Arrivedin Madrid abiut 3:30 pm -- sunny and 80 degrees! Got bumped from our hotel to one the receptionist said was "better" -- lovely room with a hair dryer. The owner walked us to the other location and gave us a brief tour. We were near the Puerta del Sol metro -- the entrance looks like a miniature I.M. Pei entrance to the Louvre.
The Prado is free from 6:30 to 8:30 pm on Saturdays so we quickly freshened up and headed there. We hit the highlights -- Las Meninas by Velasquez, Goya´s Clothed and Naked Majas, Bosch and Brueghel fantasies that seem right out of the 60´s, Fra Angelicos, and numerous St. Barbaras and St. Catherines -- those perennial medieval favorites! A mad dash to museum shop for postcards was a bust -- they closed one-half hour before the museum did. Bad marketing move by the administration!
The area of our hotel was very colorful -- rather like Times Square a few years ago -- prostitutes, tattoo parlors, sex shops and shows. All with a few metres of each other! Actually the prostitutes looked sad and bored -- we were told they were mostly women from Eruope who came to Madrid for a better life --could not find a job, and ended up on street. Pimping is illegal, but soliciting for sex is not.
Everyone is out til very late -- we found a great Italian restaurant and went for a walk --then back to the hotel for some sleep.
Madrid is often described as a young and vibrant city -- that took on new meaning later that night we listened to people singing and laughing very loudly in the street below our window til 5 am -- interspersed by the police sirens.
Tomorrow -- we take the train to Leo.
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