still decided to take an orientation bus tour via the good old Hop-On-Hop-Off bus. The bus was full, but we were able to get good seats on the upper deck. Alas, our headphones didn't work, except for very enthusiastic static. Oh, well - the driver announced our locations and we just sat back and enjoyed Madrid's beautiful architecture.
Had to get a picture of the Biblioteca Nacional (national library).
Beautiful fountains and monuments everywhere -
And beautiful buildings - wait, what? McDonalds???
We passed through the Plaza del Sol just in time to witness a familiar street scene. If you can enlarge this photo, notice the two police officers arriving on bicycles on the right. In the center, see the "blanket guys" instantly pack their wares - they have cords attached to the blankets that they can just pull to turn the blankets into instant packs, ready to head off to the next site to spread their blankets on the sidewalk and illegally sell sunglasses, genuine fake watches, and whatever else.
After the bus tour and lunch at a convenient Burger King (McDonalds looked too high class for us), we walked around the neighborhood near the Prado where we saw electric bicycles for rent - a great idea, but there weren't many takers today.
Just down the street we found a vertical wall garden - John, of course, checked out the structure, irrigation, etc.
It's an exceptionally large example of a wall garden - many stories high,
We then headed to the botanical garden that's next to the Prado museum. Spring blooms were at their peak.
Beautiful beds of tulips.
John was curious about several plant labels, including this one identifying these gorgeous tulips as a variety of dahlia.
We had a 4 pm appointment at the Prado to meet the same guide who had given us such a good tour when we were last here 13 years ago. John still had his business card (some people keep everything!), so we sent him an email, and voila! He still gives tours and was happy to accommodate us.
We met him at the new entrance - Jeronimos, after St. Jeronimos church across the street. This is a new wing of the museum, which extends under the street to the new modern brick building that houses conference and educational facilities. This building was constructed on the vacant land left after Napoleon destroyed the monastery that had once been connected to the church. I tried to get a picture of our guide, Juan Nuevobarrios, but he seemed camera shy. I would also have taken pictures in the museum, but I obeyed the "no photography" signs, unlike many others. Take my word for it, we had another outstanding tour and came away knowing so much that we didn't even know we didn't know. One highlight was learning so much about Heironymus Bosch - a surrealist who predated Dali and friends by 500 years.
We looked around the Prado a bit more on our own after our nearly 2-hour tour, then took a taxi back to our hotel to pack our bags in preparation for our flight home in the morning.
For a last dinner in Spain, we walked across the street to a great little bakery/cafe we found yesterday - the gregarious owner has traveled in the western United States and was happy to talk to us about where he'd been and where we lived.
The food is good, too - I had hummus with a
selection of whole grain toast, and John ordered a pizza (which I helped him with).
We finished packing and got a good night's sleep.
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