Day Thirtythree - Jun 23, 2012
Barcelona, Spain to Madrid, Spain
Daily Didactic
We got up and hit the road today, first to "Chocolate and Churros" for Theresa and then to Madrid for both of us. It was sad to leave behind the last rented apartment we will have in a while, but nice to move on to the home of the Prado and a pile of "big deals". After Theresa consumed one of the most ridiculous breakfasts Brian has ever seen, we hopped the metro (like the pros we are) and rode back to Sants Station. Perhaps we haven't mentioned it yet but, while our Eurail pass gets us "free" rides on trains, we still have to pay for reservations, which on nice trains are often compulsory. These tend to be 5 to 10 Euro each, but the ones for our leg to Madrid were 10 Euro for second class or 20 for first. Not sure if this is a Spain or fast train thing. We opted for second. Second class on our train turned out to be nicer than some first class in Italy, so we assume first must have come with massages and truffles. We arrived in Madrid by 2:00 and took the metro to our new home, Hostal Acapulco. We nested in our nice and simple little room and headed out to explore the center of town. We walked a few blocks to Puerta del Sol, on to the Plaza Mayor, to the enormous Royal Palace of Madrid, and then completely back across central Madrid to the Museo Reina Sofia. It was "late in the day free admission" by the time we got there and we marched in and looked at a decidedly non-American contemporary art collection. It was very cool. Nothing, however, could trump Guernica, a Picasso masterpiece about the bombing of a village during the Spanish Civil War. Theresa stared, stared a little more, left the room, and then went back. It was a really big deal. After our visit to a crazy great museum overshadowed in a town with the Prado, we headed back to our air conditioned abode and looked forward to another big day tomorrow.
Today's Photos
