(And yes, if you subscribe I DID write “Milan” at first. I tend to do that but usually correct myself before publishing. Oops!)

Today was a garden/museum sort of day. But first … breakfast! We indulged in the churros from what I think is the oldest churro spot in Madrid. We had to figure things out — ordering inside, but trying to get a server’s attention then to hand him our order. NOT an easy task! But it was fun to try “real” churros rather than what we later learned were most likely thawed frozen ones we had earlier. I can’t say they are something I’d want to have a lot of, but hey, when in Madrid … do as the tourists do?! (Hah!)

(Churro shot by Dan.)

We then walked to the Real Jardín Botánico, and enjoyed not only the flora, but also a few photography exhibits. The garden itself had very few flowers, but I enjoyed seeing the variety of trees they had. I think we’ve confirmed that a tree we have is, indeed, a laurel tree — just not a bay laurel as I thought when I bought it many years ago. The exhibits were okay, but nothing to rave about … aside from that cute guy looking at them!

Next up was lunch, so we headed to a place near the museum we were going to. We made our order (sandwiches and sparkling water), ate, and then attempted to get the attention of a server for coffee. THAT was a huge challenge! I would have thought we were just doing something wrong as Americans, but the family next to us, who spoke Spanish, finally left because they weren’t getting served, so maybe it was just the place.

Lunch:

In any case, we finally did get our coffee, and then went right next door to the Museo Reina Sofia. We were mostly there to see Picasso’s Guernica, but of course we spent a good long time seeing even more. Now I need to read up on what exactly occurred between 1936 and 37 … but really even more than that. My history knowledge is rather pathetic, I’m sorry to say. There are no photos of the inside of the museum, but I did take one of an inside hallway and a bit outside.

Then it was back to our hotel for a bit of respite (yes, I snoozed ever-so-briefly!). I also have a sun rash now, which is something I’ve avoided for years since I always wear long sleeves on my walks when I’m at home. I had gotten sunburned (missed a bit of skin on my left arm) the other day and that means the sun now causes me to blister. It doesn’t hurt a lot, but it sure looks rotten! Tomorrow I will wear my long sleeved linen shirt, no matter the temperature.

Lovely, right?

Finally we went to a restaurant, El Pato Mudo, I’d read about that was very close to our place and had good reviews. (And now I’m laughing! I ran “El Pato Mudo” through Google translate and it says it means “The Dumb Duck” — how appropriate for an oboist! (The decor included tons of ducks but sadly I neglected to take a photo. Doggone it! Or is that “Duckgone it”?!) We had paella, with chicken, seafood, and some veggies, and it was quite delicious! It was fun to be in this lovely restaurant with barely anyone there yet. The locals won’t go there until much later, I’m guessing, but the tourists are missing out on a lovely place: I saw a number of them walk by, probably going to the tourist spots in Plaza Major where they will have “meh” food. (I know — we were there our first night!)

We aren’t yet sure what we’ll do tomorrow. We could take a train to Toledo, a nearly two hour train ride … but we’ll see how adventurous we are. I’m guessing we should go, but … well .. two hours both ways? I dunno. If we don’t go, I guess we’ll just have to return to Spain sometime. I can live with that.

Well, we did it again: it took us quite a while to find the restaurant for dinner. Go figure.

First, though, we headed down to the Mercado again, and braved it and tried a few tapas (olive tapas were fabulous!), with a small glass of vermut. One other tapas stand and we were ready to leave.

As we left we remembered there was a place to wash our hands nearby so we headed there. A man walked by and commented on my beautiful hair. Sweet. At the fountain he was also there so he started up a conversation. Talked about how he lives in Italy, but he’s from Senegal. Said my yellow top was “like the sun”. Talked about a child but I couldn’t quite catch what that was about. Nice guy. And then … placed a small red elephant knick-knack in my hand and explained how I was to use it, and a bracelet in Dan’s. Heh. Yeah, we fell for the whole thing until then. Of course it was all about getting money from us. So never mind. We laughed, handed the stuff back to him, and walked away. You’d think we’d have caught on sooner, but I’m going to blame the olives.

