We walked over to the Prado Museum from our hotel. We saw incredible masterpieces by Velázquez and Goya.

I was lucky to have taken this pic of the church next door….

We then walked over to Buen Retiro Park. It’s huge, over 350 acres. There was a rose garden and turtles in the ponds. We had lunch there. I had a bocadilla with serrano jamón (cured ham.)

We looked inside the Crystal Palace which used to be a greenhouse.

We then took the Metro to Plaza de España.

I really loved this particular square. I wish we could have something like this back home. There were food booths and vendors and benches to hang out.

And the sausage was incredible. Salud!

We had a nice dinner. After dinner, half of the group attended a flamenco show. The rest of us boarded the Metro back to our hotel. This time, the Metro was incredibly packed. We were literally stuffed liked sardines. Unfortunately, there was a one-day labor strike in Spain, and all of the protestors (and everybody else) decided to catch the Metro at the same time. Fortunately we made it back. The flamenco people had to walk home….