Palacio

Actually this is a view of the Cathedral from a window in the Palacio Real. No really sure what to expect, we'd fortified ourselves with churros and gone down early to beat the crowds. Turns out it's well worth a visit - a bit less 'National Trust' and a bit more of an extended panorama of excessive opulence. Very entertaining. Afterwards we walked up to the Mercado San Miguel and made our lunch up piecemeal from the various tapas vendors there. We spent some of the afternoon in the Prado - shooting through all those rooms of rotund naked people in various classical poses in order to find something slightly more 'grim' (Katie's description - she's quite fond of flowers and cherubs, I'm not sure where we went wrong with her education) - the 'Black Paintings' of Goya (even better than I remembered) and those crowded phantasmagoric allegories by Bosch and Bruegel. The rest we spent snoozing, all the better to prepare ourselves for another evening of Flamenco - down to the Calle de Pez, where we sandwiched the dancing between drinks at the Zombie Bar and a late dinner at the Pez Gordo (or 'Fat Fish'), just like real Madrilenos...