Day 136: Surgical Strike at the Prado — Free Afternoon — Teddy Sick — Flamenco Night!
I woke up feeling pretty terrible. I was flattened by a cold, my sinuses were throbbing, ears popping and my nose wouldn’t stop running.
We had another slow morning followed by a couple hours of school. We decided to make a surgical strike of the Prado despite the kids complaints.
After Egypt and Jordan it’s gotten to the point where Willa and James are unwilling to even consider that a museum / tour is anything but miserable. Frustrating, but I get it. We’ve turned it into a joke with them… We’ll say, “ok, we’re definitely going to the playground, but first let’s just do this quick 7 hour tour of temples and cathedrals with no food or water.” They think it’s only sorta funny.
At the Prado we got the map, circled the 6 or 8 things we wanted to see (thanks to Margaret’s recall of her art history classes at NCS and Vandy).
Our list included: Velasquez, Bosch, Rubens, and Caravaggio.
Like a starting 5 in hoops.
I played navigator, map in hand, running us through the place and crossing things out as we saw them.
It really is a beautiful museum. You could obviously dive in for hours (days?) but I liked our approach — and it was the only option with two kids coming off two weeks of a Temple Tour Marathon in the Middle East.
We were done in 1 hour and 20 min.
Meanwhile my mom and her sisters had a 3 hour tour which finished right when we were getting started.
They supposedly stayed for 1 hour in front of Las Meninas! A couple of my aunts said they almost fainted. I prefer our approach — especially when not feeling 100%.
We met them for lunch at [Restaurant name] across the street. They had finished up and my mom offered to take the kids so Margaret and I got the afternoon to ourselves.
It was a beautiful day. We walked up [street name] into Salamanca and had lunch at La Tomate, a recommendation from Chris and Rachel Peun. We had fried artichokes, croquettes, pizza and rose. It was really good.
Unfortunately I was still feeling terrible so I got an Uber back to the apt while Margaret did some shopping for Willa’s birthday.
I had taken a Day-Quil so couldn’t get to sleep. But I rested in my bedroom and listened to NPR’s 129 Cars — a recommendation from BeePaw Jim. So good.
We were scheduled to join Lobsy and her sister’s at Flameco tonight at Casa Patas. Dinner at 9pm, show at 10:30 — as they do in Spain!
But I just wasn’t in any shape to go. James was exhausted too and never would have survived dinner. So we both stayed home while Willa and Margaret joined eight ladies.
They had a blast. Food was decent but the show was great. They were in the front row. Margaret had to keep nudging Willa to stay awake. They didn’t get to bed until 12:45!
