Prado and Retiro!

We got our morning coffee at La Rollerie, which is just across the street from our apartment. We’ve used a lot of Spanish on this trip, and today required us to communicate the best we could with the employees.

Today was our day to explore el Museo del Prado, one of the world’s best art museums. This collection is vast and extensive. We spent around 4 hours in the museum navigating the hallways to find its masterpieces. Although we enjoyed seeing many of the artists and their works, our favorites were Bosch's Gardens of Earthly Delights and Velazquez's Las Meninas. We also liked the Caravaggio, de Goya, El Greco, Fra Angelico, Raphael, and Rubens pieces displayed throughout the gallery. I must say, though - Las Meninas is especially striking upon closer analysis. Velazquez played around with details and perspective to create a masterpiece. You can read more about it here if you're interested. It also inspired a series of 45 paintings by Picasso playing around with the subjects and their locations - we saw some of these when we visited his museum in Barcelona. (See that post here.)

We ate lunch at Lope de Vega, near the Prado Museum. Mom and Nick had a "Spanish skillet" with eggs, bacon and potatoes. Dad and I both tried a "Revuelto." Mine had peppers and ham, dad's had peppers and shrimp. Although the food was good and the service was good, the restaurant wouldn't let us pay in Euros rather than dollars (a money-saving tip for international trips). It's tough to communicate problems like this in English, so we didn't really try to explain it in Spanish despite our waiter's insistence that it was the machine's problem and not his. Hmm.

We spent our afternoon wandering through El Parque de Buen Retiro (usually known as Retiro Park), which has been a Madrid favorite for centuries. We admired the fountains in honor of Alfonso XII and others, and even found turtles in one of the park's lakes. (If you watch the time lapse, make sure to watch for the pigeons!)

We came back for a siesta around 6:00 to relax a little bit before dinner. When we left again, we went to Metro Bistro, just off of Plaza Mayor. It was delicious! We got two appetizers, three entrees, and two desserts and everything was amazing. Our appetizers were potatoes with three sauces (Peruvian, Catalonian, and an Aioli sauce) and shrimp "on fire (and yes, it actually did come out on fire!). Mom and I split a pork entree, Nick tried a hamburger, and dad got a sirloin steak with potatoes. For dessert, we tried their Tribute to Chocolate and a cheesecake. Definitely would recommend this place! 

Dad and I finished the night with an evening walk on our street by Puerta del Sol before heading in. Tomorrow's our last day in Spain before we head home and it's bittersweet - I'm really enjoying Spain but am pretty excited to see my dogs and get back to my routine back in Highlands Ranch before going back to college this fall!

QOTD: "There's too much art in here!" -Nick, referring to the sheer number of pieces displayed in the Prado Museum. (He's kinda right!)

Amy