El Ultimo Dia

We ate breakfast at the apartment and took off for our morning coffee, tried Spanish churros this time with our cafés con leche…less sweet than in Mexico, but still plenty greasy and good.

After coffee, we went to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum across the street from the Prado. The collection of a certain baronness and what a collection! We were able to see rooms of impressionist paintings, Degas, Gauguin, Manet, Monet and also a Van Gogh sketch of a dutch woman, absolutely beautiful and a Goya sketch…so close up and detailed you feel like you could feel his pencil scratching the paper. We saw more Miro, Picasso, Dali (those Catalonian painters were so prolific…we’ve seen their stuff almost everywhere in Spain) Chagal, Warhol, Rothko…paintings that most of us would recognize because they’re iconic, which makes it kind of breath-taking to see the originals…A highlight for me, viewing Charing Crossing, one of those watery blue/white Claude Monet pieces. I sat and looked at it for a long time, knowing I might not see an original Monet for a while.

We forged on and went to a tapas bar this evening. We felt clueless at different points, but all of the wait staff were friendly and helped us order our food. We ate potatoes (not called “papas” like they are in Mexico…but “patatas”). We enjoyed the meat on skewers (bbqued while we waited), olives and bread. Though we frequently miss vegetables in the Spanish cuisine we’ve eaten, we keep plenty on stock in our refrigerator and for lunch today we ate at a vegetarian restaurant. This strategy usually makes up for the heavy protein intake our restaurant meals often provide.

Tomorrow, we wake early, eat breakfast and head to the airport. This trip has been absolutely wonderful. We’re excited to rejoin our families, but will remember this experience for many years to come. Thank you all for my 40th birthday gift (just in case I don’t get to thank you in person on the sooner side).