Spain Day 3

Day 3 was Friday, Nov 7. We went to 2 art museums. We didn't know where to go for breakfast so we just headed to the Reina de Sofia museum straight away and walked through half of it before stopping in at the museum's cafe for some cafe con leche (coffee with steamed milk) and a croissant. Then we walked through the rest of it. The Reina de Sofie mainly displays modern art pieces including this famous one by Picasso.

There were 2 school groups sitting down and looking at the painting and discussing it with their teachers. Definitely not my cup of tea. I was ready to move on after about 30 seconds. Bad, eh?

Afterwards, we made our way up the street to the famous Museo del Prado. The museum brochure had a list of the 50 top paintings; so we based our tour of the museum on just going to see those, otherwise we would've spent way too much time there. As it was, it took us a couple of hours to get through it all. This museum has more classical paintings including Rembrandt, Vandyk, etc. and it included a lot of religious art.
By this time, we were exhausted again and hungry so we took the Metro back to our hotel and had a snooze before meeting up with Tim and Esther again. We had planned to meet at the Starbucks near their house so on the way up there we stopped in at a fast food place to get a jamon sandwich and a Fanta. That really hit the spot, though the price was a bit high. When we met up, we decided to head back to their apartment so we could check our email and send an update to the family, letting them know we had arrived safely. And then we went down towards the restaurant area and sat in a real tapas bar and had beers (a cervesa is a small beer in spanish) and tapas. One was boiled potatos in a creamy garlic sauce that was amazing. After that we walked down to the Plaza Mayor area.

It's a square where a lot of executions used to take place. The statue is of a prince who faced execution so bravely that now if someone thinks you're being really brave they say "He's

as brave as Prince someone or other (can't remember the name).

On our way to another tapas bar we stopped and tried roasted chestnuts. They were interesting. Reuben really liked them.

So then we went to Meson de la Guiterra where we had more sangria and our first taste of a Spanish tortilla, which is an omelette with small pieces of potato in it. It was very scrumptious! And at the table next to us a group of men pulled out a guitar and started singing flamenco music which involves a lot of handclapping rythms. It was really amazing!

Then we hit the hay.