Magnificence in Madrid

Another day of wonder ahead. We awoke to sunny skies and warm temperatures. It is predicted to reach 34° by 4.00 pm.
We had breakfast in the apartment and then headed to the Hop on Hop Off Bus station down near the Prado Museum. We started the day with the first run of the day so we did not frizzle up on the top deck.
The historical tour takes you around the old city highlights so we were able to see the beautiful old boulevards with street frontages to die for. Much reconstruction has been going on and cranes and buildings wrapped in fabric are a common slght but the end result is worth it. So many beautiful squares with monuments to past heroes,lots of decorative iron work and sturdy wooden doors designed for a siege. The  city is an elegant one.
The commentary was a big improvement on the Lisbon tour plus the headgear all worked so no evidence of travellers jumping from one seat to the next.
Traffic was eye watering too, five lanes heading in  one direction down the main street so slow progress around the tour.
We passed by several areas to return to later in the day,notably the Mayor Square, the castle and gardens plus the cathedral all rather notable sites.
The tour lasted for over an hour and then we took up the queue at the Prado for tickets  to enter. The queue circled a great distance but we stuck it out and three quarters of an hour later we arrived. This is the premier museum for the Renaissance arts up to the 19th century and it  features Spanish,Flemish, German,Italian artists plus minor European artist. There is a Joshua Reynolds  and some from Munch.
We spent a couple of hours exploring this huge museum before taking a break for a coffee at our friends cafe followed by lunch and a feet up time. We had been walking since nine in the morning so a break from sandals was welcome.
Our next venture was to walk up to Mayor Square. This is a beautiful square ,very geometrically designed with six archways into it plus lovely mosaics on the main building.No traffic is evident but it was a place of Commerce and justice in the past. One of the historical paintings at the Prado showed the  Spanish Court of King  Charles presiding over a large meeting in the square to deliver verdicts on informers. A grand spectacle bought to life by the artist.
We walked on to the castle which occupies a grand site on a high point over the city and up until recently years has been inhabited by their King and Queen but these days it is the King's office. We just missed the changing of the guard.
I had a walk around the gardens adjacent to the castle, very refreshing on a hot day with the sound of water in the fountains. It would have been great to see the castle gardens which are said to be modelled on Versailles but it was a bit late in the day and Brad is not too keen.
We caught the bus back to the Prado and resumed our pilgrimage around the old masters for another couple of hours until we got kicked out at eight.
We were not allowed to take photos inside the gallery but my pamphlet did have a number  of masterpieces to identify.
I am over a lot of the religious ones but it is hard not to appreciate the skill and draftmanship of those artists who pioneered many of the major art movements during the last century. Titian,Ruebans,Bruegal,Tintoretti, van Dyke , El Greco,Goya and thousands of other notable early European masters filled the halls with paintings and sculpture.  I liked the large historical paintings and the still life masterpieces best. The fruit on some of the still life pictures made you want to pick them and the flowers looked good enough to touch.
I liked the Iranian artists deconstruction of the early war pictures with film and light effects which provided movement to the figures which she used to   create a filmstrip sequence along the wall by a strobe light passing across in a pathway of light.
We finished our day with a walk through the Jardins Botanica which is next door to the Prada.
It was a lovely way to finish our tourist activities for the day. Still lovely and warm but comfortable to stroll around the gardens which are used for research and development.
There was a big section of old roses but flowering has finished so not able to appreciate the scent. We spotted home here's from NZ plus the cabbage tree and Brad's pet hate the agapanthus !
Later we checked out the other  restaurant  our friend from the cafe nearby recommended. It was one he and a partner had opened recently. It took a bit of finding but we'll worth it as we dined on Spanish-Argentinian fusion cuisine in a traditional area of the city.No English sports, entertainment but our waiter was a history professor who had spent some time in New York as a child so we were well looked after and enjoyed our meal.
Another day of new experiences.....