Madrid!

There are two posts today, so make sure to look at both of them!

Juan and I celebrated his 28th birthday in Madrid this past weekend. It was a great weekend. We even got bumped up to first-class on our way back to La Coruña! (We had to change/cancel this trip so many times due to our Visa delays, we think that somewhere in the change fees, flight changes, etc... we got bumped into the higher price range.) We were able to enjoy some beverages, nuts, candy, washcloths, and pampering on the short 60-minute flight. What a way to top off the weekend and to celebrate Juan's birthday!

We arrived in Madrid pretty late on Friday night and went out for some late night tapas and wine. We hopped around a bit and enjoyed several delicious dishes. We were staying in a hotel pretty near the Plaza del Sol and the subway, so we were able to walk or take a quick subway ride to most of our weekend destinations.

We woke up on Saturday and went to the little coffee and pastry shop in the Plaza del Sol (pictured in the blog posting below). After breakfast we went to the Reina Sofía, the first of three art museums that we would visit over the weekend. It was both my and Juan's favorite of the three museums. The museum had 20th century paintings and sculptures by many many artists, including: Picasso, Salvador Dalí, and Julio González.

Juan in front of Reina Sofía glass elevators

I really liked looking at the work of Dalí. You could stare at each painting for hours and still not see everything. His paintings are so detailed and so strange! They are like part of a really messed up dream world where everything morphs together. We had an audio tour headset that gave information on several of the paintings. It was especially essential to have when looking at the works by Dalí.

Imperial Monument to Woman-Child (Dalí)

There were several famous paintings by Picasso on display. Woman in Blue and Guernica both had very interesting stories. Woman in Blue was disowned by Picasso because it only won honorable mention in a national art competition. The Spanish state found and bought it several decades later. Guernica is said to be "the most famous work of the 20th century." It is a Civil War protest painting that was commissioned by the Spanish Republican government in 1937. The painting was inspired by a mass air attack on the Basque town of Gernika-Lumo by the Nationalist air force. The painting was displayed in a New York gallery until 1981 because it was Picasso's wish that it wasn't to return to Spain until democracy was re-established.

Woman in Blue - Picasso

Guernica - Picasso

There was also 1936 a painting by Alfonso Ponce de León showing a man who was in a car crash. It turns out that he died in a car crash later that same year!

After leaving the Reina Sofía we walked over to Madrid's Plaza Mayor (the main plaza). It was nice - a lot like La Coruña's Plaza de María Pita with its outdoor dining and large open square. We ate lunch at a Basque restaurant near the Plaza Mayor. It was delicious - see all the food pictures in my last blog post.

Juan in the Plaza Mayor

Our next stop was the Palacio Real, or the Royal Palace. The present king lives in a different palace outside Madrid, but this palace is still used for state occasions. There are several amazing rooms! The dining room can seat up to 160 people - whoa! There was also a "porcelain room" - no, they don’t store porcelain in the room, the room IS porcelain! The walls and ceiling are entirely covered in royal porcelain (think really shiny, thick, porcelain wallpaper). There was the throne room, the pharmacy, the room of armory, the chapel, and many many others. I can't even imagine living someplace so huge.

Juan in front of palace

This is the last picture taken with my sunglasses (in my hand). They disappeared shortly after this picture was taken. At least we got to walk through the palace 3 times looking for them! I think they just wanted to live in the palace. (or else the lion ate them...)

Picture taken in one of the palace rooms.

Dining room - Look at all the chairs! The table can extend even further.

We left the palace and made our way over to the Parque del Retiro. The park used to be for the royal family, but it was opened to the public in the mid 19th century.

Doesn't this tree look like broccoli?
There is a big 'lake' where people can rent row-boats, a nice colonnade, and all sorts of portrait painters, puppeteers, craft vendors, etc…

On one corner of the park is the Palacio de Cristal. It is literally a crystal palace set on a small lake. It was cool to see the prism effect of the crystal in such huge proportions and its reflection in the lake. We hung out by the crystal palace for a while and rested our feet.

Saturday evening consisted of some more tapas and sleep! (side note - when booking hotels on hotels.com they don't guarantee the type of room. We were supposed to get a King size room and we ended up with two twin beds. One reason I look forward to hotels is to escape the tiny bed I have to sleep in at the apartment. Oh well.) Oh, and I found a Cosmo magazine in English at one of the news stands in Madrid! Yea! (It's U.K. English - but it's close enough. I just have to take the u's out of some words and convert things from pounds to $'s or to €'s.)

Sunday was also very busy! We went to the same little coffee shop for breakfast - why mess with a good thing, right? We then headed straight for the Prado museum. It was free admission day at the Prado, so we decided to do that first -before the big crowds. With the exception of a few annoying tour groups it wasn't bad.

Amor statue in a park near the PradoI got a little bored at the Prado. (June, I can see you cringing at that statement. June was an art-history major…) There were interesting paintings, but I think I am a bigger fan of more modern art. After a while all of the paintings just started to blend together. They were all paintings from about the 12th - 19th centuries.

Several of the paintings had really interesting stories, like 'The Clothed Maja' and 'The Naked Maja'. Goya painted the Naked Maja first, in about 1800, but was accused of obscenity and later painted the Clothed Maja (below). They had both paintings on display.

After the Prado we ventured into the Real Jardín Botánico. These gardens have thousands of types of flowers, trees, shrubs, fruits, vegetables, herbs, etc… It was really fun to see some plants, especially fruits and veges, that I've never seen before!

I didn't know that artichokes grew on a bush-like plant like this. Did you? I looked really hard for my mystery plant from a my Lugo post a few weeks ago, but I couldn't find it anywhere.

We headed from the gardens to the Thyssen museum, our last destination of the trip. We had a good lunch on the patio and headed inside. It was a cool museum - I rank it in between the Reina Sofía and the Prado. There was a wide range of art here - everything from 18th century to Pop Art. Again, I highly recommend getting the little audio tour guide. It was so interesting to hear the back-stories on the paintings! It is a totally different art museum experience to actually know what the artist was thinking and what was going on in the world at the time to influence the painting.

After the Thyssen we went to do some shopping. I have figured out that I do not have good luck shoe shopping here. I finally found nice, trendy, comfortable shoes that I liked. The right shoe fit perfectly and the left shoe was defective. Of course. The tongue had razor sharp stitching on it and it was gnashing into my foot. That was the only pair in that style they had in my size. Grrrr. So, still no trendy/cute/comfortable shoes for me. I haven't given up yet! I did manage to find two books and Juan got a CD.

After shopping around we headed to the airport. It was a quick, but fun, trip!