We planned our second day in Madrid to be incredibly low key. We started our morning exploring in Retiro Park. This was the perfect way to start the day after a long travel day. No agenda, just wandering around, letting our two year old explore.

This park had multiple playgrounds, which was perfect. We could spend some time at one, go explore more in the park, and then bounce over to another one.

Our favorite by far was one on the eastern side of the park, with multiple slides and climbing apparatuses. It was also packed with pigeons, and my kid's favorite thing was running around chasing them yelling, "I'm coming for you birdies."

He terrorized the pigeons of Madrid, and Ben and I could not stop laughing at how much joy he got from running after them and then watching them fly away.

The other incredibly cool part about this playground was that there were randomly peacocks walking through it. I have never seen a peacock in the wild, and these ones let us get decently close to them without spooking. None of them opened their feathers, but it was still really cool to be so close to them and see how vibrantly colored they were.

We spent time checking out the lake, fountains and other gardens scattered throughout the park until our stomachs started to growl and we left to find some lunch.

Our post-lunch plan was to visit the Prado.

I'm not normally a huge art museum kind of person, but my middle school art teacher spent years teaching us about the Spanish masters, and I couldn't pass up an opportunity to see some of their works in person.

The museum was definitely crowded, and we kept our visit short and fairly focused on a few pieces I really wanted to see because art museums aren't the most interesting thing to a toddler.

No pictures from inside, but when I got off the elevator and the doors opened right onto Las Meninas, I was a little bit awestruck.

We wandered around the second floor and hit some more Velazquez and El Greco pieces before heading downstairs to see Goya and his dark paintings.

AFter nap time, we met up with our friend at another playground in the city before heading to a tapas bar for dinner.

It was a perfect day of easing into the city.