As we were getting ready this morning, Sarah was curious about one of the buttons on the bathroom wall so she pressed it. It began closing the blinds of the diagonal skylight. As it did we peered out the window and saw a man several stories above at the adjacent building seemingly looking directly down on us as Sarah got out of the shower. She was appalled but all I could do was laugh it off. We finished getting ready with the blinds closed.
We made our way to the Prado museum via the Metro for our 10:00am scheduled visit. I was starving so once in the Prado we ate breakfast at the Prado cafe. I had two Cafe Americano's (very strong black coffee) and two pastries while Sarah had a muffin and sliced kiwi. Our Madrid hotel is the first of the trip to not have a complimentary breakfast and our Seville hotel will not include breakfast either. The Prado is our 5th museum of the trip and I was about tired of them. However, the Prado has the greatest collection of art in all of Europe. We each purchased the handset for €3.50 which made this museum very interesting. Certain paintings have a number next to them which you enter into your handset to listen to a 1-2 minute description of the painting. Some of these were very informative and told a detailed story as you took in the artwork. This was our favorite museum other than the Vatican museum.
Leaving the Prado we walked through a heavily treed area across the street in order to get the the restaurant we planned to eat lunch. There were several souvenir vendors and artists set up in this area and Sarah had a look as she had not yet found a painting in Spain. We didn't buy one but as we walked by the artists she noticed that one of them was the same man she bought the painting that hangs over our fire place while studying abroad 6 years ago. He wanted to sell her another so that she could have a 'collection' or his work. We declined but not before betting a picture taken with him. Sarah was thrilled to have ran into him.
We proceeded a few blocks to the restaurant we planned to have lunch from the Rick Steves book. Their specialty is a variety of small sandwiches they sell for €2.50. We bought the sampler which gave us 6 of their most popular sandwiches. These were all terrific. I had two beers and Sarah had what she calls 'tinto vino' and then a small beer. She remembers drinking 'tinto vino' while studying abroad in college but we learned today that what she meant to order is tinto verano. It's a mix of fanta and red wine while tinto vino is just any red wine. With this said, she was brought a glass of red wine when that wasn't what she wanted. Following lunch we walked to Retiro Park on the west side of Madrid and sat in a beautiful setting at an outdoor cafe for another round of drinks. I had a beer and Sarah ordered another 'tinto vino' before remembering that she actually wanted a tinto verano. We listened to a nearby saxophone player while enjoying our drinks for about 40 minutes and then moved along after giving him a small tip.
Now we were back on the Metro to the other side of town where we had to catch a glimpse of the Royal Palace. It is a massive building that we looked at from the outside for a few minutes but didn't go inside. We've been in so many incredible buildings that we've lost interest in seeing many more. We intend to wind down on the remaining 4 days of our trip and take a slower pace in Seville.
One of the culinary staples of Madrid is their Churros con Chocolate. We walked back to the hotel for our short afternoon siesta but had a stop at Chocolateria San Gines, the most famous Madrid chocolateria. The walls are lined with photos of Spanish and some American celebrities that have visited the chocolateria over the years. We ordered what everybody orders, churros with chocolate. They brought a plate towering with churros and each a coffee cup with nearly boiling chocolate for dipping. The churros looked like more than we could eat but this ended up being a non issue.
We had a wonderful dinner tonight but I did overeat for the first time and felt too full. I wished that I could have just got in my car and drove my bloated self home like I'm accustomed to but we had close to a mile walk back to our hotel. For dinner we had fried green tomatoes to start, then a clam paella, and creme brûlée for dessert. We also shared a pitcher of sangria. The town was still very lively on our walk back at 11:30pm and will continue to be for a couple more hours. We both intended to walk straight to the hotel with no distractions but some street performers again caught our attention. There were four men, each with acoustic guitars playing well known songs by American and British artists. Sarah particularly liked their style. We listened to them play three of four songs. I enjoyed watching people in the crowd sing along as it was obvious that many of them didn't speak English, yet they knew most of the words to the songs. The singers sang the lyrics the way they have heard them as they listened over the years I'm sure, not necessarily the correct lyrics. This just added to the entertainment value.
After 5 years of hearing stories from Sarah about her treasured time in Seville, tomorrow we will be visiting it together. I'm very excited to see the city that she spent just 4 months of her life but made a lifelong impression on her. Adios.
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