If You Go: Madrid

For months P wanted to visit Madrid to visit the art at the Prado and specifically see Picasso's El Greco.  After visiting every Picasso museum in the world, we had not visited this master piece.  If you know my husband, you know he is (nearly) always right and always accurate.  So, we booked a trip to Madrid and the first item on our list was visiting the Prado.  After hours walking around and no sign of Picasso or any other artist like him... P looked it up online and found it was actually in another museum in Madrid.  HA!  Luckily we had time to visit all three of the major art museums in Madrid as well as a number of smaller galleries.  Madrid is up there with Paris and Rome for the amount of masterpieces resident in its city boundaries... Picasso, Miro, Renoir... amazing!

Hotel 
NH Paseo del Prado: We splurged on this five star hotel since we spent New Year's Eve in Madrid.  It's in an amazing location - you can see the Prado from the hotel and its walking distance to the rest of Madrid.  Highly recommend (though admittedly a splurge!)

Restaurants 
If it had been open, our dream was to go to Punto MX ...the only Michelin starred Mexican restaurant in Europe.  The Madid food scene is amazing, though admittedly, we just went to so-so restaurants since many were either booked or closed for the holiday.  Note that I booked an amazing restaurant for NYE, but it turned out I booked for January 31, not December 31.  Whoops!

Taberno Del Arco: This was well reviewed on Trip Advisor so we made reservations here.  The food was ok, but somewhat uninspired and the atmosphere was lacking.  That said, it did have one of the best Sangria's of my trip.

Pad Thai: After a week in Madrid, we were ready for some non-Spanish food.  This was a pretty decent Thai restaurant (bonus: open on New Year's Eve!).  My dish was ok, but P claims this to be the best Pad Thai he has eaten outside of Thailand

Museo de Jamon: This is a chain in Madrid, we stopped here for a quick lunch one day.  The food here was good, the atmosphere was a bit like a bar (but with delicious sandwiches of Iberian ham!).  Stop here if you are looking for something quick throughout your day!

Itinerary 

Day One
Mercado de San Miguel: You MUST stop here for lunch or dinner.  This market has about 50 tapas stands of every variety - cheese, croquettes, paella, seafood.  Don't expect to find a seat, but do expect to try some really interesting, new foods.  We had some amazing sardines and octopus pinxos, a set of 10 local cheeses, and the best croquettes I have had in my life. Come.Here.Eat!

Stroll Through the City + Campo Del Moro: We walked through the city, stopped at Plaza Mayor, visited Plaza Del Sol and finished at the Royal Palace.  It was a lovely walk and ended with a visit to Campo del Moro.  This is a large, empty park behind the Royal Palace, but had some amazing views (without the hoards of tourists!)

Devour Food Tour: Madrid: We love food tours.  This was an excellent tour with five stops for food and wine.  The guide was fantastic, it was a nice, small group, and the tour took us to restaurants we would never book ourselves.  Definitely worth it if you like food and wine!

Day Two 
Prado: We spent the entire day wondering the Prado.  If you like centuries old, religious art - this is the perfect place for you.  They have many of the Spanish masters - especially Goya - as well as some more recent, smaller paintings by Picasso.  This was high on our list, but I think we didn't do enough research - we are not "old" art people.

Day Three
Royal Palace: We booked a tour through the Royal Palace.  This was fantastic - the Frescoes are amazing.  Two words of advice: (1) Book online (the line for non booking was crazy town); and (2) get the audio guide.  It really did explain everything!

Gran Via: This was New Year's Eve - so many attractions were closed early, so we did a bit of shopping at the big box stores on Gran Via.  Corte Ingles in the Nordstrom equivalent of Madrid, it's in most major cities  and is definitely worth some time!

Day Four (New Year's Day!)
We took it slow to start 2017
Chocolateria San Gines:  This is the most famous churros shop in Madrid.  You have to stand in line to get your cup of chocolate and churros, but they are absolutely heavenly.  Like the Mercado, you must stop here and you must eat everything.  OMG.  This spot is open 24/7 - so there is no excuse!

Parque Buen Retiro: We strolled the beautiful pathways of Retiro Park - saw the huge central lake, visited the crystal palace, and saw beautiful black swans.  Stunning on a sunny day.

Day Five 
Saved our best day for last!
Museo Reina Sofia: This was where the elusive El Greco painting lived...along with modern masterpieces and up and coming Spanish artists.  We absolutely loved our time visiting here - buy tickets online, you can duck in and out for lunch too!

Thyssen Museum: We stopped here on a Monday afternoon - when it's actually free to the public and there was no line!  We both really enjoyed this personal collection - and we especially liked how it was organized by themes.  Because it's from a personal collection, P noted that he thought the pictures were more "pleasing" because there wasn't so much sad/death-related art (???)