A Reason for the Thyssen

Hola!

Today was our first full day in Madrid, so we decided to visit the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, a privately-owned and highly-rated gallery near the Prado. We wandered through the halls, exploring art from the 1300s all the way up to modern-day art. Our favorites included paintings by Rembrandt, Gaugin, Monet, VanGogh, and Picasso, among others. (I put together a little collage with a few of our favorites - all pictures are from the Thyssen website.)

After that, we got lunch at Azotea, the rooftop terrace of the Circulo de Bellas Artes across from the often-photographed Metropolis building. We enjoyed the view, as well as some delicious food while we debriefed about our morning museum visit.

Mom and I went for a quick shopping trip too because we were curious. We stopped in Primark, which was basically Forever 21 on steroids before going to the Corte Ingles to pick up a few things. We came back for a long siesta to relax a little bit before the rest of the night. We also got reservations at the Italian restaurant right across the street under the name "Julia Roberts" because my mom (Julie) has finally adopted her Spanish fate ;) (The waiters appreciated her sense of humor when we showed up for dinner later that night!) Of course, we then took our afternoon siesta.

We went to dinner at Malatesta right across the street from our restaurant. We had a pizza, gnocchi, and a chicken dish and enjoyed all of it! Tourist tip: if you're planning to eat here, definitely get a reservation - they have 3 "areas" to sit in: outside (can't be reserved), inside/first floor (hot, mostly for walk-ins), and their lower floor (air conditioned, reservations).

For our evening paseo, we got frozen yogurt (actually yogurt, not the stuff you get in the US) at Llaollao. We enjoyed it on the Plaza Mayor when we went walking for the night.

QOTD: "Everyone have everything? Cameras, books, brains?" -Dad, checking up on the family before heading off to dinner. (And, the reason this post is a little light on photos!)

Amy