Oh boy, did we sleep.  We didn’t wake up until 8:45 and only because the loud ladies in the rooms on our floor were screaming and hollering and laughing in the hallways.  I wanted to get up and tell them to be quiet until I realized it was 8:45!  Sheesh – we’ve never slept that long.  But it was totally refreshing, until I realized there was no coffee in the room.  Pooh.  Ed can stomach that espresso.  I can’t.  Oh well, that just means we’re up and out in a flash, and heading toward the Prado that opens at 10, stopping along the way at Bar Restaurante Asturias for a much needed cappuccino.  I’m whole now.

Back on the street, we pass the train station, without the sun behind it, making for a perfect photo opp.  That station is monstrous!  And gorgeous on the outside, the façade we didn’t see on the way in or out yesterday. 

After that it is an easy jaunt to the Prado where we find a huge line already forming.  Wow.  But since we have Art Pass tickets, we get to stand in another line to get the passes, and we’re first.  Turns out we end up being first in the Prado that morning!  Yep – as Simon from the Azamara Journey would say, why am I not surprised?  But hey, makes all the difference in the world since for about the first hour we can wander pretty freely through all the rooms on the first floor without hardly another person around. 

And what can we say about the Prado except it is fabulous – of course.  No photos are allowed, so this will be a quick review of our wanderings! We started out on the first floor because of our special day pass and quickly made our way through the a couple of galleries to the Rubens, stunning, and then to an entire gallery focused on Goya. I think I’ve decided I’m just not all into Goya.  Portraits aren’t my thing, which is patently apparent in this gallery!

Both Ed and I were fascinated though by the Anonimo console tables that were a combination of marble inlay and painting.  Gorgeous and fascinating.  I decided Anonimo was my guy (of course Anonimo means anonymous….so…take that for what it is worth!)  Moving on through the galleries, we were also fascinated by the Velazquez painting entitled The Spinners.  It was evidently expanded at some point in time, but the museum chose to display it in its original format, with the images front and center, blocking out the expanded background area. They built this huge frame around the painting to make it seem as if the painting was the original size.  The whole process and mechanical aspect of the framing kept us mesmerized for quite a bit.

Continuing on, we found the one Caravaggio here – not the most intriguing in my mind, it was ok, but sort of underwhelming just hanging in a gallery with other religious paintings.  At one end of the museum there is an upstairs gallery focused completely on, yes, you got it, Goya.  Oh well, it is the Prado, he is an important Spanish artist.  But the bonus here is that we can go down into the basement gallery which focuses on the history of the Prado museum itself.  Now this captivates us more than the artwork (yeah, you know us, we’re wonky like that).  We spend a great deal of time down here reading through all the background history on the museum, the expansions, the evacuation of the masterpieces to Valencia and beyond during the war, the fortifications to protect the building. It was great.  There was even a short video that graphically showed how the building was expanded to the size that it is today. 

Next up was the ground floor which held more priceless masters, Rafael, El Bosco, Medieval artists.  Then another upstairs gallery with Rembrandt and Rubens.  But the best thing up there was the Tesoro del Delfin, Dauphin’s treasures.  It was a circular room, all in black with glass and silver and gold vases, glasses, vessels – a lot of which were broken.  We had never seen any museum displays, outside of archeological displays, that held anything other than perfectly preserved pieces.  It was really strange.  Beautiful, but strange.  And speaking of strange, there was one vessel that was a mask sitting atop 4 dolphins, but you could only tell it was a mask/face by looking in the mirror that placed over the piece. Oh, we longed for the ability to take pictures!

Now that we are on the main floor, it is getting crowded, because this is where the main entrance is located.  We’d already been here for about 2 hours, so we hurried through the rest of the displays and skeedaddled out into the beautiful, sunshining fresh air day, snapping a picture of the Goya statue (yeah, well, you know, when in Madrid…) on the way past.

Time for lunch.  We figured we’d go back to the Estado Puro since they had a menu full of Tapas and we knew it was on the way to the Reina Sofia museum, our 2^nd stop of the day.  So we plopped down at a nice table by the street, got a menu and proceeded to decide that we really didn’t want anything on the menu, it was all run of the mill stuff, and well, it was pricey!  After a bit of debate, we did something we’ve never done before, we just got up and left.  We hadn’t placed a drink order or anything, and decided, you know what?  There are too many other good places around, we don’t need to settle.  Off we go in search of another tapas place, and landed at Canas Y Tapas, a chain, but a local relatively local one at least.  Great tapas, beer and wine – all we could ask for.  We shared a fried seafood basket with dogfish bites, squid tips (don’t ask, it was fried baby squid) and calamari, plus croquettas jamon.  Perfectly satisfying and perfectly reasonably priced!

Now we’re off to the Reina Sofia. Which was weird.  Just weird.  Again, no photos allowed, except in some places, so we did get his photo of this weird installation of strange mannequins sitting watching a screen.  And a photo of a painting of Quatre Gats for Maggi, because it is the restaurant in Barcelona that is featured in Shadow of the Wind, a book we both adored. And that was about it.  Most of the stuff left us shaking our heads.  But, the way we figured it, it was free with the pass.  So, nothing ventured, nothing gained!

Walking back to the hotel, we decided to stop at the Bar Restaurante Asturias for an afternoon beverage – might as well begin and end our explorations here.  We snagged a 2 top table right by the door and proceeded to watch the waiter perform, what we soon learn, is his daily frenetic dance through the tables and the restaurant and service.  This guy is a beast!  He is running everywhere, laughing, smiling, taking orders, delivering orders.  Just the best.  He finally gets to us and we order our beer and wine, which he brings on the run, only to find my wine glass is not up to his standards and he has to take it away and give me another.  Nice eyeballing there.  I wouldn’t have even noticed.  He runs by with a basket of bread, which we munch down as we watch his show.  Then, later, he runs by with a plate full of this excellent sliced ham drizzled with olive oil.  Oh my.  Unfortunately, we didn’t know that was coming, and we’d already finished our bread.  Bummer.  Oh well, we just ate it alone – consider it a deconstructed torta!  Finished with our afternoon aperitif, we pay our 5 Euros 50 (yep, that’s all) and head back to the hotel for a while before dinner.

Tonight we have decided to try our luck at La Canibal, a tapas place a little bit beyond the Reina Sofia, that gets excellent reviews and bills itself as the “place open to all where artisan producers who work in a truthful and sustainable way have their place.” They also call their wine offerings “sincere wines.” We are loving the descriptions! So, off we go.

We wander up the street early, hoping to score a table outside.  Sadly, even this time of evening (before 7!) the place is packed. I looked in to see if we could find someone and maybe make a reservation, and the waiter asked how many, when we said 2 he said over here – they just paid, and pointed us to a table.  Success!  The guy sitting there finished  his beer, then got up and offered us the table. Very nice. 

The rest of the evening proceeded just as sweetly. Food was excellent, different takes on traditional Spanish cuisine: Squid croquettas which were gorgeous, wrapped in deep fried rice noodles, lamb tail eggrolls (have no idea what lamb tail actually is – I mean lambs don’t really have much in the way of tails….so….but whatever part of the lamb it was, it was delicious) and Pulpo Gallego, but instead of being on top of slice potatoes, the octopus was on the plate with one large baked potato (well, boiled) on top.  Excellent meal all around!

Lovely walk back to the hotel and a nice relaxing evening before our last full day in Madrid.