Spain Day 02-Panther, Birds, Streets, and the Prado

 Day two we had a light breakfast at Panther Organic Coffee, just beside our hotel. It became our regular breakfast place while staying here the first time. It represents a typical Spanish breakfast: coffee with milk (Cafe con leche), orange juice (jugo de naranja), and bread with tomatoes and olive oil.

We then walked to the Prado art museum, one of the premier art museums of Europe. Along the way there was trees in bloom.

You also can get a glimpse of budgies flying around greenspace areas. These little loud birds were also collecting twigs to build nests.

The streets become less pedestrian only as you head away from Puerta del Sol. 

At the Prado there is art from the 12th century to early in the 20th century, the core of which was the Spanish Royal collection. Opened to the public in 1919, it has works by Goya, El Greco, Titian, Rubens, Bosch, and Velazquez amongst other great artists. Over a thousand works are on display at any one time and the museum gets over a million visitors a year. Although the museum's cafeteria was expensive it saved us time to look for a place outside for lunch and looking at great art. There are no photos of the art allowed, so it was also nice to walk through and enjoy looking at works that we liked without having folks do a drive by picture taking. Their gift and book shop is extensive but the good books were too big for our large backpacks.

They also had nice statues outside with stone sculptures of the artist's works on the base. 

For supper we had some tapas and drinks at two establishments along a row of tapas restaurants near the Prado. They were all low key but there was one that we left before getting anything. The establishment was large with locals and tourists and the menu was in multiple languages (first warning). When we placed an order the waiter said they only had two dishes and we needed to choose one of those (second warning) when we saw locals with many different dishes. 

That was when we noticed that La Taberna de la Daniela was open when it was earlier closed. The lunches in Spain start mid afternoon, the main meal of the day, but suppers start later with many establishments only opening/reopening 8pm or later. Inside we were advised to try the Cocido Madrileno, a chickpea soup with all kinds of meats and vegetables that is a Madrid tradition. We were not aware of how it was to be eaten as later research shows you add the ingredients to your bowl and add the soup to mix as you like. It seemed a little overpriced but this place, also with later research, is THE place in Madrid to order this dish if not making it yourself. It was a hearty and interesting meal.

Then it was time for bed, after first passing through Puerta del Sol and seeing the iconic Tio Pepe sign.