Eighth day of the tour "Two poles of passion". Madrid.
Madrid is 550 km away. After yesterday's dancing on the water, it even pleases. The bus has become accustomed to as a home. We doze off, wrapped in a blanket. Surprisingly, they did not catch a cold, although yesterday they were absolutely wet. Outside the window is a beautiful mountainous landscape. We pass through many tunnels. It's good that there are no serpentines like ours.
A couple of hours have passed - we are passing the Cantabrian mountains. There are more and more tunnels and they are getting longer. Things began to fall from the upper shelves in the bus - a mountain road, however. Sheep graze on the slopes. Outside the window are small towns, each must have a church. The architecture is very different.
Another hour and the mountains were left behind. Around the forest. At the sanatorium we bought juices, olives and sausages in a package. It's still a long drive, and we haven't stocked up on sandwiches. Generally stops every three hours. Sanzones are normal, clean, often only take a lot of time because of the queues. Almost always there is either a mini market or a cafe, you can buy something. I ate too much cookies, I think I will never eat them again. Yogurts are very helpful.
There are many huge windmills along the roads. A beautiful sight. We go again in silence. Outside the window there are many interesting, but unidentified. Only by clicking cameras in the cabin or by exclamations can we determine that we are passing something unusual and have time to either see or take a picture. All that was voiced to us on this stretch of the path was the name of the mountains, and then after the question. I don’t know, maybe it’s supposed to be like that, but there are so many things outside the window, at least a little orientation. I really regret that we don’t have a son-in-law with us, he loves navigators and we would be aware of where we are every minute of the way. We pass some kind of huge palace, on one side there are high walls, and inside there is a whole city.
Three PM. The sun has finally come out. We haven't seen him for several days. The bus immediately came to life, stirred, jokes rained down. Although there are clouds on the horizon. We're going to Madrid.
The overview is interesting and informative. It's sunny outside, everyone's having fun. Yes, and Madrid is extraordinarily beautiful, it seems that most of the buildings in it are white, bright. Several stops for a photo pause of 15 minutes. The first is near the monument to Don Quixote and Sancho Panso, and the second is near the bullring. It is difficult to take a picture near Don Quixote, the monument is plastered with those who wish from all sides. But it is large, and on the other hand, you get great photos against the backdrop of the fountain. I didn’t want to be photographed near the arena, I don’t like bullfighting. But they took pictures anyway.
The sightseeing tour ended at 18.00. Until 21.00 are free.
Time for the Prado Museum. Compared to the Louvre, I liked the Prado more for the clarity and thematic nature of the expositions. We slowly walk through the halls. We did not take an audio guide, there are several Russian excursions in the halls, and everything is audible. A few hours in the museum, emotions just overwhelm - beauty! There is an interesting department with souvenirs and there are magnets with reproductions of famous paintings. Bought for gifts.
On this day, our guys went to the long-awaited and so successfully held football. We couldn't get to the bus in time, although we tried very hard. Another half an hour of time was taken by traffic jams in the city center, everyone was dispersing after the match. They grumbled a little that it was predictable and that the group could have been given half an hour extra time to walk around the city. And so they stood on the bus. But it wasn’t boring - they arranged a competition among themselves who would take more pictures from different angles of the fountain in the center of Madrid near which we got stuck))
We got to the hotel after 11. We will spend two nights here. The room is great, spacious and comfortable. There is everything you need. The seafood dinner came out great - we managed to pop into a local restaurant and order dishes to go: shells, shrimp, fish of different types, colors and breeds with vegetables. It's funny that they gave us a spoon with us - not a disposable, but an ordinary table metal spoon, absolutely new)))
