< previous
next >
Day 10: June 19, 2022
Hola!
Wow, we've had a really busy last day! (Oh well, we are staying one more night here in Madrid but our tour officially finishes today...)
We got off to an early start with a sightseeing tour of Madrid from our tour bus with many stops along the way. Madrid is a very beautiful city. Our first stop was to visit the famous Las Ventas bullring — it is a great example of the Neo-Mudejar (Moorish) style of architecture that prominently features arabesque design and the ceramic tiles that Spain is world famous for. This style of architecture is widespread in Spain and dates from the begining of the 20th century when the city really grew a lot. And yes -- they still celebrate bullfights there! In fact, part of the group went to a corrida de toros here during the evening today!
We drove through several sights which our guide pointed out like Plaza de España — home to a famous monument to the Spanish writer Cervantes with the sculptures of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, etc.
and finished the tour at the Royal Palace.
We then went the Puerta del Sol where we had free time on our own for lunch. Many of us enjoyed the traditional fried calamari sandwich that you can find in most of the restaurants around the Plaza Mayor. Yummy! Several of us wen to enjoy some chocolate con churros in San Gines, the most popular "chocolatería" in Madrid. We also had free tine for shopping till the early evening when we then went to Madrid's world famous Prado Museum where we had a chance to see masterpieces by Goya, Velazquez, El Greco, Bosch, etc. The Prado houses one of the most important collections of medieval and Renaissance painting in the entire world — it was incredible. After our visit to the Prado we went for dinner -- Spanish tapas!
Now we are all in the hotel resting and looking forward to our last free day in Madrid.
Hasta mañana!