We woke up pretty late today and had to rush to see today’s sights. On our way to the Royal Palace, we picked up two ham sandwiches to go and ate them on the walk over. About halfway through the sandwiches, we arrived at the palace and began our tour. Equipped with a Rick Steves walking tour and a palace audioguide (4 euro), we quickly walked around the palace and its many rooms admiring the frescos, furniture, and matching wallpaper made of cloth (wallcloth?). Like many palaces, the Royal Palace lacks hallways, with each room connected directly to several other rooms. Unlike many palaces, this palace has air conditioning, which provided much needed relief from the Madrid heat.

From the palace, we took metro to the Prado Museum. After 6pm, the Prado has free admission! Using Rick Steves as our guide, we quickly followed his self-guided tour before being shooed out by security when the museum closed. There was a lot of art, which Valerie seemed to enjoy. I enjoyed sitting at the many benches dispersed throughout the museum. Afterward, we picked up a quick meal of pimientos and beer at a nearby tapas place.

Finally, we followed Rick’s advice and took bus 27 to its northern terminus so we could see modern metropolitan Madrid, which was much more city-like than the old town. We looked around for a couple minutes before hopping on a metro back to our hotel room.

Tomorrow, we are taking a train to Segovia.