Madrid Day 2 – Botanical Gardens and Prado Museum

Well unsurprisingly I was up from 12:30 a.m. to 4 a.m., dozed a little after that but a typical jetlag pattern in combo with my usual lousy sleep pattern. The evening revelry had died down outside my flat by 1 a.m., so I was able to open windows again which was nice for cooling as the sleeping loft catches the hot air rising.

The instant coffee was thankfully very tasty (and very caffeinated!) so I came to fairly quickly and with the help of chatty (chat GPT) was able to retrieve tickets to the Prado for 1:45 (they hadn’t been sent by email as they were supposed to be). Admissions are substantially less for seniors over here (1E for the botanical gardens, 7.5 E for the Prado) but one is warned to bring supporting ID so I toted my passport around all day. The botanical gardens didn’t ask to see anything – I am internally offended when I’m not carded these days 😏 but the Prado did.

After a quick breakfast of yoghurt and baguette I headed out on foot to the Prado area – the botanical gardens are right behind the museum. Cooler today, with light rain in the forecast for this afternoon. The more I walk around Madrid, the happier I am to have booked an e-bike for tomorrow’s bike tour – there are quite a few inclines to navigate. But the central area is lovely for the most part, with well kept old buildings, picturesque narrow streets and many plazas and parks.

There was a stream of tourists heading towards the Prado like bees to a hive, all navigating with phones – one huge advantage of technology. The gardens were quiet initially – not much flowering at the moment but ironically one of the most colourful sections was the North American dahlias! A nice herb and medicinal plant section, and the frogs in the water pond near the back were very vocal.

Quite an extensive garden, no areas overrun by weeds like Vancouver’s VDG and UBC botanical gardens… lots of gardeners out working.

flowering plants were strategically located at the entrance. The gardens were meticulously laid out with great labelling and an enormous specimen collection.

Palms outside…

and inside. Small greenhouse compared to many other botanical gardens.

the Australian section.

the artichokes were left to flower, impressively tall plants, and the squash were left on the plants as well.

The filtering pond in the foreground was full of very noisy frogs, unfortunately the blog site doesn’t handle video files.

I reckon this is the right size for a gingko! Amazingly, most of the bonsai specimens were 60-80 years old

I turned off Strava part way through this section as my iphone battery has degraded significantly and runs out quickly on touristing days… by the end of the botanical gardens I am sure I was well into the double digits for walking km. Definitely ready for coffee which I took to Jerónimos Park via a chic neighbourhood. There are lots of trees, and the large avenue in front of the Prado reminds one of the Champs Elysee, with wide treelined boulevards. Lunch in the park of baguette with lovely truffle infused aged white cheese and I felt ready for the Prado.

Church in the Prado neighbourhood

Lots of joggers in Jerónimos Park, and a formal section called the Parterre

The traffic circle outside the Prado, with the expensive Palace Hotel in the background

Queue time next, despite having booked a ticket online we were all sent to a queue at the ticket office to convert them into a paper ticket. Happily this lineup was much shorter than the “buy at the time” lineup – the booked tickets were allotted a time in 15 min increments. I picked up a pre-booked audioguide as well, which was a recording on an iphone with a headset, and set off to see what I could see. Like the Louvre, the collection is overwhelming (though not as big as the Louvre) and it helped to have the audioguide to focus on select paintings. I chose the 2 hour selection – there is a 9 hr version!!! Apparently the museum is busiest in the mornings – it wasn’t too bad by the time I got there, definitely less crowded than the Louvre but the tour groups were a little annoying if you happened to try and see a painting where they had taken over. The labelling system for the rooms drove me crazy – room 6A didn’t necessarily connect to 6B and sometimes you’d have to go to room 9 to get to 6B…but the audioguide was very good otherwise and well worth the 5E. Due to getting lost, and some diversions, it took me more than 2 hours to get through but so much better than aimlessly wandering through all those amazing paintings. Midway I stopped at the “cafe prado” to get a coffee and had a chat with an elderly ?American couple behind in the line-up who were scouting out GF options and we commiserated how difficult that was during travel. When the lineup reached the coffee machines what I thought were real espresso machines turned out to be a huge nespresso complex so I quickly exited stage right. Ugh. Seems sacriligeous in the Prado!!! (we have a couple of Prado cafes in Tsawwassen which make real coffee).

The museum was most impressive, both in and out!

backside, from the botanical gardens entrance

the rain had started early afternoon, but had petered out for most of my walk home

A couple of false starts on a search for more bread on the way home before I located a decent bakery – bread is really reasonable here with a baguette sized loaf selling for .60 – 1 E. Coffee is also cheaper, with a capuccino in a local cafe going for 2-3E. Didn’t check the prices at Starbucks which are also around, they get a wide berth (though not as wide as nespresso!).

Into one of many shops selling fresh produce yielded some fresh fruit from a great selection, and with the help of google translate was able to get a carabiner from a local hardware store to hold my broken strap on the carryon bag. I was headed for the “mad mad vegan” for dinner but got waylaid by a string of Indian restaurants in my ‘hood – prawn masala was quite different from home but very satisfying after a long day walking. The rain was back so I headed home to put my feet up and prepare for tomorrow. Time in Madrid is flying!

on the way home – cobblestones were wet and a bit hazardous in parts

Patisseries from La Mallorquina -highly rated, est 1894 – I’d give them a 6/10.