Spain 4/24

At 7:30 yesterday, after our naps, it’s time for dinner.  We decide to try one of the tapas bars. The one we selected is a hang-out for the locals.  The place was packed; we got the last  table, excellent service and very good food. In fact, Brenda’s fried calamari was the best, most tender, I’ve ever tasted. Photo at left is of the waiter flirting with Brenda.

After dinner we walk to Plaza del Sole (photo at right).  It’s a good thing Brenda is an excellent map reader. There is a plaza every four blocks and all are filled with people at 10:00 pm.  Madrid seems prosperous.  (See more about the city later in this blog.)  The people appear to be happy and fairly well off, economically.  Past the plaza, we see the “Glass Bar” which is actually part of the Hilton Hotel.  We stop for a Sambuca. I try to order two drinks but apparently order two doubles. What the hell? It’s vacation. Below, two photos from the “Glass Bar”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Madrid is the capital and largest city in Spain as well as the most touristic.  It is the third largest metropolitan area in the European Union (after London and Paris); it also has the third largest GPD. At 2,000 feet elevation, it is the highest capital in Europe.

 

Today we did the two other major tourist attractions, the Royal Palace and Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. The Royal Palace (photo to right) is Europe’s third greatest after Versailles and Vienna’s Schonbrunn.  When we got there at 10:30 the admissions line was a block long.  It took over a half hour to get inside.  The palace has 2,000 rooms; the public gets to see 24 of these which was enough for me. Rick Steve’s says the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia is Europe’s most enjoyable modern art museum.  I liked the fact that there was no admissions line and apparently admission is free on Sunday! Also you could take photos in most rooms. In the museum is Picasso’s famous Guernica as well as works by Miro, Dali, Calder, etc. Personally, I think that Picasso and Dali were stoned full-time. As I write this Brenda is looking at Impressionism art at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. I’ve had all I can take.

Above, part of the Centre De Arte Reina Sofia exterior. Below, patrons viewing Picasso’s Guernica.