Last Stop

It was a beautiful, breezy morning in Madrid.  The museums don't open early (well, not much does in Spain, really) so I went around the corner to VIPS to pick up some sliced strawberries, and then stepped next door to [hanging my head in shame] Starbucks for a cafe mocca.  I sat at Starbucks' outside tables and enjoyed my breakfast, then went looking for culture.  Just as I walked away from my table, though, I ran into Kathryn from Vaughantown!  She said she, too, was waiting for the museums to open, but was going a different direction (I ran into her again at the Thyssen).

Because it was closer and smaller and cheaper, I opted for the Thyssen-Bournemisza instead of the Prado.  Part of the reason was that in just 90 minutes or so, I really couldn't do justice to the Prado's vast collection.  And in all honesty, I just can't sustain interest in paintings for that long.  I much prefer sculpture and jewelry and furniture.  I probably don't try hard enough to appreciate paintings (though there are some that I really love, and I appreciate the talent that it takes to paint), which is why a museum like Kelvingrove appeals to me so much.  In addition to paintings, you have your stuffed elephants and your antique cars and your crystal, and strange heads hanging from the ceiling.  That's my kind of museum!   I got done early enough that I had time for a quick shower and cooldown before checking out and walking down to Cibeles for the airport bus.

                                        You can just see the tables in front of Starbucks to the left.

The plane got in about 10 minutes early to Gatwick, there was no line at immigration, and by the time I got my bag and made my way to the bus area, it was 5:30.  I stopped into the ticket office to see if I could get an earlier bus if there was one (my ticket was for 6:50), and there was - 5:40!  I asked the woman in the bus area about how many stops it made, and she listed T5 as the next to last stop.  I asked if I could maybe get off there instead of the central bus station (so I wouldn't have to backtrack by shuttle to T5 - remember my ticket issue when I booked the hotel?).  She told me to ask the driver, and he said sure!  Woohoo! One less step in the process.