My first impression of Madrid by daylight wasn´t great. We headed straight to the Prado (Spain´s major art gallery which includes Las Meninas, a work often called the greatest painting ever). Unfortunately, it was raining and we didn´t have an umbrella. We also weren´t expecting queues that snaked around the building (damn you Lonely Planet for saying it would be empty!)
The garden wall at Caixa Forum. Not posed. I actually did look this stupid. |
The sun had decided to come out to play by the time we left Caixa Forum, so we headed into Parque del Retiro, the Madrid equivalent of Central Park, and wandered around for an hour. The highlight was the Crystal Palace, in the middle of the park. Being inside it feels like standing in the centre of a palatial greenhouse!
We were hoping to find a nice tapas bar for dinner, but there were no decent ones near our place, so we had a really nice kebab instead, and promised ourselves we’d do tapas tomorrow.
Aww in the second photo you look like a little kid!