Pinturas and Ham

In two days, we´ve realized that Madrid is a city made for us. Everyone sleeps late, takes a nap in the middle of the day, eats ice cream whenever they feel like it, and eats dinner REALLY late. See, all our married lives, we´ve just been preparing for our trip to Spain. Things really don´t get going here until about 10 o´clock. We just ate an ¨early ¨dinner at 8:30 that lasted 2 hours without dessert. Yes, Madrid is chill and we are loving it.

Today was museum day. We got a bit of a late start and headed out to the Prado. Today must´ve been museum day at local schools also because there were a ton of little kids running around. Our favorite moment was when a huge pack of them surrounded the statue of the famous painter Goya and then all of the sudden we heard them all spontaneously chanting ¨Goya, Goya, Goya¨ like they were cheering for a sports star. Spaniards love their painters I guess.

The Prado was awesome. We´re learning more and more about art the more museums we visit. But since we´ve seen so many, we´re becoming a little jaded. The cool thing about the Prado is that they have a lot of Spanish painters, Goya, Picasso, and del Greco. The coolest thing we saw today was Goya's ¨black paintings¨. Around 70 he was widowed, deaf, and really pissed off. He locked himself in a house in the middle of nowhere. They later found his house covered in these paintings made of printers ink with lovely themes like Saturn eating his own child, giants terrorizing villages, and witches meeting with a Satanic goat. Yes, nice cheerful stuff to surround yourself with.

After getting museumed out, we headed for a garden retreat. We first toured the Botanical Gardens accidentally.

It was really like a museum of plants, and since we´re not botanists (killing them most of the time by looking at them), we quickly headed out to the park we thought we were visiting. The Retiro used to be a Royal Retreat. It's kind of like Central Park. Here we are at the entrance to the park. The Prado is behind us.

In the middle of it is a giant lake where you can rent a rowboat and spend your siesta with a lazy boat ride. We rented a boat and gained a new respect for rowers. It´s freaking hard! This is us in the middle of the lake.

We turned in a lot of circles, but had a nice relaxing time watching the kids run around the park.

Next we headed over to the next museum, the Reina Sophia, or as we soon learned, Musuem of weird modern stuff called ¨art¨. The most famous thing here is Picasso´s Guernica, which protested Franco letting Hilter bomb a small Spanish town, Guernica, to test their bombs. It´s gigantic and somber, but being Picasso, still strange. After we saw that, we wandered through the rest of the museum, saw a painting that consisted of one black dot on a white canvas, and left still without an appreciation for modern art.

After our time wondering through the art galleries in Madrid, we returned to what we know... eating... Getting off the metro it was time for chocolate delights from the corner bakery and my favorite, their rich truffles and my new friend, Tinto De Verano. Spaniards don´t drink sangria, but they do drink this...

Then after the sugar had settled, we found time to share an early evening drink and a plate of fries at the cafe attached to our hotel. This place is great for people watching as it is located next to La Puerta Del Sol. I think we lost track of time, because we were up and thinking about dinner reservations and suddenly realized it was 8 p.m. Time flies when you´re having fun!!!

We wanted to partake in a restaurant in Madrid that just so happens to be the oldest restaurant in the world. It started serving customers in 1725, no lie. It's called Casa Botin. Look it up in the Guinness book of world records. We were told that they served a particular dish better than any restaurant in the city, roasted suckling pig. Suckling pig, for those unaware, is a piglet that is six weeks old or younger. Kris just so happened to take a great pic of one in one of the many restaurant windows here in town.

We were told that reservations would be impossible on this late of notice, but went to see if we could squeeze in the first seating (8:30 p.m.) anyways. We arrived, waited for five minutes and got a feast of manchego cheese, Iberico ham, sauteed green beans and the famous suckling pig. With suckling pig, you eat everything. I mean everything. The Spanish eat the snout, the ears, the eyes, the tail... everything. There is a saying that ¨Spaniards each everything but the oink!¨ This is a true statement. Being new to the game, we had a selection of ribs and a thigh and leg. AMAZING! Even Kristen enjoyed crunching on the crispy skin of the pig and eating the roasted pork. If any of you get a chance to do this, be prepared to spend, but do it. Its unlike any pork product you have ever eaten! Now we know why Bogey and Watson enjoy those crispy pig ears so much!

For now, we are off to rest and get prepared for tomorrow. We travel by train to Toledo sometime in the morning to discover some more history and soak up the culture (walking up and down hills of course). By the way, I am sure that tonight will not end until Kristen gets her chocolate and churros... I mean... the baby gets its chocolate and churros... it sure does love those things...