Sunday 9th April 2023

The official crest of Madrid is the Bear and the strawberry tree (as in blog title) with 7 stars (Ursa Major). Madrid during Roman times was called Ursalia and bears were common in the surrounding woods at the time. Only this one left now, Sixty was not frightened.

The bus from Bustarviego took just over an hour after which we caught the metro to the Plaza Mayor, only 18 stops. After this journey we needed coffee so sat in a cafe in the plaza watching the world. We were expecting music to celebrate the end of Easter but it never happened so we moved on.

One of the main reasons for visiting Madrid on a Sunday was the El Rastro flea market. We didn’t realise how massive this really was! Never seen a market covering such a large area with so many people. In 25°C it was quite claustrophobic. We did buy a painting though, by a local artist.

After a lovely lunch in El Gran Cantabrico, a locals Tapas bar, we headed to the Prado Museum, a world renowned art gallery featuring painting by Goya, Ruben’s, El Greco and Velasques etc. Little did we know that our previously purchased painting would cause so much hassle. We couldn’t take it in the museum, or even in the cloakroom so we had to find a luggage store. The train station didn’t have one so ended up walking 20 mins more to find one. Then back to the Prado where we had to persuade them to let us in again. All the paintings were magnificent, maybe not our style but you have to appreciate the skill and grandeur of them. Feeling quite tired by now so off to the El Tiro public park for a wander. Came across a fantastic greenhouse called the The Palicio Cristal 😀. 100’s people enjoying the sunshine in this park.

Back to collect our painting, up to meet the bear and the had to run to catch the Metro and our bendy bus home. We actually walked further today than our our hike yesterday, 11 miles today.