Madrid Sites

We didn't have any pictures yesterday because it was Museum Day, so here's a summary of what we did in Madrid.

But first, I'm sure everyone is wondering about the laundry saga. The first load of laundry we did in the washer/dryer finished in about 3 hours. The clothes were damp when it finished drying so we hung those up and they dried in a few hours. Feeling cocky, I decided to wash two pairs of jeans. I set it for the "rapid" cycle.  Two hours later, the machine stopped and the jeans were soaking wet.  I got out the instruction manual to try to find the "dry only" cycle. The choice was between a symbol of a leaf and a sun or a cotton plant and two suns. Unfortunately, I chose the former. The machine ran about an hour and a half before we went to sleep and who knows how long afterward. When I got the jeans out this morning, they were damper than the clothes of the first load. They are now drying in the closet.

On Friday, we had tickets to the Prado that allowed us to go at any time of the day. It's close to this apartment/hotel so we walked there to see a long line of people waiting to buy tickets but we walked right into the "no-line" entrance.  The museum is huge but we navigated it in around 2 hours. There is much to see, according to your own tastes, but we were especially interested in the works of Bosch and Velazques. Seeing The Garden of Earthly Delights and Las Meninas were my only two flashbacks to Madrid from being here, with food poisoning, in 1970. I remember dragging myself to the Prado to see these paintings. I probably did other things here, too, but I have no memory.

Then we decided to go to the Thyssen Museum which is close by and much smaller than the Prado. We took a rest and downloaded tickets to the museum but when we got there, we had to print the tickets from a printer they have set up in the lobby.  This was the only "no line" ticket experience which was unnecessary. There was no line at the museum and we could have bought tickets quicker than filling out the information they wanted on their printer.  We probably rushed too much through that museum but the Italian primitives and other ancient art wasn't that interesting. Or maybe we just saw too many paintings in the same day.

To complete the all-the-time museum day, we planned to eat dinner at the Museo de Jamon which I call the Hambone Museum.  There are a number of locations of the Museo de Jamon which was recommended to us by Johnny. At first, we thought it would be like the chocolate museum in Barcelona--detailing the history of ham and displaying ham art, but no. It's simply a restaurant chain which serves Iberian ham, the "treasure of Spanish cuisine," as reported by both Wikipedia and Johnny. Gigantic hams hang from the rafters of every restaurant. There is also a deli where the locals buy the ham and other products. We had the Iberian ham sandwich and french fries. The sandwich was made on a hoagie bun which was too much bread for the amount of ham they give you. We should have chosen what most other people seemed to order--a plate of ham and cheese with a side of bread.

Today, we took a cab to the Royal Palace (we are very, very tired). Again, we bought tickets online (half-price for old people) and downloaded them on a phone. And once again, I predicted the lines wouldn't be long since I keep thinking tourist season is coming to an end. Once again, I was wrong. The ticket line stretched for blocks. It had to be around a 2 hour wait. We marched right into the "no-line" entrance and the download actually worked.

Apparently, the Palace hosts art exhibits; the one today was called "From Caravaggio to Bernini." However, neither of these artists was represented in the collection. Instead, it featured the artists in between, most of whom were unknown to us. Still, it was a very nice collection and it was free with the price of admission to the Palace.

Once inside the Palace itself, you are allowed to wander around at will but that is impossible since group tours force you to follow the plan in the correct order. There are around 21 rooms you can see, including the crown room with a real crown and scepter and the Stradivari room with 4 Stradivari instruments.  It is everything you expect a palace to be. For people who don't like touring the inside, the outside of the building and its huge square is worth a look.

The Royal Palace

 From the Palace, we were very close to the Market so we walked over there, went in and quickly out. It is not as big as the Barcelona market and as most reviews say, it has become a food court rather than the market it used to be. We were also there at prime time Saturday; I'm sure there are times it wouldn't be as crowded and you could eat there. Today, you couldn't even walk in it.

San Miguel Market

Since these places are in Old Town, the stuff we wanted to see is very close together. We went on to the Plaza Mayor which is a gigantic square, lined with restaurants and shops. It's a great people-watching place but we didn't stay too long because we had a goal--to get to Botin, the oldest restaurant in the world and beg to have lunch there.

Plaza Mayor

Botin is famous for its suckling pig. It comes highly recommended by Johnny and most tourist guides. I had checked online and we couldn't get a reservation for lunch or dinner in the two days we had left. But it seemed many reviewers reported that the restaurant was nice enough to "fit them in." We arrived for the 1:00 opening, along with a few other people who were also trying to be squeezed in. After about a five minute wait, we were taken through two kitchen areas into a very nice room where they must put the stragglers. Of course, we ordered the suckling pig which neither of us had had before. It was delicious.  Even though it was obvious that our room was an "overflow" room, the service was impeccable and it was truly a "fine dining" experience.

Botin--the oldest restaurant in the world

After the fine dining, we walked around the shopping area and then decided to go to Chocolatieria San Gines, founded in 1894.  This place serves beer and other drinks but everyone goes there for a cup of hot chocolate (melted chocolate) and churros (fried bread) to dip into the chocolate. It took about 15 minutes of waiting for people to get up so we could snag a table. We have seen other restaurants serving this combination but this is definitely the "in" place to go.  As you can imagine, it is a very rich dessert. We had to hail a cab to get back to the apartment because we were both nearly comatose.

We head out to the hotel at the airport tomorrow and fly back Monday.  There will be no more laundry attempts before then.