Day 5: Walking Madrid

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Geo: 40.4167, -3.70327

Today, we took a self-guided walking tour from Puerta del Sol to take in an old cobblestone city square, Plaza Mayor, a market, a small church, the Town Hall, Madrid's Almudena Cathedral, and a walk-by the Royal Palace.

In the afternoon, after securing our train tickets for tomorrow's day trip to Toledo, we took the train and walked out to the Prado Museum, a confusing but well-stocked labyrinth of great European painters, for its free evening admission. A long queue to get in didn't leave us quite enough time to see everything we wanted to see, but works by Velasquez, Greco, and Bosch made it worthwhile.

The light (and most enjoyed) moment of that night at the museum occurred at the security check at the entrance, where the museum was confiscating all selfie sticks.

Hooray, and kudos to the Prado! Selfie sticks -- and we encountered WAY too many at every single attraction on this trip -- seem to have turned sightseeing and tourism into one giant steroid driven narcissistic rush, where taking 'fashion shots' and selfies was the purpose of the trip or adventure, not the magic and wonder and experience of the site itself.

OK, got that rant out of the system.

Big day tomorrow -- a day trip to Toledo!

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