Madrid: Doing A City In A Day

Went to check out a nearby monastery, but weren´t interested enough to pay the entry price, so A and L went on a free walking tour, while S and I went walking to the big park known as the Retiro. Did a bit of bench sitting as the sun came out, then walked around for a bit.

Returned to the area around our hostel and got some kebabs for lunch - they did some really nice falafel. Then to a cafe for chocolate and churros.

Wandered around before meeting up with A and L for free entry to the Reina Sofia, the modern and contemporary art gallery. The contemporary stuff was head-scratching kind of stuff for the most part, but some was really nice. The 20th century Spanish art was far more interesting, with a lot of works, including studies, by Picasso, Dali and Miro.

Dashed to the Prado for their free evening entry and nearly had an encounter with a pickpocket. Luckily we´re carrying our important stuff on us, rather than in our bags, and that I have a promixity radar of some sort. The Prado is huge, so we picked out the ones we wanted to see - Goya, Velazquez, Bosch, Durer and Rembrandt. Unfortunately, we didn´t manage to see any Rembrandt before they closed the room. A bit sad.

Reina Sofia was free from 14:30 til closing, while the Prado from 18:00-20:00, so were a little pressed for time. Decided to see the Spanish painters if possible.

We returned to the hostel to have a meal from the food we had left as we are flying out tomorrow and S leaves us for Paris again. Pretty major packing - the room looked like a war zone (or at least that we´d been there for a long, long time).