Friday, October 8, 2010

Day 19 -- Madrid




Our normal breakfast of Napolitano and coffee. Senor Manuel must have figured something out for the overbooking because he didn’t throw us out of our room. We took the metro to museum Thyssen and met Pepe there at 11. We walked through this museum till 2 pm. Pepe then showed us the exquisite Palace hotel where he stayed while working for Hughes in 1970. We walked till we found an acceptable taverna and had a great lunch. The lunch includes a glass of wine but they give you the whole bottle. We walked back to our hotel and parted for siesta. At 6 pm we went out for a walk and visited a small church called Ermita de San Antonio de Florida, which has its ceiling painted by Goya. It’s called the Sistine chapel of Madrid. Goya’s grave is also in this church. Our return route took us by a mall and we had to go in. It was immense ( a converted train station) and it added to our walking total. We finally got to a pub where we had beer and snacks. Rejuvenated we wondered into a new neighborhood and were amazed at the numbers of cafes and people. At 10 pm at night, all the outdoor cafes were full, the upscale market with many different food stalls was packed to the point that you could hardly get through, there were more people in the streets than during the day. Madrilenos definitely live by night and we decided that in this city nobody eats at home.

Tomorrow is our last day in Madrid. We will probably spend most of the day at the Prado. In the evening we are going to the opera and right after that to the airport. We may not have a chance to post anything unless there is WiFi at the airport.

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