Ann got me going late in the afternoon on the 13th. We noticed that the Prado had free entree from 6:00 to 8:00. Instead of walking there in the heat, we bought Metro tickets and rode the underground. When we surfaced, it took us a while to find the museum. We lined up with a few hundred bargain hunters and entered the museum about 6:15. We soon were bored with Northern European paintings, so we focused on Harry Bosch, el Greco and Pablo Picasso. This was enough for us as we were herded out of the museum at 8:00.
Rick Steves steered us to a street near the museum for tapas. We went into one of his recommendations and had some good white bean soup. As we were served Ann's salad and my octopus, the place started to fill up. Everyone was turned to the TV were Real Madrid was playing Juventas. It had the same atmosphere as watching the Niners at home. We left with RM leading by 1-0. I don't know who finally won.
We returned to the hotel and got a good night's sleep waking up near 8:00. Our breakfast buffet was adequate and the breakfast room was filled to capacity by all of the tourists staying here.
Our day was loosely planned. We first dropped off our laundry at a nearby laundromat. Everthing that I brought with me needed washing after three weeks or so on the road. Ann was ready too. After that we went to a travel agent in the huge department store near our hotel to make train reservations for Toledo tomorrow. The store also had a supermarket where we bought bananas and oranges for snacks. Then we walked down to the Royal Palace for a spectacular tour. Madrid's Royal Palace is one of the best in Europe. It is still being used by the Spanish monarchy for special occasions. Ann and I agreed that the rooms are much nicer than the ones we saw at Versailles. The audio tour was better, too. There were far fewer tourists.
Back at the hotel for some downtime, we were interrupted by lots of noise outside on our street. There was a parade going on with gigantic figures of kings, queens, attendants and others marching and dancing down the street - kind of like Macy's Thanksgiving parade scaled down. I grabbed my camera and fought through the crowds to get some photos and videos. They will be posted on our website after we get home.
Dinner was at a couple of tapas bars nearby that Rick Steeves recommended. At the first one, I was reluctant to stay because there was a lot of trash on the floor and the wait person was coughing and sneezing. We decided to have one tapa - fried eggplant with a sweet sauce - and leave. The owner saw our Rick Steeves tour book and treated us to some Marsala wine. Hopefully, this killed the cold germs. At the second tapas bar, Ann had BBQ pork skewers and I had some grilled shrimp. We were also treated wth some after dinner liquor. A peasant evening.
It's now after 10:00. The window in our room is open and we can hear the beginning of the night's activity.
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