We departed Seville via high speed rail and watched the Spanish countryside fly by at 150+ MPH……I love high speed trains! About 2.5 hours and we are in Madrid, where it’s suddenly a lot colder. Madrid, besides being further north, is also at about 2200′ elevation, so it’s quite a bit colder than Seville in the south ( a high of 52 versus 62 degrees). We are staying in a much nicer hotel….the NH Collection Paseo del Prado, and this hotel is perfectly situated for the various highlights of Madrid. Best of all, no church bells!
We met our friends Dan and Kathy Westerlin who arrived from Barcelona. They are taking a cruise leaving Barcelona in a few days, so Madrid was a nice meeting point (in case anybody is wondering why we went from Seville to Madrid, and then headed back to Cadiz). Dan and I worked together at the Port of Oakland, and between the two of us we could write quite the killer book about the idiocy of government work. He’s written two books already, so who knows?
When we checked in, the hotel asked if we wanted their breakfast for 17 euros….if you prepay. If we wait until the morning, it’s 27 euros. Wow….I didn’t realize breakfast had become a used car salesman sort of negotiation! We opted out, and ate a full breakfast about 20 yards away for 7 euros. It pays to shop around!
We had some daylight left so we walked over to Retiro Park to check out the Palacio de Cristal (Crystal Palace). Gorgeous spot, but they had some pretty bizzare modern art inside. This is a steel cage made to look like a person shushing you. There were 3 of these facing each other.
This is a shot from just outside the Crystal Palace.
Another shot of the palace.
We read that the Prado museum, the most popular museum in Madrid, was open for free from 6 to 8 PM. We checked it out on the way back expecting maybe 100 people. The line must have been a thousand people, maybe more! The people at the back of that line will be lucky to get in before they close! We aren’t that poor….we’ll go back and pay tomorrow!