Day 29 - Monday 22nd May

Once again we were able to sleep in and so it was about 9am before we went to breakfast downstairs in the hotel restaurant. This time we asked for fried eggs and they arrived soon afterwards. It was quiet in the restaurant - perhaps the tour groups had already come and gone.

On leaving breakfast, we saw our Perth friends (Gary, Glenda, Neville, Maxine)  from the bus tour waiting in the foyer for a taxi to the airport. They were going to Barcelona followed by a Mediterranean cruise.

The excitement of the morning here was that Real Madrid had won the soccer match last night and now would be going into the finals in a fortnight. We'd seen barricades being erected in the plazas in recent days in anticipation of celebrations if Madrid did win. We heard that there were indeed a lot of celebrations last night while we were sleeping.

Today we planned to go to the museums in Madrid starting with Prado Museum. originally we'd planned to get there when it opened at 10am but, because we'd slept in, it was about 10:30am when we got there.

We'd caught the 27 bus to get to the museum and got off at the Neptuno stop where there is a monument and fountain for Neptune. At first we thought we'd missed the bus because one went past as we we waiting at the pedestrian crossing but another one arrived within a minute.

At the museum we joined the queue. It was quite long and was moving very slowly. Then again, we'd heard that yesterday's queue was much much longer. This was one reason why we'd decided to go to the museum on a Monday rather than a Sunday.

As it turned out, we only had to wait about 20 minutes. When we got to the ticket office, we found out we would have got a discount if we'd brought our passports with us. I'd remembered to bring our passports yesterday but today we'd left them in the safe at the hotel.

Outside the entrance to the building, there is a statue of Goya. The museum contains classic art from the years 1100 to 1900 including works from Goya. They also have a large number of Rueben paintings. As you would expect, they have lots of artwork from Spanish artists.

Most of the artwork is on level 0 and level 1. We decided to start on level 0 and then move up to level 1. Level 0 has older artwork. On both levels, we walked from room to room looking at the paintings, statues and artifacts.

I preferred the Rueben works rather than Goya. Overall the permanent exhibition was very impressive. It's easy to see why this is one of the top tourist destinations in Madrid and it's easy to understand why people are prepared to queue for extended times to get in.

After having a coffee in the level 0 cafe, we decided to go to the new wing where there was a special temporary exhibit. This exhibit was a collection of artwork from an American benefactor who apparently loved everything about Spanish culture.

This exhibit was extremely impressive. We were so glad that we decided to find it.

We decided that we didn't need to go to the other museums after all and we headed back to he Puerta del Sol to have lunch. Another reason for going there was to see the statue of the bear.

When we reached the plaza at about 1:30pm, we noticed a crowd had gathered near the town hall and there was a big poster hanging from the balcony say "Champions" in Spanish.

We concluded that they must have been expecting the Real Madrid team to arrive soon. So we decided to stick around to experience the occasion. At that time, the crowd was fairly small and we managed to get a spot on the kerb.

There were plenty of police and police vans in the area but they hadn't blocked off the street and so there was a steady flow of traffic. Every time we saw a bus approaching, we thought that maybe this was the team.

A line of police were standing between the roadway and the bicycle way. They were making sure that everyone kept back in the plaza. As time wore on, more police arrived and the crowd grew until the entire plaza was filled with an excited crowd. There were many thousands of people there.

The team must have been running late and we wondered whether we should bother waiting. From time to time, they would play the Real Madrid song and "We are the champions" - inexplicably in English.

TV cameras were set up on a platform opposite the town hall entrance and TV camera men and reporters patrolled the plaza interviewing the crowd members.

I got chatting to the man next to me who was from the Netherlands. He commented that the crowd was quiet and well behaved. I told him it might be different at night if they'd been drinking and I told him about my experience six years ago in Barcelona when that team had won the final of the Champions trophy.

It turned out to be a long wait because they didn't arrive until just after 2:30pm. There were two buses - one for officials and one for the team. They were escorted by a large contingent of police on motor cycles and vans with their sirens blaring.

As you might expect, there was excitement and pandemonium. I was taking photos and so was everyone else. There was a forest of arms holding up smartphones. There must have been a lot of Facebook posts this afternoon.

At about 3pm, the team eventually appeared on the balcony. It was after this that we decided to go but I had trouble getting out of the crowd - they didn't want to let me through. After a short time, a police woman came to my aid.

We were glad to get away because it had been hot - about 25C. Our legs were sore from standing in one place in the crowd crush for so long. So we decided to catch the bus back to our hotel to have lunch.

Just as we reached the bus stop, we heard sirens. The team buses had left the town hall and were being escorted away by the large police contingent. Soon after we got on the bus, there were more sirens as a dozen vans from the municipal police screamed down the street too.

For lunch we went to a cafe called Rodillo which is next to the bus stop across the road from the hotel. It was just what we needed. A very nice light lunch.

My next task was to go to the laundromat to get my clothes washed. I set out with a map and carrying my WiFi so I could use Google Maps to find it. The nearest laundromat was more than 1km away and so it took about 20 minutes to get there.

At the same time, Suzy walked to a nearby shopping centre.

For dinner, Suzy had wanted to go to a restaurant that served suckling pig and she had located two options recommended by Trip Advisor. The hotel had rung them for us last night. The top rated option didn't have a table until 11:30pm and so we'd booked a table for 7:30pm at the second option.

Suzy was too tired to go by bus and so we caught a taxi. The taxi dropped us at the street address and he pointed out where we had to go. It turned out to be one of the open air cafes in the Plaza Mayor. This was a perfect setting. We enjoyed a delightful meal as we watched the sun set over the buildings on the other side of the plaza. It was still quite hot - about 28C.

For entree, we shared a dish we'd never heard of before - breadcrumbs and grapes. We both had sucking pig for main course. It was a great choice. It was very tender and well cooked.My serving was the ribs and Suzy had a leg.

As we were finishing off the meal with an espresso coffee, the waiter brought us a complimentary liqueur based on pears. It was delicious.

We caught a taxi back to hotel. Suzy was annoyed that they hadn't done a turn-down service in our room.