Madrid, part 2: El Prado

We booked our tickets to the Prado art museum Wednesday night, arrived twenty minutes before the doors opened at 10am, and got to be the first people inside (except a few employees and small tour groups). We walked past masterpieces by people like Titian and Rubens to be able to take in Goya's Saturn Devouring His Son before anyone else came into the sombre room filled with the so-called Black Paintings.

Our route from then on was circuitous. There were lots of works by the Dutch masters, but Spanish artists were well-represented, and we enjoyed learning more about them. B particularly liked El Greco. We liked finding themes across an artist's work, like El Greco's weirdly out-of-proportion bodies and expressful features, or Rubens' bodies full of motion and bulky flowing flesh. We were a bit surprised to find that among many very recognizable names and paintings, the one with the biggest crowds was The Garden of Earthly Delights by Bosch. We also found one or two Caravaggios in honour of B's mom.

We ate lunch in a lively, narrow bar/restaurant nearby, which served rich, meaty Spanish dishes. From there, we took the metro south and walked out through the grounds of the Matadero, a big brick complex that used to be a slaughterhouse but is now a cultural center.

For the next few hours, we wandered along the parks bordering the Manzanares river, looking for birds and crossing back and forth on the many pedestrian bridges. The Eurasian Moorhens and European Goldfinches were highlights.

Despite the state of our feet, we walked back uphill to a prime ice cream location we'd spotted on the map. It was worth the journey: very creamy, very rich, hand-made, strong flavours. We both had a dark chocolate sorbet that was fantastic; L got an Iberian pistachio ice cream that rivalled Dalla Rose's roasted nut flavours back home, and B loved her grilled apple sorbet.