We met our guide, Yolanda, at 10 in the lobby and headed to the Royal Palace. We sauntered through the neighborhood at a leisurely pace and learned a lot of history and culture, particularly food culture. This is a wonderful time to walk about as the crowds were not too bad on the major streets and non existent on the smaller streets.
Painted tiles depicting idyllic scenes of families and country views are common on older buildings, particularly restaurants. A few times we came across trompe-l'œil painted on buildings obviously considered too plain or ugly by the local residents. I would have gone for lovely scenes of countryside but no, we apparently need even more buildings in the hood, real or not.
The Royal Palace is not the residence of the King and Queen today, but they do make a presence at many official and international events held here. By the way, these are the two most attractive monarchs in the world.
Privledged experience number 52: Yoland leading us past hundreds waiting in line to get into the palace and taking us straight to the entrance where she greeted a guard who waved us in with a smile.
Hands down, this is the most extensive and gloriously decorated palace I've ever seen, and i have seen many. We passed through room after room of art and furniture treasures, walls lined in silks, tapestries, and gold and silver embroidered fabric, and massive crystal chandeliers. Many times I risked losing my possee by lingering to take more photos. And thank Spain photos are allowed! The few times I was blocked by tourists from seeing the most impressive item in a room (remember, we're travelers, not tourists), all I had to do was turn around and stare at a wall or a table leg and lose myself in the artistry in every little detail.
Yolanda did an excellent job of keeping track of us, knowing how to skirt large tour groups, avoid selfie hotspots, and minimize collisions with a fairly large number of people (mostly young women and mostly Asian) who seem to fancy themselves as influencers. Selfie-takers dominate the small, unguided group size, and while their antics are sometimes annoying, they are predictable and most often you can scoot them along by pretending it's your turn for a selfie with XXX in the background. Selfi-ers eventually relinquish space. The "new kids on the block" are those who consider themselves influencers. Often in pairs or solo, they narcissisticly ignore the presence of others. Once positioned to their liking, an influencer will most often stay put for the duration of whatever celebration of themselves they intend to share with the world. Seasoned security guards can move them along, but we poor mortals are supposed to kowtow and flow around them. One pair of vibrantly wigged young girls were crouched down reviewing video footage right in the middle of a passageway. I briefly considered if we could feign accidentally falling on them like a bunch of players on a rugby ball, but the floor was stone and my bones weren't worth the risk so I'll just complain to you, the reader.
Over stimulated with national treasures at the Palace (and Spain has had millenia to acquire them), Yolanda recognized we needed to sit for a while so she eschewed a series of stand up bars, and opted for a favorite restaurant of hers for seated tapas lunch. We were not disappointed.
Fortified with wine, vegetables, seafood, potatoes, bread, olives, aperitifs and complimentary cheesecake (the latter because the waiter spilled water on Peter), we walk-waddled back past our hotel and on to the Prado Museum for more high culture. No photos allowed here, sadly, but it's understandable given the size of the viewer population. I'll buy a catelog online when I'm back home because I want to see more than I did. Yolanda admittedly high-graded artwork for us to see, which was a good idea as we might have flagged by ourselves and missed them. Goya, Rembrandt, Velázquez, El Greco, and Bosch among highlights, and we were all surprised and delighted the see and learn about the Spanish Mona Lisa. Why didn't we know about this! I'll leave it to you to look up and learn.
It was hard leaving the Prado after only an hour but our senso-meters were pegging out on overload and I don't think I was the only one getting weary. We said farewell to Yolanda until tomorrow and she sped off for home in the suburbs. I got a much needed rest while Mary picked out a few postcard inspirations. As we stepped outside a few rain drops hit us so we dug deep and shifted to high gear for a speed-walk back to the hotel and call it a night.
Until tomorrow.
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