Museo del Prado, Madrid Vision, Luis De La Candelas

We started the day at the Prado. Wonderful sunshine streamed down on us as we made our way from Plaza Espana to the Prado.

The Museo del Prado is a museum and art gallery located in Madrid, the capital of Spain. It features one of the world's finest collections of European art, from the 12th century to the early 19th century, based on the former Spanish Royal Collection. Founded as a museum of paintings and sculpture, it also contains important collections of more than 5,000 drawings, 2,000 prints, 1,000 coins and medals, and almost 2,000 decorative objects and works of art. Sculpture is represented by more than 700 works and by a smaller number of sculptural fragments. The painting collection comprises about 7,800 paintings, of which only about 1,300 are at public display, mainly because of the museum's lack of space. A new, recently opened wing enlarged the display area by about 400 paintings, and it is currently used mainly for temporary expositions. El Prado is one of the most visited sites in Madrid, and it is considered to be among the greatest museums of art in the world

We saw many masterpieces from El Greco, Goya, Velasquez, Ruebens and many others. When we finished our “Tomba Tour” – with our English headset, we headed outdoors to take a bus tour on Madrid Vision. Madrid Vision is a double decker – open top bus that winds its way through the city streets of Madrid allowing everyone to “see the sights” and listen to commentary about the sites. No better way to get a sense and feel of the city and to get in touch with the “gonnas” of the people. The first leg of the tour was “Old Madrid”. It was wonderful to “see” Madrid from this vantage.

After 2 hours, we decided to get a quick bite at the Prado Restaurant (across the square from the Prado) – and to our delight – we again had a wonderful Andalusian meal of Iberian meats and a Veal steak that was out of this world.

Back on the afternoon bus for a tour of Modern Madrid. The Modern Madrid was constructed mostly in the 20th century and featured modern high rises, with less character and style than the baroque buildings in Old Madrid. While interesting to see the contrast, the new “heights” did not appeal to us.

For dinner, we supped on Roast Lamb and other spanish fare at the famous “Cuevas De la Luis Candelas. The restaurant is named after Luis Candelas Cajigal ( Madrid , " February 9 1804 - Madrid, November 6 of 1837 ) who was a bandit Spanish born in the Madrid neighborhood of Lavapies. He was executed on November 6 of 1837 in Plaza Mayor, adjacent to the restaurant. And a chocolate cone to top off the night!

Tomorrow, we pick up our touring car and head to Toledo and Cordoba!