Madrid (Day 2)

Out city bus tour of the city was good, but made only a few stops.  Pictures are not great from a bus so I only took them where we stopped.  First stop was the Madrid "bull fight" arena, although many other things take place here, such as concerts and an annual wine tasting event that another guide later in the day told us about.

The Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas is a famous  bullring in Madrid.  Inaugurated on June 17, 1931. It has a seating capacity of 25,000 and is regarded as the home of bullfighting in Spain.

This bullring was designed by the architect José Espeliú in the Neo-Mudéjar (Moorish) style with ceramic incrustations. The seats are situated in ten "tendidos". The price of the seats depends upon how close they are to the arena and whether they are in the sun or the shade (the latter being more expensive). The bullfighting season starts in March and ends in October; bullfights are held every day during the San Isidro Fiesta, and every Sunday or holiday during the season. Bullfights start at 6 or 7pm and last for two to three hours.

"Luis Miguel Gonzalez Lucas (November 9, 1926 – May 8, 1996) was a famous bullfighter from  Spain, better known as Luis Miguel Dominguín. His father was the legendary Domingo Dominguin; he adopted his father's name to gain popularity.

Dominguín made his first public appearance in the ring at the age of eleven and enjoyed wide popularity during the 1940s and 1950s in Spain, Portugal, Colombia and other countries. He was on the card in Linares, Spain on 28 August 1947 when another legend, his rival Manolete, was fatally gored.

Dominguín was also a socialite, having friends like Pablo Picasso and romances with the American actress Ava Gardner and the fashion model China Machado. In 1954, he married actress Lucia Bosé, who gave birth to his son Miguel Bosé, a Grammy-award winning singer. In 1959, he and his brother-in-law, Antonio Ordóñez, engaged in a bullfighting rivalry that was chronicled by Ernest Hemingway in his book, The Dangerous Summer. Ordóñez won".

A matador paying homage to Dr. Fleming who invented penicillan

Next potty stop at Hard Rock Cafe Madrid and a cup of coffee

After the city tour, the bus dropped us at the Prado where we met our new guide.  No pictures allowed inside the gallery, so we took a few outside and then afterwards in the Botanical Gardens next to the museum. 

The gardens are just beginning to show their beauty

As we walked back towards our hotel we stopped in a shop to look at a piece of LLadra porcelain andended  up buying some jewelry made by a Spanish designer.

Home at last a little coffe before resting up for our tapas and wine tour tonight.  I sort of blend in with the table cloth. Ha.