All good things must come to an end.
Thursday, October 4
Madrid
This is without doubt the shortest page my online journal. Not that it wasn’t a good day, or that we didn’t enjoy it. Not at all. But it was the last day of the trip, we scattered about in different directions, and at least for me and Judy, we made hardly any photographs at all.
Shortly after breakfast, Judy and I walked down the hill to stand in line, pay our senior admission price, and visit “some old friends” — paintings we’d known only in reproductions before this trip. We had quite a time to wait, because in our haste we managed to be first in line, thirty minutes before the ropes came down and we joined the hordes trailing along behind us. At least we each got a good photo of the facade of San Jeromino, the church KC, Mark and I had visited on Tuesday.
Once we got inside, no photographs were allowed, more the pity, but that was hardly a problem. We enjoyed several galleries in this amazing collection, but were dismayed to see that several items we were interested in weren’t on the walls. That was not a happy thought, but we did make note of where they had been moved: to a special exhibit called “Captive Beauty.” Eventually our tired feet sent us to the cafe for a coffee break. Feeling somewhat refreshed, we made a short stop in the Museum Shop before we visited the very exhibit where many of our “friends” had been moved. Well worth the wait in line to see not only the painting we had looked for earlier, but also some items that had not been on exhibit for years.
Both our tired feet and our overloaded senses sent us back uphill by cab, where we met the others for lunch. After lunch? Nap time, and the first round of preparing our luggage for the long ride home the next day. I don’t speak for anyone else here, but nap time was a treat.
That evening, Mark and KC had a date night, and Judy, Tori and I went back to Ristorante La Catedral. We arrived to discover that in the two days since our first visit they had changed the menu completely. Plan B went into effect immediately, and Tori and I enjoyed seafood paella while Judy was satisfied with a salad. Reluctantly, we admitted defeat before the dish was clean, and all three of us returned to the hotel and our last night away from home.
The next morning it rained, the first real rain we had seen in two weeks. We survived the extra long day and arrived home tired, but happy to have had the experience. And I have a whole new list of all the places, people and things I didn’t get around to on this trip.
Next time!