Last afternoon in Madrid

One of the final stops that we needed to make on our Madrid tour

Thursday,  November 07, 2019            Madrid

Since it was our last afternoon and evening in Madrid, we wanted to squeeze in a few more sights in this magnificent cosmopolitan city. After leaving the Brueghels exhibition, we walked to the Puerta del Sol, and saw the clock on the tower of the Real Casa de Correos, where New Year’s Eve is famously celebrated it Madrid. Twelve grapes are traditionally eaten at the stroke of midnight. IKR?

The tower of the Real Casa de Correos in the Puerta del Sol

A little touch of graffiti escaped removal in central Madrid

Waiting for Godot under the Miguel Cervantes statue

We walked past the beautiful lion statues of the Congreso del los Disputatos (Congress of Deputies – government office) on our way to visit the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum.

These lions can definitely take out the Chicago Art Institute lions!

Government office in Neo-Classical style

Heck, these lions can even take on the NYC Public Library lions!

The Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, named after its founder, is an art museum in Madrid that is one of three anchors of its “Golden Triangle of Art”.  Along with the Prado and the Reina Sofia national galleries, the Thyssen-Bornemisza fills the historical gaps in its counterparts' collections. With over 1,600 paintings, it was once the second largest private collection in the world after the British Royal Collection. 

Squeezing in one more art museum before we leave tomorrow

Exterior of the T-B art museum.  There's a patio across the interior plaza for dining in nice weather.

The museum was hosting a special exhibition on impressionist paintings and photography, comparing the 2 side by side, which we greatly enjoyed. We then started at the top floor of the regular collection and saw many El Greco’s and a Rembrandt. But we ran out of steam after about 2 hours and we skipped the more modern items by Picasso and Dali, etc. That’s OK, they will be there another day.

Rembrandt self-portrait

El Greco painting of the Annunciation

After a very satisfying day in the city, we walked back to our hotel. Mike says we’ve averaged 14,000 daily steps this week. I believe it! I packed up for an hour – we have plenty of room, even with all of our purchases. At around 7 PM, we walked up the street to El Velazquez for dinner – we were the only ones upstairs, as it’s early. We had the salmorejo tomato soup and fried eggplant, and artichokes and quinoa salad topped with salmon, and some cava. All very tasty.

Next, we decided to stop at the “Best Chocolate Cake in the World” site on the way home – it was just around the corner. (La Mejor Tarta de Chocolate del Mundo). We had a piece of cake and café con leche for 6 euro – and it was the best. It had a crunchy chocolate meringue as part of the cake – just delicious.  We were home by 9 and ready for bed. We’re heading to the airport in the AM.

We walked past this place twice a day for the last 4 days and decided we had to check it out!

Rich and crunchy, with little pieces of intensely chocolate meringue

The menu - printed on a circular card the size of a CD