Madrid--Day 3 Spain and Portugal in Depth

Casa Grande, AZ

This morning we took  a panoramic tour of Madrid.  Our local guide who is an expert on Madrid led us all over the city.  Estefi is also along, but the local guide is head honcho while in Madrid.

Madrid is the highest capital in Europe.  The weather once again couldn't have been any nicer.  You wouldn't believe that Madrid is the fourth more populous city in the European Union behind, London, Paris and Berlin.   




This is the Royal Palace (Palacio Real) which was inspired by Versailles.  It has 2,800 rooms.





Unfortunately, there was some kind of government function going on and the tours were closed for the day.

Here's the bull arena in Madrid.  There were no bull fights going on here during the time we were there.

Bull fighting has quite a heritage in Spain and is also a very controversial topic.

After the panoramic tour, Estefi asked if anyone wanted to visit the museum's.  She had Domingo, our bus driver throughout the trip, drop us off and made arrangement to have him come back and pick us up.  I knew where Bill wanted to go--The Prado.  Photos were not allowed inside.  The Prado was originally supposed to be a science museum in 1785, but when it was completed in 1819 it was one of the world's most renowned art galleries. It would have taken a week or more just to walk by everything they had.  Hal and Sue joined us and it was like walking through a maze.  We finally found someone to show us where the sculptures were.  Hal and Sue had also seen "David" when they were in Italy.  If you never appreciated a sculpture, once you've seen that one, you will want to see if anything compares to it.  

Did I mention that photos were not allowed inside the Prado?





We stopped and had a glass of wine in the cafeteria just to sit down for a spell.  

The bus was a happy sight when we left the Prado.  I didn't want to do anymore walking.

Lucky for us, the welcome dinner was held at a restaurant before 8 pm.  We had the restaurant for our group only.    The meal was fantastic and I must say the Spanish wine was excellent.  Left to right, Ken Mitchell, Sue and Hal Diamond, Bill and I, Betty Mitchell and Leo Grande.  It was a great meal with great company.  

Another wonderful day exploring Spain.  

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