Madrid's Museums!

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Day 464
We set of early to make the most of the museums being free on Sunday, on the advice of our Hostel receptionist we caught the bus to the museum district orientating ourselves along the way and wandering down Paseo del prado past the gardens and beautiful buildings to Prado Museum which claims to have one of the world best and oldest art collections unfortunately the rough guide let us down again with free entry only after 5pm, so being the tightarses we are we scheduled it in for later and continued on down Paseo del Prado. We stopped at macca's for our fruit and yogurt fix and waited for the opening of Reina Sofia museum. It is free all day on Sunday's! We joined the tightarse que and headed for all the big names; stopping to admire Picasso's famous 'Guernica', Salvador Dali's 'Face of the mastabator' and' The invisible man'.
We stopped for lunch and some free wi-fi (pronouced wee-fee in Spanish) to rebook flights complimentary of another Barclays mishap and book some last minute accommodation.
Next stop, was Plaza Mayor with famous statue of Felipe III and we had a quick stop at the stone Cathedral alongside the Royal Palace. The Royal Palace is a stunning building with huge courtyard was constructed in the 18th century based on drawings from the Louve. We were fortunate to discreetly jump on the end of an English tour which took us through a mere 25 open rooms of the 2200 room mansion (one of the most impressive we've seen). We stopped at the armoury getting a glimpse of the weapons and armour used by many Spanish kings just before close.
We walked back past the Plaza de Sol currently under renovation back to the Prado Museum with the hundreds of others who has waited for the free entry. We decided on a a self directed highlight tour of Bosch, Titius, Velazquez, Botticelli, Rafael, and others. All arted out, we retreated back to our hostel and chilled out over a couple cold beers. We finished the day some hot Tapa's and tinto (Spanish red) at small city cafe for dinner. We wandered the streets of Madrid for some nights pic's and missed the last metro leaving us with a long walk back to our hostel.

Day 465
With little planned we had a slow start and headed into city for our Macca's fruit and yogurt breaky. Then wandered the streets of Madrid past the opera, threatre and beautiful gardens.
We stopped for lunch in the park entertained by a fantastic local busker on aucoustic guitar. Before long it was time to go back to the hostel to pick up our gear and get the bus to Cordoba.
We arrived a long four and half hours later and grabbed a taxi to our last minute bargain on the other side of the river Hotel Hesperia 4*. It was lovely! The restaurant was reasonably priced and looked good so we dined in style on squid and duck. But it was after dinner that our Hotel came in its own with is superb view overlooking the bridge and Mesquita (Cordoba Cathedral). We headed out for an evening stroll and were amazed as it was still simmering air in the mid thirties and swarming with people; young couples having picnic's by the river, oldies walking their dogs, family's (clearly trying to wear their kids out!) and a few typical tourists like ourselves. We fired off a few pics, walked across the bridge and got our bearings for tomorrow(Pics on next blog).

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