From there we walked to a busy street thinking we’d find a place to eat. Nope. We aren’t interested in fast food (yes, lots of Burger King spots as well as other junk food), so we headed up, past our hotel. Took us eons to decide where to eat. We finally wound up in a little place where the server spoke no English. We could sort of work things out, but when she came back she asked us a question and we were at a loss. Thankfully the couple next to us spoke English and explained she was saying three of the pintxos were cold but two could be heated. At that point we ended up in conversation with the couple, and Dan ended up giving them his card because they said they’d like to return to our area (they visited pre-Covid). Never know … might see them in California.

Two of the pintxos (they were huge):

Then back to the hotel we went. At that point it was nearing 10:00, I think. The area was buzzing. So many people out and about late at night here, and so many places stay open until midnight if not later.

Today we are planning on another museum — the Reina Sofia, where we will get to see Picasso’s Guernica, but first the Real Jardin Botánico. It’s quite clear there is too much to see in Madrid and we can’t see it all, but isn’t that how it goes everywhere? It seems so.

After our little escape from the heat and smog outside yesterday we did leave our hotel room to find dinner. We first had the Mercado de San Miguel as our destination. I had read that you could find great tapas there. We did go inside, but it was so crowded, and seating would have to be at counters that were so full. Then, to top it off, a young, what appeared to be maybe a teen, boy I walked passed proceeded to throw up. Um … get me outa there! Still the tapas looked mighty fine. I think, though, it is primarily a tourist kind of thing.

Instead of that we just rambled and ended up at Plaza Mayor. Gee, another huge tourist spot. Go figure! But we knew we had to eat somewhere and we are tourists. So okay then. The place had a number of eateries with outdoor seating so we finally just randomly chose one. And it was just fine.

That was it for the day, so back to the hotel we went. I think I slept better than I have since we started this trip. Nice!

This morning it was a twenty or so minute walk to get to the Museo del Prado. It’s our first museum of this trip, which is rather surprising, but we just hadn’t had the inclination to go to them in the other cities. We did walk through Plaza del Sol, but there is so much construction work going on there a photo wouldn’t have been all that great. Ah well.

We got to the museum, picked up our already purchased 10:45 entrance tickets, and then searched out breakfast. We seem to now have a routine: we look a bit, and never choose the first place and rarely the second. I wonder if that will ever change?! I finally had a nice bowl of yogurt with granola, something I’ve been missing. Then it was over to the museum.

No photography is allowed in the museum, so what you see above is just the outside where we enter and the sculpture behind us as we enter. We were in that place for about five hours (and I’m sure Dan could have stayed even longer. I just have to pace myself and sit at times, because my back will start hating me). We did have a small lunch there as well. So much art! So much amazing work! The Bosch (c. 1450 – 9 August 1516) … just crazy stuff! I can’t help but wonder what he was like. We also saw a few Picasso works in the same room as some Goya. Saw “Man with a Clarinet” and I am still searching for the instrument. 😉 We couldn’t see every room: there is just so much there, and the brain does go on overload. (Mine does, anyway.)

One very funny thing: because I have one not-so-great-ear with tinnitus, I think my brain is trying to make sense of some sounds. When we are in environments like a museum, it decides there is music. Today it was something like Gregorian chant much of the time. I entered one room, in fact, and thought “Oh, there is music here!” I thought for sure it was playing on a video that was in that room. But no, just my imagination, wouldn’t you know?

Walking to and from the Prado we passed some buildings we could tell were some sort of government buildings, and there were people standing in front with some mighty large guns. I was a good girl and didn’t misbehave (and didn’t feel comfortable taking a photo) so no shots were fired. The heat and smog were definitely back: 99° and air is ranked “unhealthy”. Thankfully the temps are supposed to go down each day that we are here. The walk home was slower than a walk would be in lower temps, but it seemed to go pretty fast. I suspect it’s because we had the route figured out.

Madrid is very different than the other cities we’ve visited. So many places we’ve been to were just so incredibly clean. No trash at all. Walkways cleaned every day. But this is a big city. This has more trash for sure (yet less graffiti in the areas we’ve seen so far). It just feels grittier to me. I’m not complaining, I promise … just doing the compare and contrast thing.

Now it’s siesta time or (for me), blogging time. Eventually we will go out and do the dinner search again. Maybe we’ll manage to stop at the first place we find. You never know!