Madrid

Katya and I have enjoyed the sunshine and warmth, the architecture, the plazas, the parks and the people of Madrid for the last two days.  Yesterday, Monday, June 8, we slept until after 9 a.m.  After we were ready to go out, we made our first stop the Prado Museum (Museo Nacional del Prado), with its famous collection of European paintings.  We began by viewing works of French, Italian and Spanish painters going back to the mid-16th century.  I enjoyed remembering at least some of what I had learned about art history in college as I went from room to room, observing the development of styles and techniques.  Most of the paintings from this period depict Christian themes, including the Annunciation, the shepherds and wise men visiting the baby Jesus, the crucifixtion, and the lives and martyrdom of saints.  Other canvases were portraits of royalty, and a few were wonderfully realistic still lives.  I particularly appreciated seeing the works of Poussin, Ribera, Zurbaran, Velaxquez, Murillo and El Greco.  I could have spent the whole day at the Prado, but after three hours, Katya was totally bored with "the same type of pictures."  We were both hungry, so we left to spend some time outdoors  and find something to eat.

Usually we pick up food at small groceries or take-out restaurants, but for lunch that day, we chose a nice restaurant near the Parque del Buen Retiro.  Katya had a hamburger and I had a caprese salad.  (We are not very adventurous when it comes to selecting food.) During lunch, we agreed not to return to the Prado, and we spent the rest of the afternoon outside.  A craftsmen's fair is being held now along the Paseo de Recoletos (just north of the Paseo del Prado), featuring jewelers, wood turners, knitters, woodworkers, toy makers, hatters, glass workers, ceramists and leather workers.  We strolled past all their displays.  Although there were many attractive, creative and well-made items, we couldn't settle on anything to buy.  

Our next destination was the Parque del Buen Retiro.  We came upon a large, rectangular body of water, the Estanque, where ducks were swimming and people were out in boats enjoying the hot day.

Estanque

Walking past the lake, we saw a large brick building with exterior tile decorations, the Palacio de Velazquez, an exhibition hall.  Inside the vast, white interior was an exhibition called Sculpture in Place, 1958-2010, featuring the work of American artist Carl Andre, a noted Minimalist.  While I appreciated the exploration of texture and spacial relationships with large geometric pieces of wood, stone or metal arranged across the expanse of the white floor, Katya was less than impressed.  We both agreed that it would be more fun if we could interact with the artwork, i.e., sit, lie or walk on it.

Palacio de Velazquez 

Sculpture in Place

Near the Palacio de Velazquez is the Palacio de Cristal, a spacious glass structure that looks like a traditional conservatory for plants. Also used as an exhibition space, this building housed one large piece by Federico Guzman entitled "Tuiza:  The Cultures of the Bedouin Tent."  In the Hassaniya Arabic dialect of the African Bidan, "tuiza" refers to work that is carried out in collective solidarity, constructing something with everyone's involvement.  The great tent inside the Palacio de Cristal, with its bright colors, patterned rugs and soft cushions invited everyone who enters to relax and appreciate the play of light and the sound of the birds outside.  Katya chose to lie down and half-nap while I wandered around inside, admiring the interplay of light, color and design in the translucent tent walls and the floor coverings and the juxtapostion of the side and ceiling panels of cloth.  It was a delightful place to relax.

Tuizo installation

Katya relaxing 

Palacio de Cristal

In front of the Palacio de Cristal is a large pond with ducks and fish and turtles swimming in the green water, dotted with swamp cypress. The steps down to this pond were also a nice place to spend a few minutes, enjoying nature within a large and traffic-filled city.

We both needed something cold, so we found a food vendor in the park.  I just wanted a drink, but Katya ordered an ice cream cone. The man asked for six euros.  I handed him a five and then looked in my wallet for a one euro coin.  Not finding one, I gave him a ten euro note.  However, he did not return the five euro note, so he had 15 euros from me.  The cost was six euros, and he gave me four euros in change.  I told him, in my inadequate Spanish, that I had given him 15 and he owed me 9.  He began to argue with me, with me insisting on cinco and diez and him insisting I had given him cinco and cinco.  Finally, I asked if anyone spoke any English.  One woman who worked there did.  I explained in English what had happened.  She understood me but could not speak English well.  Meanwhile, the man was continuing to gesticulate and loudly insist that I had only given him 10 euros.  Katya and I were sure that this was not true, particularly because Spanish currency comes in different colors, and we both noted that one note I gave him was pink and the other blue.  My Spanish was good enough to ask them to summon the police to resolve the problem.  By then, however, I think the woman understood that we were correct and ordered the man to give us back five euros.  It was quite a lively experience!

We had walked a lot and were hot, so we decided to go back to our hotel room for a while to have an afternoon rest as the Spanish do and then go out on the streets later in the evening.  This we did.  When we exited our hotel around 10 p.m., we saw, walking in single file, a number of African men with large white bundles on their backs.  This seemed curious to us, but we had no explanation.  We went to Plaza Mayor, but not much was happening there although a lot of people were out.  We strolled over to the Puerto del Sol, where it was more lively.  In the center, a group of young men on roller blades were performing stunts for a crowd gathered around them.  We stopped to watch them maneuver around cones and jump over a row of volunteers from the audience who were lying side by side on their backs.

