Parque de Retiro

Friday was our first day of classes here at the University of Alcala! It was our Art class and we were assigned our first homework assignment. We were to visit El Museo del Prado in Madrid and find selected art pieces to write up on. We decided it would be best to go today, which is Saturday, at 6 when it opened to the public for free entrance.

So on Friday night we asked our mom during dinner where her favorite place in Madrid was to visit. I guess she had told me before but repeated that she loves the Retiro Park. She said that she likes to take Oscar there sometimes. She also said multiple times how close it was to The Prado Museum. Chloe and I for sure took her

advise and left to the Retiro Park after eating lunch. It has easily become my favorite place here in Madrid so far. I could truly spend hours and hours in that park. It is extremely large and we easily spent three hours walking around in it. I know we still didnt see everything in that park. There was a lake where people could paddle boat, another small pond with a waterfall, playgrounds, statues, gardens, and everything wonderful! Our mom told us when we got back that the park is ugly now, but when the spring comes it is so beautiful. I still thought it was pretty breathtaking though. One of these days when it gets a little warmer Chloe and I and hopefully the others girls from our group will take the boats out on the water.After spending most of the day at this park we headed over to the museum to get in for free at 6. Once we got there the line went clear around the entire building in order to get into the museum.

Apparently it is very popular especially on Saturday nights. The line went fast though. I am usually not exactly a fan of museums, I mean I really liked the Carl Bloch exhibit, and I havent really been to much else...so I cant really form that opinion yet. This Museum was incredible to me but I dont have much to compare it to. At least I know know that I like museums. This place was huge and contained such beautiful pieces of art. It really made me wonder how a human could possibly create something so wonderful. We only spent time at certain art pieces for our homework but we got to also look at others. We will be coming back to that museum a lot for this class so we were not too worried about not seeing it all.

We got hamburgers for dinner again tonight. Thank you Anna Maria.