I got to the Prado just after 10:00 a,m, when it opens. There was a bit of a line but it wasn't too bad. I rented an audio guide (good idea!) and proceeded to spend the next 4 hours exploring a SINGLE floor!! By then I was SO exhausted I needed to gather energy so I had lunch in the cafeteria. I resumed my travels and didn't leave until about 5:15 p.m.

Of course, no photography was allowed except in general ares. Good for preserving the painting but also good for the Prado. Case in point... I bought many postcards of favorite pctures

Impressions?? The paintings are incredible. They all have one major thing in common... they are all. painted in such a way that they "illuminate". Subjects pop out of the canvases.There wasn't a bad painting in the entire place. Not all were to my personal taste but I couldn't fault technique in any.

Now it's time for YOU to do some work. Here's a list of some of my favourite paintings. Go to the Prado online and you can see them in no particular order:
Rubens - Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Lerma
Goya - Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos
Velasquez - La Meninas
Vaccaro - Saint Agatha
Francisco de Herrera el Mozo - The Dream of Saint Joseph
Alonso Cano - The Miracle of the Well
Bartolome Murillo - The Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables
Anton Van Dyck - The Painter Martin Ryckhart
Goya - Asmodea, The Inquisition
Mariano Fortunay - The Moroccans
Camillo Torreggiani - Isabel II, Veiled
Jan Sanders Van Hernessen - The Virgin and the Child
Raphael - Portrait of a Cardinal
Raphael - Holy Family with Infant John the Baptist
Vincent Lopez - Maria Cristina de Barbon, Queen of Spain
Federico de Medrazo - Amalia de LLlano y Dotres Countess of Vilches
Eduardo Rosales - "The Death of Lucretia"
Martin Rico - Riva degli Schiavoni in Venice
Martin Rico La Torre de la Montana del Principe Pio
Joseph Sorolla - Saint in Prayer
Joaquim Sorolla - Boys on the Beach
Unknown - Salero con Sirena (Dauphin's Collection)