We began the next day at the Hotel Preciados breakfast buffet, which was included in the room rate. This buffet was easily the best of the trip, with an assortment of breads, pastries and flans.

They also had a tortilla, which is not what you'd expect. Apparently all Spanish-speaking countries have their own interpretations of what a tortilla is. In the U.S. we’re used to the Mexican version, that thin round flat thing, soft or crispy, made from corn or flour. You could assemble one from the right flattened arrangement of half a dozen Doritos (or you could if they wouldn't keep breaking). In Spain a tortilla is a bulgy round omelet sort of thing filled with potatoes and possibly other ingredients. (Maybe if you let them get stale enough…)

There was also a slice-it-yourself ham leg. If there's one thing Spaniards are serious about, it would be jamón. More on this later.

And I'm not normally a bacon guy, but they had some thin pieces of pig which I found to be dangerously good.

After breakfast we waddled out into the bright morning and rode the Metro to the Banco de España stop on the Plaza de Cibeles. The Plaza de Cibeles is a traffic roundabout encircling a fountain which is an important symbol of the city. This fountain, the Fountain of Cibeles, depicts Cybele, the Roman goddess of fertility, riding on a chariot being pulled by lions, and was created between 1777 and 1782. Fans of the Real Madrid football (soccer) team commonly involve the fountain in their victory celebrations.


From the Plaza we walked south along the Paseo del Prado, eventually arriving at the Museo Nacional del Prado.


Construction of the Prado was begun in 1785 at the behest of King Charles III, who had a natural history exhibit space in mind. But Charles died in 1788 and work on the building was suspended for a number of years, during which the troops of Napoleon came and went (using the unfinished building as a cavalry headquarters and gunpowder store). The building was completed under Charles' grandson, Ferdinand VII, who had a different idea, opening the building as a new Royal Museum of Paintings and Sculptures in 1819. The museum began with the royal art collection and expanded with many acquisitions over the years. It also acquired the name "Museo del Prado" in 1868, prado being a Spanish word meaning field or meadow, referring to the terrain on which the building was constructed.

We entered the museum at the north end, and found that photography of any kind was not allowed. But fortunately for you, we'd visited the museum once before in 2005, when this silly rule was different (still pictures OK but no video), so we're able to show you some pictures from that visit. Don't be disoriented by pictures with Connie in them – she was with us (and five years younger) in 2005, but not in 2010.

The Prado collection is clearly world class, with masterpieces from artists throughout Europe.












Special attention is paid to Spanish artists, with extensive representation of artists like Diego Velázquez, El Greco and Francisco de Goya.





The most well-known single painting in the museum is probably Velázquez's Las Meninas. This painting features a scene from the court of Philip IV centered on the king's daughter Margaret Theresa (who grew up to marry her uncle and Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I before dying at the age of 21), and also features Velázquez himself.

On finishing our visit we briefly looked across the street at the Palace Hotel, but turned east and headed for the nearby Parque del Buen Retiro, to relax a little.