Madrid

Friday afternoon, we left Barcelona to go to Madrid for the weekend.  We were only there for a short time and most of the things we saw were in museums where you could not take pictures, so that means our whole Madrid experience fits into one post.  After we got off the plane in Madrid, we grabbed a quick lunch, took the subway to our hotel, checked in, and immediately went out to see the city while there was a bit of sun.

Our hotel was near Plaza Mayor, one of the main tourist areas in Madrid, so we stopped by there first.  All the restaurants on the square have tables outside for their customers to watch all the spectacles going on in the square.  There were plenty of locals trying to make a buck or two by playing various instruments or even dressing up as famous cartoon characters like Sponge Bob and Mickey Mouse.  It was something we saw often in the tourist areas in Madrid and it was kind of strange.

Plaza Mayor, all pictures in Madrid by Darren

A statue of Philip III, one of the kings of the Spanish Empire

We then walked over to the Parque del Retiro, which is a massive park that was built for the exclusive use of the Spanish monarchs.  It must be nice to have a 350-acre playground just for you.  Even though there is still a Spanish monarchy, it's now a lovely public space.

A view of downtown Madrid as we were on our way to the park

Parque del Retiro with some abstract art displays

A modern art piece inside a gazebo, seriously, plastic things stacked together is art?

Just outside of the royal park was an avenue with lots of small, outdoor book shops.  We both really loved this.

Outdoor book shops

After the park, we stopped at Starbucks to get a little snack and use the internet to read reviews online about restaurants in the area.  Before dinner though, we went to the Prado.  The museum is actually free from 6 to 8 pm on certain nights, so we went during the free hours on Friday and Saturday night.  I think it was a good idea because the Prado is so large that you could spend several hours there, and instead of getting museum fatigue (I have an art viewing limit of about 2 to 3 hours), we were able to split up the visit.  

We thought we were being so clever to go during the free hours, but apparently we weren't the only clever ones.  We arrived at the museum about five minutes early and there was already a line to get in.  So we got in line and weren't really sure what to expect.  However, the museum was well-prepared for all of these visitors and right at 6 pm, they started letting people in.  They had everyone enter through different entrances so not everyone was starting in the same place in the museum.  Therefore, even though there was a line, we easily got in within ten minutes and didn't have any trouble. This did mean that the museum was a bit crowded (and therefore a bit loud), so it's a trade-off.

The line to get into the Prado during the free hours

After the museum closed, we got dinner, which ended up being okay and finally went back to our hotel room to get some sleep.  The next morning, as forecasted, it was cold and rainy the whole day.  We had planned for this by picking all inside activities for the day.  Our first stop was the Royal Palace.  We were glad we did that first thing in the morning because the line just got longer and longer as the day went on.  We took an audio tour of some of the rooms in the royal palace and saw the royal armory.  We could not take pictures inside, even though some Chinese tourists were blatantly doing so and not getting in trouble.  I thought the tour was excellent and I really enjoyed seeing the armory.  The best thing was that some of the rooms are still used today by the current monarchy.  I can't imagine what it would be like to attend an event inside a 300-year-old palace.

The royal palace, pictures were taken the next day when it wasn't raining

Darren at the gates of the royal palace, taken the next day

Another side of the royal palace

After the royal palace, we had some lunch, and then went to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum.  This museum's art collection originally came from the extremely wealthy Thyssen-Bornemisza family who had housed the collection in their large villa in Lugano, Switzerland.  The collection was amassed over 60 years and includes Western works of art from hundreds of famous painters from the 14th century to the 20th century.  The collection is estimated to be worth $1 and $3 billion!  This art was just in one family's home!  In the 1980s, according to Frommers, "for tax and insurance reasons" the family had to sell the collection and several buyers came forward from Princes Charles to the President of West Germany.  However, Spain was chosen, so the country purchased the collection and it was brought to Madrid.  It really is a fantastic collection with a lot of breadth that most museums do not have.  I think many people do not know about this museum when they visit Madrid, but I would highly recommend it.

After that museum, we took another break before going back to the Prado during the free hours.  This time, even though we arrived ten minutes early, the line was even longer.  But again, the museum handled it well and we got inside in no time.  We thought the Prado was good, but it was definitely more of a Spanish national museum, rather than a worldwide museum.  The majority of their collection was Spanish and Italian art during the periods in which all people painted were royalty and religious pictures.  Therefore, I felt like there was a lot of repetition.

The next morning, on Sunday, we only had a bit of time to explore before we had to leave for the airport.  We walked back over to the Royal Palace to get some better pictures and explored other parts of Madrid.

Ran into a store that was selling a product called Amanda

Saw an Egyptian temple that was donated by Egypt to Spain, so no, it wasn't stolen

Beautiful monument we passed by

After that, we headed back to the hotel and left for home.  We had some fun in Spain and we were glad we were able to go there.