Two Museums and a Nap!

 

Okay, so I’m a Philistine! But more on that later.  I have something to add from yesterday!

When we checked into the hotel yesterday, the gal at the desk indicated that tonight the hotel was going to be “very” full!  We asked why, and she explained that Real Madrid (the main one of two soccer teams in Madrid) would be playing Barcelona tonight!  MY TEAM!  I got SOexcited, and asked if tickets might be available!  The gal said she would check, and call us back.  Well, she did.  Suffice to say that I am seriously not kidding here.  She gave me three prices, and per ticket, here is what she said: Highest: 400€; second highest 350€, and I think the cheapest she could fine were 250€– EACH.  Really? That’s it???  Suffice to say that I declined the tickets, and we’ll watch it if/when we get back to the hotel tonight after tapas.  Unreal…

Prado -- before we were told NO photos!

Obelisk to National Martyrs

Stunning fountains everywhere!

Plaza Los Americas

Puerta de Alcala

Beautiful wide avenues!

I loved this building!  Hallow in the middle!

Biggest Oreo I've ever had!

Loved the Stele!

Another...

Think this is a person?

Amazing detail!

Temple

Lady of Elche

I do like Lions...

And these are great arms!

Wonderful mosaics!

Is this guy cross-eyed or am I?

Livia, Augustus' wife

Casa Gonzalez!

FABULOUS cheese and bread!

Casa de Abuelo -- note bull in back!

Garlic shrimp and garlic tomatoes!  No vampires tonight!

So … to move on to Wednesday and our very busy day!

Up around 7 am and down for breakfast at 8 am.  We both slept like rocks, or at least I did.  I think that a bomb could have dropped on the hotel last night and I for one wouldn’t have known about it.  Very comfortable bed!

Excellent breakfast! Some wonderful scrambled eggs and bacon, and fabulous mushrooms.  I did try a churro, which tasted very much like the one I didn’t like in Mexico City, but tomorrow I will dip it fully into the provided sugar.  So much for diets!  Interestingly enough, while I have had some wonderful “real” hot chocolate all over the world, here it was basically a glass of hot milk and a powder to stir into it. Disappointing!

Out about 9:30 am as the walk to the Prado was very short.  Cool, crisp day outside but brilliantly sunny, and while Robert was fine in shorts, I was very glad of my jacket and thinking that I also needed a scarf!  Got to the Prado in about 15 minutes, and found the Jeronimos entrance, as we had purchased our tickets on-line and didn’t need to go to the ticket booth! (Thank you, Internet!)  The doors opened promptly at 10 am and, as we were numbers 6 and 7 through the door, we were in, past security and coat check and picking up our audioguides in minutes.  (Very different than when we left, when the lines were very long indeed!)

So…I’m a Philistine. While I absolutely love the British Museum and the Louvre, both of which we have been known to spend upwards of 7 hours at a time, the Prado is basically flat, religious art.  And I find that really boring.  Sorry, folks! We had the audioguides as well as Rick Steve’s guidebook, but while I found the guidebook tour they put together to be really bad (a lot of back and forthing all over the place) the audioguide descriptions were very well done.  It’s just not our cup of tea!  So, we saw the paintings we were “supposed” to see and were done about 12:30 pm.  Stopped in the café for coffee (Robert) and water (me) and then out the door and on to museum number two!  Oh!  One other thought!  Seriously, a museum where NO photography at all is permitted?  So, nothing – nada – to show you on the blog, where pictures are really everything! (Even though I seem to add quite a few words…)

The second museum we visited was about half a mile further along the Prado street, and was the MAN Museo Archaeologico National.  This was FABULOUS!  By the time we got there, we were both dragging a bit, so our first stop after dropping coats and buying tickets was the nice Café they have.  We both got “real” Cokes (for the caffeine and sugar) and this time I had an Oreo Ice Cream sandwich!  Never saw one before!  (But then I don’t get out much…) HUGE Oreo with ice cream filling!  Easy to eat and really delicious!  Thankfully, that and the cokes seem to do the trick for both of us, as we had three floors of wonderful museum to cover!

First of all, the museum is housed in a lovely building with lots of skylights and exterior windows. Secondly, the presentation was beautifully done – lots of interactivity and things to do and touch and listen to. Everything was in Spanish and in English, which made for an excellent viewing experience!  We’d definitely give this museum 4 ****’s!

The museum “route” started in the basement with pre-history in Iberia, and worked its way up the floors to the present day and history of the museum.  The top floor also included what Robert called “bits and pieces”—a few pieces from the Near East, a bit more from Greece and Egypt.  A place for everything!

They had some truly stunning artifacts from pre-history and the chalcolithic and through to the Roman period.  Some of our favorites included stele and Phoenician pieces, as first the Phoenicians and then the Carthaginians moved into peninsula.  It’s fascinating to see how influences from the east and along the Mediterranean made their way here.  Robert particularly loved the ancient Roman water pump and tap – they looked like something that could be installed today and work really well!

There was a fun interactive experience on level two with goggles and earphones, which we both enjoyed trying.  All in all, a truly exceptional experience, and one that wasn’t crowded at all (although there were several school groups visiting).

Finally finished about 4 pm and debated the merits of taking the Metro back to the hotel.  No stops really close, so we decided we might as well walk back, which we did.  Arrived back at the hotel extremely leg-weary after being on our feet for seven hours, but very much enjoying being in Madrid!  This is truly a stunning and very clean city, and three nights here is not NEARLY long enough!  We will definitely be back … but probably not to the Prado…

Settled in for naps and were up around 6 pm.  Took turns answering emails, and I wanted to get a start on today’s blog posting, 1) because of the football game on tonight (Go, Barca!!) and 2) so I can get to bed earlier than last night!  We will again do tapas tonight, as with a really great breakfast, two meals (plus a snack) is fine for us … and we really do love tapas in any case!

More later!

m

xxx

Hola!  

Just back from dinner, and the Real Madrid-Barca score is 0-0 at 41 minutes of the game.  Frankly, Real looks better than Barca, but just hope it doesn’t work out that way!

Dinner – well, amazing really!  The Casa de Gonzalez shop was highly recommended for wine and cheese, so we headed there first.  Wow!  We ordered glass of wine – a red tempranillo for Robert and a Spanish Sauvignon Blanc for me – both wonderful – as well as a sample of five Spanish cheeses.  Well … there were two soft cheeses and three hard cheeses, and they were all wonderful!  There was a Spanish blue and a soft cheese (which we usually don’t like!) with a slice of quince paste, as well as three hard cheeses, at least two of which were Manchego.  Along with some wonderful bread and crackers, everything vanished quickly!  We arrived just at the right moment, as by the time we left, our “back room” was full of people!  From there, we headed back toward Plaza Santa Ana, and a block or so further along.  Found Casa Abuelo, which is famous for their garlic shrimp, which we ordered along with a garlic tomato.  Wow! Both excellent, as was their house red and house white wines!  Very filling and excellent dinner!

The area with the shrimp really is an “international” area of Madrid restaurants!  In addition to the sea food, we found a Thai, Japanese, Turkish, Mexican and Indian restaurants!  Amazing!  Right now, we’re really not interested in non-Spanish cuisine, but as I told Robert … ask me again in three weeks!

Back to the hotel afterwards, and arrived about 27 minutes into the Barca-Real Madrid soccer game – still 0-0 at the half.  Will get this posted now and into bed!

More tomorrow!

m

xxx

Editor's note:  at 70:56 in the second half, it's 2-0 Barca!!!!!

Editor's second note:  at 82.56 it's 3-0 Barca!!!!!