Nov 1st - A walk down the South side.

 

 

 

Being a national holiday (Spanish Constitution Day) we decided that we would take a walk down to the Prado and if it was open we would have another visit.  A few days ago I took a walk while Deb was doing laundry and went to the south and east of the old part of the downtown area.  On the way back to the apartment I found a small park where there is an arboretum and I knew that Deb would like it, so today we decided to walk that way to the Prado. 



It takes us right through the Retiro Park and it was a direct line to the Prado. 

 

 


 The museum was open so we went in and had our third visit.   Today we saw a group of Spanish painters from the 19^th century who were painting in the neo-classic manner and in epic proportion.  The subject matter was basically religious , historical, or a combination of the two, not our cup of tea particularly but it was still interesting to see and the technique was extremely accomplished.   The beauty of having our passes is that we can spend an hour or two and then leave knowing that we’ll come back and see another few rooms.   Next time we’re starting on the Goya rooms.  Tonight for dinner we had albondigas which are meatballs, in this case made from chicken and they were outstanding.  Deb made a sauce that was inspired by Jose Andres and it was a perfect accompaniment to the albondigas.

November 2nd – A bit of a rest day

Today was a bit of a rest day so there is not much to talk about, but when we were in bar for a refresher  I noticed an interesting bottle on the back bar.  I call it Scotch and Pepto.

Nov 1st - All Saints Day

Today is a national holiday for Spain, therefore many businesses and organizations are closed.  We just past our first 30 days in Madrid and I must say that we are thoroughly enjoying ourselves.   But a few observations are in order.  We’ve achieved several of our basic goals, such as getting into Spanish lessons and getting library and museum cards.  So on that front we have really made progress, on the other side our reading comprehension is much higher but our language capabilities are still very lame.  We can definitely get by in the markets and restaurants but when it comes to responding to almost any questions or observations by the Spanish it’s like we do a brain dump and all of our vocabulary flees.  To be fair we have only 30 days of immersion and a bit of language study before leaving, we feel as if we’re making progress.  We just have to learn patience with ourselves; it seems that together we can function pretty well.  Deb grasps things that are totally obscure for me and I for her, but for other things it’s total incomprehension for both of us.  Still I don’t believe we’ve yet met a really rude person here, most of the problems have been self-created.  Luckily we can laugh about them, so far; and we hope you can too.

Oct 31st – Another Museo

 Yesterday due to rain we limited our wandering to the library and a little shopping to get non-food type things that we need to have like toothpaste, soap, etc.  But today we started with our food shopping and loaded up some due to tomorrow being a national holiday, All Saints day (Todos Santos) which is when the children here trick or treat.  However in Madrid due to the preponderance of multi-dwelling apartment/condos they really don’t go out, there are more parties at homes.  Anyway after shopping we decided to go to another of our museums, this time the Museo Joaquin Sorolla.  So we jumped on the metro and went to the stop a couple of blocks from the museum.  Upon arrival you go through a very nice gate into a spectacular little courtyard garden created by Sorolla in the late 1890’s, it has several fountains surrounded by plants, trees, and sculptures.  Sorolla collected antique decorative tiles and pottery dating from the 1500’s up to the 1800’s and when he helped design his town house/studio the gardens were extensively decorated with the glazed tiles. Anyway, after getting tickets with our passes we went into the townhouse and I’ve got to say without overdoing it that it far exceeded my expectations, and they were high.   I’d seen some photos of Sorolla’s paintings but nothing really prepared me for the full impact of his work.  In his time he was called the ‘painter of light’ likely the first; even though in the last few decades Kinkaid styled himself the same. 

 Going on, he is noted for his portraits, seascapes, and garden scenes, which are positively luminous in their treatment of the effects of light on his subjects.   He has a light palette that does not shy from using any color on the wheel, moderated to capture the specific light effect that he wanted.  I tried to take a couple pictures but the light in the house is too low and they don’t allow flash photos.   After the Reina Sofia, I’m doubly careful to avoid flashes.

