We had already bought tickets online for the Prado.  And I read a NYT article called 45 minutes in the Prado.  After coffee in a little bar in our neighborhood we walked through the Puerta Alcala and towards the museum.  There was a big celebration happening at the San Jeronimo church which we managed to briefly enjoy.

The museum was huge.  We bought audio guides to help and they were good.  I most enjoyed the Velasquez painting of Christ on the cross.  And we missed almost all the highlights from the article. I have a limited attention span, especially for older paintings.   Oh well…

We walked back through the Retiro park, saw the cute little lake full of row boats.  Lots of cute kids and cheapy snacks for sale.

I liked the sculpted cedar trees:

And just walking through a bit of nature helped us breathe a little.   It’s a huge park in the midst of a big city.

After a while I saw this guy–he looked exhausted in the 90° heat:

We  headed back to the hotel and found this lovely place just around the corner called Il Tavolo Verde.  It has a real Asheville vibe, not Italian at all,  but turns out the owners are a couple–he’s from Argentina and she’s from here, Madrid.  There is a small antique store in the back which I browsed while we waited for our food.

You can get the idea–mismatched old flatware, mis matched chairs, lots of plants and fabulous green gazpacho.

After lunch we came back to the hotel and read and rested for along time until dinner.  We went back to La Cesta got the typical return-customer treatment and thoroughly enjoyed it again.  I had an octopus (polpo) appetizer which was outstanding!We kind of rushed through dinner to come back to watch the big soccer game but we turned on the TV just in time to see the celebrations.  I think we’re finally getting well acclimated and it feels great!