waffleweave: Madrid

We took the high-speed AVE train again on our trip from Sevilla to Madrid, and it only took 2 1/2 hours to cover 329 miles (it would take 5 1/2 by car). We were delighted to discover the city covered in vacas (cows)! It reminded me a lot of a similar art campaign in DC that used pandas--basically each vaca is painted/decorated by an individual or group of people who are sponsored by various corporations. It was fun to see them all over town and watch people react to them, especially children.

We stayed at the Roommate Mario (Roommate is a chain of hotels in Spain), near the Royal palace and the Theater. Our room was very small but bright, and the entire hotel has a very hip, modern decor. The walls were thin, though--even though we were on a side street and on the 3rd floor, our room faced the street, and we heard a lot of noise. I think the interior rooms (which look out onto an interior courtyard) would probably be much quieter.

After getting settled, we walked over to the Palacio Real, which is the royal palace of Madrid. Unfortunately, they were closed that day for an official function, so we decided to take a long walk over to the Prado museum. On the way, we passed through a huge shopping district, and what did we see? A Pronovias store! I was happy to see it, because I wore a Pronovias gown at our wedding, and it is a Spanish company. So of course, I had to get a picture. :)

The Prado is free from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., so we avoided paying any entrance fees and squeezed our visit into two hours. You could spend a full day there if you wanted to see everything. We paid for an English headset, which was helpful, because neither of us really knows much about art, and it was nice to hear details about specific paintings. We spent most of our time in the sections including works by Goya, Velazquez, El Greco, Rubins, and Titian. It was definitely a highlight! There were lots of people there, but it wasn't packed.

Before our free entry to the museum, we walked through Retiro Park, which is right behind the Prado, and it used to be the private park for the royal family--all 350 acres of it! It is a beautiful place, even on an overcast day, though we didn't walk through much of it because of the mud (and we still saw snow on the ground there!). I really enjoyed the topiary, especially the "broccoli trees" (named by yours truly, but how could they possibly be called anything else?).

We eventually toured the Palacio Real the next afternoon, when it was open again--truly a stunning palace, but unfortunately no pictures allowed on the inside.

Here are some of our favorite pictures from Madrid. For more, see our Picasa album.