Day 12

We had the day in Madrid today. Madrid is the biggest city in Spain, the capital and the highest city in Europe at 650m above sea level.
We had a guide for the day. I can recommend this way of seeing cities highly. We had our guide take us around the city, the Royal Palace and the Prado Museum. The Royal Palace is still used by the Spanish Royal family, for functions but not as a residence. We missed the coronation of the King by a week! His father the King abdicated a few weeks ago.
The Palace was special, richly decorated, well furnished, and magnificent entertaining spaces. Quite different from the French palaces.
The Prado Museum is full of artworks by many well known Spanish artists, such as Goya and Rubens. The main subjects of the art were religion, culture and mythology. Goya and Rubens were two of the most memorable artists for me.
After we finished the tour, Lucy and I pressed on for another two hours of shopping whilst the others took siesta. I was first to give up with sore feet. Lucy admitted to having very sore feet too but she didn’t want to be the one to give up first!
Our evening was spent in the Garden Bar aka Le Jardin of the hotel eating tapas and watching some of the World Cup soccer.
The Ritz Madrid was a very beautiful hotel to stay in – very elegant and established. The hotel is 104 years old. It is very easy to get to all the main parts of Madrid, particularly the Prado which is next door.
We are heading to Barcelona in the morning by train.

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3 Responses to Day 12

  1. Cass George says:

    Wait til you see the Miro in Barcelona Jen!!
    Such an exciting city.
    xc

  2. Mel Quinn says:

    Loving the blog

  3. Petina Roberts says:

    Sounds wonderful Jen can’t wait to see all these beautiful cities one day. xx

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