Saturday exploring

Saturday was another lovely day in Madrid.

We headed off on the Metro to go to the Prado. What is a trip to Europe without visiting a big famous museum????

The art collection is amazing. It was pretty cool to see in person some of the paintings in my art history books.

Next to the Prado is the botanical gardens. A beautiful and peaceful place to explore.

Not far from the Prado is a huge park called Parque del Retiro. We were not aware at the time but there was a huge rally planned on Saturday to protest changes the government wants to make in abortion laws. Up to a million people were expected to be around central Madrid. It was CRAZY. But we still enjoyed the park.

We jumped on the Metro and packed in like sardines to head to a different part of the city. I don't know that I have ever been so compacted with a group of people ever before. It was very cozy to say the least.

What ended up being an unexpected advantage was in preparation for a million people the police closed off all the streets in and around central Madrid. So walking around was actually a breeze.

We went back to Plaza Mayor and watched dancers perform from several different countries. They were performing traditional native dances.

Because we knew the closest Metro station was in the heart of the rally we wandered down some beautiful streets of Madrid to a different Metro station. We found it! But then discovered that all of the Metro trains were packed full of people. And the number of people cramming onto the train got more and more jammed. But then at one stop everyone got off. We unknowingly picked the Metro line that goes to the stadium. And there was a Football game about to start. (Soccer)

Finally we got back to our neighborhood and had dinner at the big entertainment complex near the train station. All the tv's were tuned to the football game and beer flowed freely. It was a lot of fun. And there was so much energy in the crowds. We only wished we had realized at the time that it was a football match. We would have hopped off with the crowds and tried to get tickets.

Oh well..........it was still a fun day!