Wearing comfortable shoes, carrying a credit card for meals and a pocketful of euros for museum admissions, I began the day with a delightful breakfast of toast, marmalade and iced coffee (blanco y negro) at Gijón (Paseo de Recoletos 21), a café founded in 1888 that still evokes 19th-century Madrid. From there I walked south along Recoletos to the Prado Museum (Paseo del Prado), arriving before the doors opened at 9 a.m. and giving myself two hours to take in highlights: El Greco’s long-titled Portrait of a Nobleman with His Hand on His Chest, Velázquez’s Las Meninas, Rembrandt’s Artemis and the extensive, permanent Goya collection, among many other masterpieces.
A short stroll through the Botanical Gardens brought me to the Reina Sofía Museum. I always enjoy the striking contrast of the two glass elevator shafts set against the historic façade. By about 11 a.m. I was in front of Picasso’s Guernica and his Woman in Blue, then wandered through galleries featuring Miró, Dalí, Solana and Henry Moore. I lingered longer than planned, partly because I was waiting for the museum’s notable restaurant, Arola Madrid (tel 34 91 467 0202), to open for lunch. Housed in a stunning space designed by Jean Nouvel, the restaurant presents inventive dishes from Spanish chef Sergi Arola that rival the nearby art for creativity — and price.
After lunch I headed to CaixaForum (Paseo del Prado), another vibrant art venue. The former power plant, redesigned by Herzog & de Meuron, is an architectural attraction in its own right, with a dramatic stainless-steel stair and an 80-foot vertical garden climbing the façade.
Nearby, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum held me for several hours with its wide-ranging permanent collection and a temporary Monet exhibition. Later, a short Metro ride took me to the Sorolla Museum (Paseo del General Martínez Campos, 37), set in the early 20th-century house and studio of Impressionist Joaquín Sorolla. The studio, where his last canvas remains unfinished, is filled with works that celebrate Mediterranean light and color.
For dinner I returned toward the Thyssen-Bornemisza, enjoying a warm spring evening on foot before heading up to the museum’s rooftop terrace restaurant, El Mirador del Museo (tel 34 91 420 39 44). Open for dinner from May through October, this elegant Mediterranean-style restaurant serves fresh fish and meat dishes with pleasant views over the tree-lined Paseo del Prado.