| The Main building into the Train Station in Madrid... |
 |
| Glenn's Madrid Journals 06-15-02 Saturday morning and our first full day in Madrid. We had a list of places and things we wanted to see while we were here so we at least had a list if not a plan. The list includes the three major museums, Museo Del Prado, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, and the Centro De Arte Reina Sofia. We also want to see the Palacio Real (Royal Palace), some of the many Plaza's, monuments, parques, and the El Rastro Flea Market. The generic plan is to see the Museo Del Prado today as it is free to get in after 2:30 pm and on Sundays. The Centro De Arte Reina Sofia is also free on Saturdays after 2:30 pm and Sundays but we will see this one on Monday as the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza is never free and is closed on Mondays. We will see it on Sunday afternoon. Sunday morning is set for the flea market as that is the only day for it. Otherwise we will tour around Madrid enjoying the different parts of the city and what they have to offer. Before we get too far into the day we need to stop at another tourist information place to see if they have a better map of the city and any other useful information or ideas. We decided to head towards the museums to make sure what we had read was still in fact true. On the way we found the information booth which had much more information than the train station along with a more useful map. After the stop at information we continued towards the museums until Erin's eyes lit up and she announced with quite some excitement "Starbucks"!!! This was the first one we had seen on this trip so we had to stop for Frappuchino's. Even I had a frappuchino!!! (Mine was without coffee and only ice cream. O.K. So it was a good milk shake but it was good!!!) After relaxing in the big comfortable chairs in Starbuck's we then continued on towards the museums. We determined that the information we had gathered was correct and since it was 1:00 pm we still had 1 1/2 hours to kill before we would enter. We went to the train station to get more information about trains back to Milan but the same lady that wasn't helpful yesterday was there again today. We decided to pass. We stopped for lunch at a little place right outside the train station and enjoyed hot dogs and a coke. We then stopped at some second hand bookstores along the road just outside of the train staion and found a few more books to read during out trip. (Remember we still have a 16 hour plane flight back home to survive.) We arrived back at the Museo Del Prado around 2:30 pm and got into the line that had built waiting for the free entrance time. We entered about 10 minutes later and spent the next 3+ hours enjoying some of the amazing works throughout the museum. The museum provides extensive coverage to some of Spain's greatest masters including Velazquez, Goya, and El Greco. There are many other artists represented throughout the collection of over 7,000 pieces, of which less than half are on display at any one time. The artists are from all over including Flemish, Italian, Dutch, German, French, and other Spanish artists. After the museum we checked out one of the larger parks, Parque Retiro. We strolled through the park until we found a bench under some nice shade trees (it is 95 degrees again today) and relaxed while reading our books for about an hour. We continued our stroll through the park before heading out towards Sol (the center of town) where we were told of an Easy Everything internet cafe (same company we had used in Barcelona) where we wanted to check e-mails. We stopped by there and passed for another internet cafe just down the road. We checked a few e-mails and continued on while looking for dinner. We found a restaurant with dining on the street (or should I say in the alley) and enjoyed Paella and Sangria while watching the crowds stroll by. We headed home around 11:00 pm, both tired from the day, and headed back to our place. (We did stop at a grocery store for water and a beer before actually making it back to our place.) I crashed pretty early (around 11:30 pm) while Erin stayed up reading until almost 2:00 am. |