DAY 2: MADRID.

Our second day in Madrid began with an amazing breakfast buffet at our hotel, N.H. Nacional.  We then headed out to explore a few art museums.  We had an excellent tour guide for the day who took us to each museo.  She only took us to see a handful of paintings or art in the two museums, but all of us were so tired and restless that I never minded!

outdoor sculpture art at el museo reina sofia.

outside el museo nacional del prado.

in front of the prado.

the cafe sign at the prado.

After the art museums, we walked back to the hotel to freshen up before heading to explore madrid and grab lunch.  we passed by the hotel mora which had a whole wall of plants!!  personally, i found this to be way better than any of the art we saw in los museos....

wall of greenery.

madison and i then headed to downtown madrid.  we stopped in plaza mayor we our first tortilla española, an omelet with potatoes and onion, and a giant plate of olives.

the view over dinner.

toast with tuna pate.

this was AFTER we ate a handful of olives each (pits not pictured).

in plaza mayor there were a handful of creepy street performers, including a metallic streamer covered individual with a goat skull and moveable, clicking mouth; a guy with a squeaker in his mouth who kept squeaking, and two guys with white painted faces in a black and white box.

Later we wandered to another plaza, puerta del sol, where we were greeted by spongebob, patrick, hello kitty, mario, and a few other characters.

from what i understood, this was the renfe station entrance.  renfe is the main train company in spain.

On the way back to the area our hotel was in, we saw this adorable flower and plant shop.  i wish i could've gotten a better photo of the inside but a couple of señoras walked in front to check out the plants, blocking the door.

flower shop.

an interesting door seen on our walk.

we shared tapas at a bar across the street from our hotel for dinner.  i forgot to take any photos, but we ended up getting a spinach, goat cheese, and walnut omelet, cold open faced sandwich with salmon, mayo, and tomato, a hot Mediterranean sammy, and goat cheese and caramelized onion croquette.  it was all really good, but we noticed that every other (native) patron received a free basket of chips with their drinks that the waitress seemed to skip when attending to us americanos...

after grabbing our computers back at the hotel, we headed to mcdonalds to check out their crazy amazing pastry counter unlike anything we'd seen in the US.  i ordered a chocolate chip cookie and carmel macaroon.  forgetting that most other countries use shelf-stable milk, i ordered a cold cup of milk that (thankfully) was well disguised by the the chocolate in the cookie.

the pastry counter in mcdonalds.

we headed back to the hotel and i crashed the moment i laid down.