Today was my only full day in Madrid and I wasn't expecting to get any kind of deep exploration of the city. I figured for future trips to Spain, Madrid will likely be a hub.
However, the day started with a bit of old home week by meeting with Reggie's family. Tasha had found a park with a lake and most importantly both parking for them and a metro stop for me. Turned out the metro line had a stop literally at the street corner where my hotel was!
Once I got there, and after a bit of back and forth via text and phone, we found each other and sat at the outdoor cafe for some coffee, a bite and some catch up. They were there with Tasha's mom to visit her sister, who lives in Madrid with her partner. They were about to take a road trip to the partner's familial home, then southern France, then back to Spain. I hadn't seen them since their boys were probably in middle school and now they were young men. I so enjoyed the conversation, hearing from the boys particularly Nathan, and just having a nice catch up. We joked about it being easier to meet up in Madrid than across town in LA.
After I got back to town and found a quick bite, I bought a ticket for the hop on hop off that had a stop by the Reina Sofia museum. I found Madrid to be a bit of culture shock after Barcelona and Granada, but smaller places but also less cosmopolitan. Madrid felt like any large metropolis, with Spanish. There were the typical global retail places that one would find in NYC, LA, London, etc. The bus audio guide described the many monuments we went by. At the Reina Sofia, I found the museum hard to navigate. It felt like a lot of giant corridors with rooms branching off and I couldn't figure out a rationale for the plan. Luckily, I stumbled on a sign for the Guernica otherwise I might have missed it! I had seen a really good exhibit at LACMA a few years ago with a nice explanation of a lot of the symbolism in the painting and had wished I'd done some research on it. It was displayed near other art with a political meaning. After my museum stop, I took the rest of the bus tour back to the hotel and again rested for the remainder of the day. I checked out the hotel roof top pool deck but it was a tiny pool with a bar and no food and was already crowded with people. I decided to order in my room (taking advantage of the nice room) and had spaghetti. Even the hotel food was reasonably priced. I had an early morning the next day to catch a flight. I arranged with the hotel for a taxi and again after my nightly shower, hit the sack.
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