Madrid

Yesterday we had a day of travel. We took the TGV from Arras back to Paris and then flew from there to Madrid. We took the metro into town as there is a station 2 blocks from the hotel. 

Dinner here is eaten very late. Restaurants start dinner service at 9pm but locals apparently won't eat out until 10pm. We couldn't wait that long for food as we'd had an early start so we found a place serving Tapas with seats outside in the Plaza de Santa Ana. Our hotel is right on the corner of this Plaza and our room overlooks it. The Tapas were amazing as was the Spanish wine. We particularly enjoyed the marinated anchovies which were quite different from the tinned variety.

After dinner we went for a walk around our new neighbourhood to soak up the atmosphere. Lots of the buildings were lit up beautifully.

Today we spent most of the day at the Prado museum. They had excellent signage in English which was good as my Spanish is nonexistent. I particularly liked Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights. Ed really enjoyed seeing Goya's Black Paintings. 

After the museum, and a late lunch, we participated in the excellent Spanish tradition of siesta! This enabled us to go out at a 'normal' time for dinner. We chose Vi Cool which is a very modern restaurant set up by chef Sergi Arola. We had the tapas set menu which was amazing. The portobello mushroom carpaccio with Parmesan and truffle oil was a particular highlight.

After dinner we went for a stroll to the Plaza Mayor. The streets are full of people at night and the atmosphere is amazing!