The Prado, a Madrid overview by bus, and a last supper with entertainment

Day 7
7:00am Breakfast
8:30am Walk across street to meet our guides in El Prado.

The alarm sounded at 7:45am; we were breakfasting by 8:05am and out the lobby door at 8:30am.

9:00am Begin walking tour of Madrid.

Today’s tour began with a queue to enter Museo Nacional del Prado (http://www.museoprado.es/). Our group was the first to arrive at the large, upper Goya Entrance, where we stood waiting for the museum to open at 9am and with our daypacks and coats prepped for the security check.

Guides Leticia and Rosanna gave us the one-hour-fifteen-minute go-over of a museum containing 3,000 pieces of picture artwork—many of them masterpieces—from the Spanish Royal Collection and painted by Spain’s most significant artists of all times. (That’s not to mention the 10,700 pieces in other art forms and the rest of the 8,600 picture works) Whizzing past many paintings that Ian recognized from art history class and cued me in on, our group paused for works by three royal court artists in the collection titled “Spanish Painting from1100 to 1850”:

Diego Velázquez’s

• “Los Borrachos” drunkards or “El Triunfo de Baco”,
• “Las Meninas” Maids of Honor or “The Family of Philip IV” with self-portrait and spatial depth,
• “La Rendición de Breda” surrender or the lances “Las Lanzas”,
• and royal family portraits of Philip IV and of Queen Isabella of Bourbon on horseback which both own age-revealing “Velázquez mistakes”;

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes’

• (in my opinion) “cartoon-like” but more reality-revealing “Charles IV and his Family”,
• "Saturn Devouring One of His Sons” of the Black Paintings circa 1820,
• "The 3rd of May 1808 in Madrid: The Executions on Principe Pio Hill” of the defenders of Madrid,
• and clothed “La Maja Vestida” and nude “La Maja Desnuda”;

and Domenicos Theotocopoulos or El Greco’s

• elongated bodies with ring and middle fingers touching in “La Crucifixión”
• and nobleman with his hand on his chest “El Caballero de la Mano en el Pecho” who gazes back at you even after you move.

The Prado turned out to be Ian’s favorite event of the trip… so far.

11:00am Begin bus tour of Madrid.

Taped to the window beside the bus door, the daily bus seat-rotation listed “Ippolito” in the seventh row on the driver’s side. We found our seat, filled out Tauck comment cards, and commenced with the final leg of the “Week in Spain” tour. Some stopping points of interest were the Royal Palace, shopping and dining scene Plaza Mayor (former bullfight square and execution place), and a statue venerating Miguel de Cervantes, complete with representations of Don Quixote and horse Rocinante, Sancho Panza and ass Rucio, and Aldonza Lorenzo as Dulcinea of El Toboso.

12:30am Tour ends. Afternoon is at your leisure.

We said goodbye to Luis, our trusty bus driver, for we would not be seeing him again. Ian napped while I read Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia through crunches sets and other exercises at the gym, where he joined me about an hour later and I left him about fifteen minutes after that, my eyes barely holding the lids open. After an awakening shower, I listened to some music until Ian returned and finished rinsing off. We walked to Plaza Santa Anna for octopus and cheese tapas outside restaurant Naturbier then returned to the hotel, admired the doorman’s top hat and bow tie, and went to our habitacion to dress for dinner.

7:00pm Farewell dinner in private banquet room.

Patios Cortes I and II were reserved for the Tauck farewell dinner. The open bar prepared us for dinner and surprise entertainment: “Tuna: Boleros y Pasodobles” singing group composed of two guitarists, a mandolin player (his instrument brought to Spain courtesy of the Moors in the early eighth century), and a jumpin’ tambourine man. We sang, we shouted, we held hands and swayed to songs like “Guantanamera” and “Cielito Lindo”. When the entertainers finished, I and some others offered patronage through their 12 € CD. After-dinner goodbyes stretched into after-dinner drinks at Plaza Santa Anna outside of Cerveceria, the first restaurant we found that managed to accommodate our sixteen-person party. Around 11:30pm, we left the table’s bill to Arnie, returned to divvy it up, and headed back to Hotel Palace for final final-goodbyes in the lobby, elevator, and fourth-floor hallway. I showered while a sleepy Ian made an attempt at emailing Karen after acquiring internet time from the hotel. He dropped off around 1am and I around 2am.