two backpacks and a diaper bag

Wednesday, May 23rd. Madrid. Today, we stayed home for the day and left the house around 6pm to visit Museo del Prado and Reina Sofia Museum. Del Prado was free from 6-8 and Reina Sofia from 7-9.

Our Airbnb was only a 15-minute walk to the Prado. We were expecting a long line, but we didn’t realize how long the line would be. The line would definitely make sense. After all, it was for a free entry.

As we approached, we could already see the long line.

At the end of the line, there was a guy wearing a white t-shirt with a lowercase cursive “i” indicating information point. As we joined the line, Sean approached the guy to make sure that this line was truly the Prado Museum line.

The guy looked at our stroller and said we could go to the ticket office. He pointed forward. We followed his direction and walked towards the ticket office, bypassing the long line that was curving around the trees. Another couple with a stroller followed us. When we got to, basically, the front of the line, one of the guards saw the stroller and he directed us to the ticket office. There was no line there. The lady behind the counter handed out two tickets and told us to exit the office and turn right to get to the museum entrance.

It was 6:30. Right after we got our tickets, they started letting people into the ticket office. We totally got lucky with our timing. Arthur had been asleep this whole time, and we had covered the car seat with my cardigan. Interestingly, they never checked whether or not we had a real baby inside. I guess they just trusted us.

At the entrance, we went through security check, grabbed the map of the museum, and headed towards the collection.

We got to Mona Lisa. I looked around, saw no sign that forbid us taking a picture, raised my iPhone, and took a picture of the painting. Sean did the same thing.

And then, we heard a voice, “No picture!” We turned around. A guard was walking towards us. She repeated, “No picture.”

We looked at her and apologized. I said that I looked around and saw no sign, but she only responded, “No picture.”

For the rest of the visit, we didn’t take anymore picture of the collection. However, we saw so many people taking pictures and guards telling them that pictures weren’t allowed.

At one point, Sean approached a guard and asked the guard, “I feel bad that you have to keep saying that picture are not allowed. You’ve done it a couple of times now. Why not have a sign in the museum?”

The guard smiled and responded, “It is in the map.” He asked for the map that Sean was holding. He looked at the front, flipped of over to the other side, looked on the inside. He couldn’t seem to find it.

“It’s here somewhere,” he said. Then he laughed. Sean did, too. “I know it’s here somewhere.”

He carefully looked at each page again. And then he found it. It was at the bottom of the last page. A very small picture of no camera allowed. Very small. The guard even conceded that it was very small.

Anyway, it was fine. We didn’t mind that the museum did not allow pictures. We just thought they would have made it clearer.

We spent about one and a half hours at the museum. When we exited the museum, it was slightly raining. We made our way to Reina Sofia.

There were no lines at Reina Sofia. We straightaway went to get the tickets, then through security, then to second floor to start with Picasso’s Guernica. This time, there clearly was a sign for no photography.

After Reina Sofia, we went back home to put Arthur to sleep. Today was a really short day for us.

Yesterday, though, we were out of the house by 10am and we didn’t get home until 8:30pm.

We started the day yesterday by walking to Plaza de Cibeles to see the Palacio de Comunicaciones building. Unfortunately, the building facade was under construction so we couldn’t see anything much.

So we made our way to Parque del Retiro. I’ve noticed that we’re starting to like parks a lot. It’s just a great place to relax, walk, and people-watch. On the way there, we passed by Puerta de Alcalá, which is like Paris’ Arc de Triomphe, except older.

The park was super nice. It was a great place to do people-watching as well. And Arthur got to meet Kermit the Frog. We walked from one end of the park to the other end, passing through the Crystal Palace.

On our way to the Fountain of the Fallen Angel, we stopped next to a small river to put Arthur to sleep. After he fell asleep, we decided to sit and take a nap as well. I wasn’t able to nap, but Sean did get some shut-eye.

The sky then turned dark. It started to rain. We got up, and walked towards the Fallen Angel.

Then we decided to get something to eat. We walked towards Lavapies area.

When the restaurant we wanted to go to didn’t have an open table. We decided to head to the next place on our list.

This restaurant (Mercado Tragantua) turned out to be located inside Mercado Anton Martin, almost like a market hall. It was not what I expected, but the food turned out to be really good!

After our late lunch, we walked to Palacio Real. We took the long way where we ended up having to climb back up to the palace area. Definitely not the best route. The route allowed us to walk by Almudena Cathedral Crypt, though. This was not on our agenda, but it turned out pretty cool.

We put Arthur to sleep again after this. And then we walked towards the royal palace. We didn’t go in. The line was too long. Then we walked towards the Opera. I had to go use the restroom, and McDonalds was right there.

From here, we took a taxi to Plaza de Toros Las Ventas. We were in Madrid during San Isidro festival, and bullfighting is a big part of it. We got tickets to see the bullfight.

We didn’t stay there for very long. It was close to Arthur’s bedtime. We did stay for two bullfights. One where the matador successfully killed the bull in one strike, and the other, not so well.

I asked Sean what he thought of the whole thing. He said he was glad that he got to see it before he passed judgment on this tradition. However, he could totally understand why so many people are against this tradition, and why Pamela Anderson was protesting this when we bumped into her in Nimes.

We went home from here and called it a day. It had been a long day. I was glad Arthur was being very agreeable.

I enjoyed our stay in Madrid. We got to do a lot of walking, some art, festivals, and markets. Even though we only stayed here for three nights, I think it was a good couple of days.