Madrid - Day Three

 I made my first joke in Spanish last night. I had had a great night at a friendly tapas bar and when it was time to call for la quenta, the bill, I made the universal gesture of writing on  the palm of my hand with my index finger.  When the waiter nodded I called out "La Dolorosa", which in Spanish means a very sad occasion. All the bar staff cracked up, roaring with laughter. I started my day at the Museo Nacional del Prado at 10.00 am and left at 4 pm with my head spinning and totally exhausted. The Prado has one of the greatest collections anywhere of paintings by European masters.There are over 3,000 cavases and it is divided into sections such as the Spanish Masters displaying the works of luminaries like El Greco, Goya and Diego Veláquez, whose 1656 painting, "Las Meninas", showing two nannies attending to a very young Princess Margarita, is regarded as one of the world's finest paintings. Prominence was given to the Italian Renaissance masters such as Raphael, Caravaggio and Canaletto. As well there were 10 works by Picasso on display from his early portrait period to his later Cubist works. There were also works by sush greats as Rubens and Rembrandt. In the end I just wandered around from corridor to corridor in a daze, gazing at these priceless paintings from centuries ago.