11/13/2007 – Madrid City Tour

Breakfast was crowded today. There had to have been three other tour groups all eating at the same time as we were. We made it though although everything was pretty picked through.

We got underway around 8:30 am and started our Madrid city tour. We had a local guide named Angie although I don’t think that was her real name, just one for our benefit. She showed us around for a while before our time at the Prado Museum. The first thing she showed us was the Christopher Columbus statue. This is located on the Paseo de la Castellana side of the Plaza de Colón. Columbus is facing eastward on the top of this monument. East is toward the open sea. At the base of the monument is a cascading fountain.



Next was a stop at La Plaza de España to see the monument to Miguel de Cervantes. There are many interesting parts to this monument. First is the likeness of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Don is riding his horse and Sancho is on a donkey. There are also two representations of Dulcinea, one as a peasant woman and the other as the most beautiful of all women. Finally there is a sculpture of Cervantes himself.

Don and Sancho



Dulcinea



Cervantes



After La Plaza de España we drove through the Plaza Mayor area we toured with Miguel’s Mom the day before. We drove by the Palacio Real and the Catedral de la Almudena. We also drove by the Puerto del Sol. This was well covered the day before so I just kind of made some mental notes of things I hadn’t noticed, such as the porcelain street markers that were affixed to the buildings and all of the business people and how they dress differently than in the States. A lot of women wear tights and scarves. The men wear European cut suits that I think look much sharper than the baggy suits you see in the US. Anyway my mind was wondering and by that point we had made it to the Prado Museum.

The Prado is home to one of the finest collections of European art in the world. In particular, there is a very comprehensive selection of the paintings of the Spanish masters on display. There is no way we could have made it through the entire museum in one day so our guide focused on what was representative of the best work on display of Goya, El Greco, Velazquez and Rubens. There were no cameras allowed in the museum, as you would imagine so I have to link to the Wikipedia image of the highlight of the trip. The masterpiece of Velazquez. Las Meninas:



The tour was very good but much too short. We decided to leave after the tour because we knew that we had already been through the highlights and we couldn’t do justice to the rest of the works on display.

We left the tour as the Prado was the last stop for the day and decided to walk down to get some lunch. Dore wanted to go to the Hard Rock Café for some reason so we trekked down there and it was just like every other one I had ever been to. She was happy, though, so I suppose that’s what counts. Afterward I went shopping for men’s fashions



We walked back to the hotel and on the way we were able to see the Puerta de Alcalá which is the symbolic gate to the city of Madrid. The gate is to be used to pass through to the road to Alcalá. It dates to 1778 and was ordered built by the great King Carlos III.



We walked the length of the Parque de Madrid. This had to be close to two miles along a busy street with the sun in our eyes. It might have been 5 Euros well spent for the taxi but at least we got a workout.

We made it back to the hotel and rested for a while. I went to the coffee shop in the lobby with Dore’s mother and we met some of the other people on our tour that started filtering in from their free afternoon. We talked with them for some time and then went to dinner where I drank too much wine. I staggered back to our room where I struggled for three hours, on and off, to put this post together. I hope it’s coherent.