We bought some food to eat and continued to stroll around the square.  Soon, it became clear to us what the black men with white bundles were doing.  They were making there way to Puerto del Sol.  Inside their bundles were either hats, purses, fans, clothing or other types of merchandise.  When they dropped the bundles on the pavement, they opened up into large, rectangular pieces of cloth about the size of bedsheets.  A continuous cord was strung inside a seam along the perimeter of the white cloth, with four connected cords running from each corner to meet above the center of the cloth so that the sheet made the bottom of a four-sided pyramid and the loose cords connected in the middle created the vertices of the four non-existent faces.  The men held on to or kept within reach the center where they all came together (the peak of the pyramid).  About a dozen of these men had just set up shop in a row along the side of the plaza when a police car approached, heading straight for them from one end.  With a quick flick on their wrists, the merchandise displays became non-descript bundles in a flash.  Obviously, this avoidance of the police was just for show, however, as they immediately put out their wares again, in the blink of an eye, after the cruiser turned a corner.  We figured that either they (1) are not licensed to sell on the streets; (2) are selling stolen goods; or (3) are illegal immigrants.  Perhaps all three apply.  They did not seem happy when I snapped a photo!  We quickly exited the plaza and returned to the safety and quiet of our hotel.

Illegal vendors, Puerta del Sol

This morning, Tuesday, June 9, our plan was to visit the Palacio Real de Madrid first.  We stopped along the busy Calle Colegiata to look in shops.  One fascinating place was a store where people ordered belts made to their specifications.  In the shop window and inside, there was a vast array of belt buckles, ornaments and leather.  There were several customers, each being individually attended to by a craftsman.  This was something neither of us had ever seen before.

Before reaching the palace, we stopped in a supermarket for breakfast on the run as well as two churches.  The first was the Iglesia Catedral de las Fuerzas Armadas de Espana.  Fairly non-descript on the outside, it is filled with Baroque altars gilded in glistening gold, frescoes and paintings.

This lovely little church stands in stark contrast to the nearby enormous Cathedral de Santa Maria la Real de La Almudena, the seat of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Madrid.  Soaring columns support vaulted ceiling painted in vibrant geometric designs.  Modern stained glass windows create prisms of lights on the marble floors.  Although construction of the current cathedral began in the late 19th century, it was only completed a couple decades ago, consecrated in 1993.  Particularly outstanding is an elevated altar to Santa Maria de La Almudena, with its gold statue, silver angels and stunning paintings framed in gold.  The size and the vibrant colors of this cathedral are awe-inspiring.

Santa Maria de La Almudena

Vibrant colors in the Neo-Gothic Cathedral of Madrid

Past the Cathedral is the Palacio Real de Madrid.  We were disappointed to find that it was closed for the day because of some official event.  We will return on Wednesday.  We had planned to stay at the palace for a couple hours and then go to the Sorolla Museum.  With time to kill, we decided not to take the metro but to walk there, even though it was a few miles.  This allowed us to see the bustling shopping area of the Called Gran Via, where we poked into a few shops.  This brought us again to the Plaza de Cibeles and the craft vendors along the Paseo de Recoletos, where we had been the previous day.  The Paseo de Recoletos turned into the Paseo de la Castellana as we continued north.  When we reached the Ruben Dario metro stop, which I knew was near the museum, I asked for and understood directions in Spanish!

Only a few blocks away (derecho and then izquierda), we found the museum, the former home of the famous Spanish painter Joaquin Sorolla.  I was not familiar with his work, but the museum has good reviews, and we were not disappointed.  We entered through a lovely garden with water features, Spanish tile work and carefully shaped shrubbery.  His former home includes three gallery rooms of his paintings, some of the family's living space, including the living and dining rooms (which he designed) and another exhibition space with sketches in charcoal and pencil alongside finished paintings, showing the progression of his work from studies to final products.  Most of his paintings are of his family, gardens or the seashore, done in an Impressionistic manner (one of my favorite styles).

Sorolla's studio

Sorolla's studio

mantle in the dining room of Sorolla's house

We were too exhausted to walk back to the center of the city, so we took the metro.  Katya wanted potstickers again, so we searched out the small Chinese restaurant.  It was after 4 p.m., and the staf was getting ready to close for the afternoon (in order to re-open for business later when the Spanish natives eat), so we got take-out and ate it at the nearby Paseo del Prado.

The only thing left on our agenda for the day was a visit to an exhibition of origami at the Imprenta Municipal-Artes del Libro on Calle Concepcion Jeronima.  I knew that this street was between Tirso de Molina and Puerta del Sol, so we thought we would be able to find it on the way back to the hotel. We followed several streets and even asked directions, but when we got to Puerta del Sol, only a few blocks from our hotel, we gave up.  At the top end of the short street where our hotel is located, we found the Calle Concepcion Jeronima!  It intersects!  And we had walked right by the museum when we left the hotel in the morning.

The origami exhibition is a temporary installation featuring intricate pieces from artists from around the world.  It was really worth finding.  On the ground floor of the museum is a permanent exhibit on the history of printing and book-making.  This also was fascinating, although my understanding of all the exhibits was limited since all the explanations were only in Spanish.  I was amazed at the variety of printing presses on display as well as the beauty of some early leather-found volumes.

And so, we ended our day and spent the evening resting in the hotel.  I have caught up with my blogging.  Tomorrow we will visit the Palacia Real de Madrid before catching a train to Granada.

Buenes noches!