October 29th – Another day of firsts

Today was one of firsts for us.  We got out early and took the metro over to the Fundacion Juan March and attended our first musical concert.  The fundacion (foundation) offers free concerts on Sunday and Mondays at noon so we went to a piano and violin presentation.  They had music of Handel, Beethoven, and Franck and it turned out to be quite enjoyable.  The performers are quite accomplished musicians, the violinist has performed with the London Philharmonic, the Amsterdam symphony and a number of well recognized conductors as a featured concert soloist. The pianist was less well known but equally professional.  We are hoping to be able to go to a few more during our time here.  After the concert we took a bus down south close to Atocha station to go to the Reina Sofia.  This is our first visit to this museum as well it focuses on modern art from the post impressionists up to the present.  Many Miros, Dalis, and Picassos as well as other Spanish artists are featured, and that was in the first 3 rooms that we visited.  One of the metronomes created by Man Ray was out in the hall.  I got crossways with the docents twice in the first couple rooms, the first was that I sat on the floor to read a handout and the guard told me to get up.  Next I asked the other guard if I could take pictures and she said, ‘yes but without flash’ so you know what happened next, I turned off the flash but then reset the picture mode to an indoor setting and the camera reset the flash setting without me knowing it so when I took the picture, it flashed!  The guard came over and EMPHASIZED that flash was not allowed.  I was meekly trying to say it turned itself back on and looking for somewhere to hide, so now I have two Spanish women I’m afraid of, DOH!  What was one of the most interesting things to me was how closely the art of the many Spanish artists of the 20’s and 30’s was to the art being created in Denver, Taos, and Santa Fe in the same period of time.  There was a definite movement to paint scenes and images from the specific regions, i.e. regionalism. It has been implied sometimes that this was a uniquely American phenomenon but clearly this is not true.  

Spanish regionalism of the 30´s

Anyway after 4 rooms we noticed that we were nearing the time of another announced work slowdown by the bus and metro drivers so we hustled up to our bus stop and caught one of the last busses before the slowdown began, so that we could get to our Spanish class in the evening.  Oh and we had our first, but not last, visit to a Thai restaurant close to Reina Sofia.

October 28th – A walkabout

Today Deb cleaned and did laundry, so rather than be in her way I decided to do a walkabout.  I went down Alcala to Plaza de Becarra then back by a circuitous route down to the south and east towards the apartment.  Along the way I found several nice sculptures and a small but lovely arboretum. A nice 3 hour paseo.

October 27th Second visit to the Prado

After our trip back from Segovia we got a leisurely start to the day (our usual M.O.).  I thought that one of our libraries was open on Saturday while I know the other one isn’t and I was right. Cutbacks have forced one of the library groups to close on weekends and the other one takes up the slack, so it’s very crowded on Saturdays.   Still I was able to post the first entries for our Segovia trip.  We stopped at the market on the way back to re-up our food, Deb had seen packages of MERLUZA being offered; made up of the flesh from around the fish head cleaned off the skull and packaged. Fish heads are some of the tastiest flesh on the fish so we were determined to get a package; STRIKE 3 they didn’t have any available so we had to get Dorada.  Then back to the apartment for lunch after which we decided to go to the Prado for our second visit. 

On our first visit, the day we bought our passes, we only looked at 2 rooms before the museum opened up to free visitors and we left.  Today we picked up with the next group of rooms following, and over the next couple hours got to see another group of rooms including two world class masterpieces.   In one room were the works of Hieronymus Bosch including his most famous, Garden of Earthly Delights, which is a ‘don’t miss’ if you can only see the top 10 paintings in the Prado.   In another is what is arguably one of the top 2 or 3 paintings in the entire world; Vander Weyden’s ‘Descent from the Cross’.  In some eyes it ranks with the Mona Lisa and may even surpass it.   The colors look as fresh as if it were painted yesterday even after 500 years, and the composition is unsurpassed.  Once again we stayed until shortly after the museum opens for free entry, then left.  It finally got pretty cool, almost cold, especially in the strong wind.  Deb lamented that she had not brought a light jacket, while I had my blue wool blazer and was pretty comfortable.  Tomorrow is supposed to be cold as well.  One thing I particularly enjoy is seeing the live coverage of the formula 1 grand prix races, tomorrow is India.  So far I’ve seen both the races in Japan and Korea.  Of course the only football I get to see in between Barca or Real Madrid, or another pair of teams, so I have to go to the internet on Mondays to see how the Broncos have done.  The Dorada was quite tasty