Day #29 - Madrid, Spain - Museums

View outside hotel in Madrid, Spain

Prado Museum

Prado Museum

Monday, April 12th

Today was a slow day for me. I just didn't have it. I purposefully stayed around the hotel most of the day. Got a few body tweaks I need to let heal a bit.

Late afternoon, I took the metro into the city. I wanted to loosen the legs and check out a couple museums. Madrid is rich in culture and has the "Golden Triangle of Museums". These include the Prado, the Reina Sofia, and the Thyssen. The Prado is probably the most recognized. This museum is primarily known for its collection of more than 8,600 paintings by El Greco, Goya, Murillo, Rubens, Titian, Bosch, Raphael, Botticelli, and Fra Angelico. Eighty percent of Velazquez's paintings are here, including his 'Las Meninas', the most visited among the 2,000 works the museum can display at any one time.

Now, I had a plan - I just wasn't really thorough in setting it into action. I knew that the museums were free after 6pm. Great - I like free. I'll even go to an art museum at that cost. Only probelm when I got there - Mondays are their days off. Bummer. That's OK, I really got the idea and was neat to just walk around the area.

I walked through a couple park areas I didn't get to see yet. Madrid is an impressive visual city. The train network is really nice and makes movement between areas easy and convenient. There always seems to be people on the streets. I want to see big cities on both the weekends (where you would expect crowds) and during the week. Both give very different feels and I think this helps to judge a city better.

I walked around for a couple hours and then took the metro back to the hotel. I strolled the neighborhood where my hotel was located. It was a great spot - nice biking and running trails. I got lucky on this one - I didn't know where I was booking it.

Setting up for a busy day on Tuesday.