We woke up and knocked on mom and dad's door at 8:00 and we all went downstairs for breakfast.
We then walked to the Museo Nacional del Prado, one of the best museums in Madrid for old paintings and such. The lineup was ridiculous, but I had pre-purchased tickets, so we were able to skip the line and get in right away. Of course, there was a tour guide waiting at the entrance offering guided tours for an hour or more. We decided to do it, 50 euros.
It was quite interesting, and we learned some stuff about Renaissance paintings, like nymphs give birth to cupids, and foxes represent demons, and dogs represent fidelity.
We spent a couple of hours there, then went for lunch.
Downtown Madrid is very nice, the main square (Puerto del Sol) is a hub of activity, and a number of streets feed off of it, but there's a ton of little pedestrian friendly side streets, with shops and shops and shops galore, it's fun to just walk along them and explore. Very European, so many outside cafe's. Too bad it was cold raining all day. There's actually a Tim Horton's here, with a sign indicating it's Canada's favorite coffee shop.
I learned today that my mom has a rain jacket for her rain jacket.
We then went to Calle Gran Via, a main road with tons and tons of big name shops. Tracy and my mom did lots of window shopping, and Tracy did some real shopping as well.
Back to the hotel late in the afternoon and made arrangements to go out for tapas at 7:00. My parents are leaving tomorrow morning. Tracy and I also booked a day trip tour to Toledo with a winery for Friday.
At 7:00, we went for tapas, which was delicious, especially the hot dog tapas.
After that, we went to back to the hotel, and said goodbye to mom and dad, as they leave pretty early tomorrow morning.
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