Day 54 – 1 September 2023 – Madrid, Spain – day 3

Another easy morning, the Museum of Natural History doesn’t open until 10am so we took an easy stroll along the promenade a few blocks from the hotel & took a walk through the native gardens surrounding the museum. That was pleasant & afterwards we went to the ticket office to purchase our tickets for the museum entry – another pleasant surprise, zero cost as we are seniors.

The ground floor has a collection of stuffed animals, not too overwhelming, enough to be interesting in a huge area. One thing that surprised us, they had an Australian eastern grey kangaroo, echidna, Tasmanian Devil, blue tongue skink. There was also a Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger), extinct in Australia since the 1930s. It is apparently one of the few examples in a museum in the world, it is one of the Madrid Museum’s most valuable exhibits. Above the exhibition space is the giant skeleton of a fin whale, they are such a large animal. There is a great hall on the wildlife of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain & Portugal), with a focus on what is being done in the preservation of the environment & wildlife in the national parks.

The next part of the museum we need to walk out & down to the other end of this huge building. This part focuses on geology, fossils & evolution, with a great display of minerals from around the world. Nature is amazing with the variety & the colours & shapes of the various minerals found on this planet. The evolutionary story of humans is also told, with various lineages of the Homo species, from just past the apes all the way through to homo sapiens. That was very interesting, we are not that far removed from the apes. There is also a great display of dinosaur skeletons, fossils & parts of dinosaurs. Some of the full scale dinosaurs are very scary, they are huge. The teeth & jaws are enormous. On the upper level they have exhibition about space & space craft, very well done. An amazing museum, well worth seeing.

We had a few days on our own in Madrid, a time to unwind after a full on fantastic tour.  As we have been here in Madrid before we decided to visit some fantastic museums & as a bonus 3 are walking distance from our hotel.  The museums were fantastic. They have tree lined walkways in the middle of the busy road thoroughfares, we enjoyed the shady paths to walk even when it got warm or late at night.  Little cafes/restaurants with shady umbrellas pop up along the way, we sampled some Spanish cuisine, very good.  We had a lovely relaxing time together.

At 6pm we meet with the Tour Director of our next tour & leave at 6.30pm for our welcome dinner at a restaurant near the Royal Theatre, the Opera Victoria Restaurant. We were served a very nice 3 course dinner. Our bus parks underneath the Royal Palace, all 3,418 rooms of it, then we walk up the stairs & are surprised to see a Spanish bride & groom walking along to have their photos taken in front of the palace, she looks stunning in a beautiful bridal gown. The walk to the restaurant is not that far & we sit at the table with three Americans & chat during the meal. It was very pleasant.  Amazing huge crowds were out on the streets as we headed back on the short journey to our hotel. There are thousands & thousands of people out enjoying Friday night in Madrid. We are always amazed how many people are out eating lunch in those little street cafes (around 3 pm) then everything quietens down, even a lot of the shops close for fiesta time.  It starts to get busy again around 6 pm & once again the little outside cafes become busy by people socialising over drinks.  Don’t expect dinner until after 8 pm unless you are with a bus load of tourists.  Another good day.