Spain Day 9 Madrid- Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum July 22, 2015

We gave ourselves a bit of a break this morning. My husband headed off to the ClarinetFest, which was our actual purpose in coming to Spain. He would meet up with us later in the day. The daughters came to my room a bit later than planned and at 10:25 we headed down to the basement level for breakfast. It was a very white, clean room with the buffet in the center and tables of various sizes around the room. As usual when breakfast is included in a room price, we gave our room numbers, then helped ourselves. There were several kinds of juices and pastries, including chocolate-covered doughnuts, which seems to be a thing in this part of the world. (The next day, I discovered there were also small chocolate croissants, which I enjoyed daily thereafter!) There were scrambled eggs, bread and rolls. Various kinds of ham, cheeses and fruits were on offer.

We headed out at 11:30 after asking directions to the post office. It was warm with some clouds and a bit of spitting rain. The post office was closed, which seemed bizarre. By 11:55, we were in the Metro, where we each bought 10 trips for 12,20 euros. I liked this sign, which is like Mind the Gap, but a little more direct:

At 12, we were on the train, which we found to be cool, bright and modern. At 12:04, we were off at Colon and took time to admire the art and architecture.

 There was another statue of Christopher Columbus, which was the reason for the station name:

 And I thought the Torres de Colon looked especially cool.

 We then headed for the Hard Rock Cafe, where I bought the guitar pin with the Palacio Cybele (Cybele Palace), which is now the city hall of Madrid. No one was eating lunch yet, as it was only 12:20.  The exterior has a cafe, but is not one of the really exciting Hard Rock exteriors.

We headed down the street and I suddenly realized the huge building next to us said, "Correos"-the main post office! We waited our turn and then I bought 9,70 euros worth of stamps. Some were for mailing, such as our neighbor's postcard, and others were to save. At 12:50, we were on our way, happy that we'd now taken care of 2 places on our list.
In general, the buildings along our route seemed rather overlarge and bombastic. We supposed this to be due to the Franco era.

We did rather like the Fountain of Cybele in the Plaza de Cibeles.

At 1:10, we reached the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum.

 We'd researched the tickets before leaving home and bought the Paseo del Arte, which would let us in to the three museums on our list for just 25,60 euros.
The first art one runs into is the portraits of the former king and queen.

We spent the next couple of hours following the map and enjoying some wonderful paintings, many by people we'd actually heard of. They let you take photos, which is always nice.
Portrait of a Young Man at Prayer by Hans Memling:

While I am not familiar with the artist, I am always thrilled to find a painting with my patron saint, such as Madonna with Saint Margaret and Saint Catherine by Michael Pacher, c. 1500:

St. Catherine of Alexandria is at the foot of the cross on the left side in the Rosary Triptych by Hans Suess von Kulmbach (1510). And to think the church took her off of the calendar for a while!

Of course, there were famous Spanish artist's such as El Greco, with his moving Christ with the Cross.

Now, I'll grant you, that I am predisposed to like Caravaggio and to be thrilled to find out he painted my saint, but this painting pleased me for other reasons. Yes, Saint Catherine of Alexandria is depicted as always with her spiked wheel and the palm frond denoting virginity. But here, she is holding her ultimate cause of death, the sword. Not only is she holding it, but she is embracing it, both physically and metaphorically. Plus, she is not depicted as a skinny girl and demure. That is a robust body and a strong look on that face. She's a girl I'm proud to claim as my patron saint.

The museum doesn't just have very old paintings. There are some from the early 20th century, such as Wassily Kandinsky's colorful The Ludwigskirche in Munich (1908).

My husband arrived shortly before 4 and we had to suspend our tour. We rain through he rain to the cafe in the courtyard. It was 90 degrees, but the cafe was in a glass building that was well air-conditioned. There were large buttons on the tables for ordering and calling the waiter, but we weren't very good at using them. There were also small bowls of crisps that were tasty, if hard to identify.  The food was terrific and the creative kind we've come to expect in museums.
My older daughter ordered the Hawaii con Carne de Ternera, Pina Asada, Salsa Barucoa y Patatos  fritas for 11, 25. It was basically a hamburger with pineapple.

 My husband ordered the Wrap de Salmon Ahumado con Espinaca, Queso Crema, Pimiento y Aderezo de Encurtidos for 9,75. This was a salmon and spinach wrap.

My younger daughter had Especial Museo con Pechuga de Pollo Empanada, Queso Brie, Rucula, Calabacin Asado y Salsa Tartara for 10,70, which was a chicken empanada.

I had Ensalada Caprese con Lechuga, Tomate,  Queso Mozzarella y Pesto, which is caprese salad for 10,50, because we'd been eating so much meat! It was terrific!

Being careful menu readers, we noticed a special for Master Card users, which was 2 for 1 desserts. That could not be passed up! Clockwise, from upper left: Arroz con Leche Casero con Canela, Nuecesy Pina Asada ordered by my husband; Natillas Caseras con Polvo de Galleta ordered by the younger daughter; Sopa de Frutas Rojas con Helado de Frambuesa ordered by me because I love fruit soup; and Coulant de Chocolate con Hela do de Vainilla y Frutos Rojos ordered by the older daughter. We pretty much split them four ways and loved them all.

We all headed back into the museum at 5:15. My husband looked at some things with us and went back to the areas we'd already seen to do a walk-through.
There was a traditional Degas ballerina scene, Swaying Dancer (Dancer in Green). I'm not sure if I've seen pictures of it before or it is just so much like others of his that I've seen in person.

I do like Franz Marc's work and The Dream did not disappoint. And, there is that blue horse, that I have been using to introduce German art to my AP German students.

I'm also a fan of Piet Mondrian who's New York City, 3 (unfinished) is here. You really can't tell that it is unfinished until you get up close to it.

I love surrealism! I was very excited to find one of my favorite surrealists, Rene Magritte. La clef des champs reminded me of The Promenades of Euclid, because both involve a window scene.

You can recognize a Roy Lichtenstein from all the way down the hall. This is Woman in Bath.

The shop had lots of different kinds of items. I was able to find a few postcards with some of the paintings I'd liked to put in the trip album.
At 7:06, when we finally left the museum, it still smelled like rain. The four of us walked back up to the Palacio Cybele to visit the City Shop, whose sign we'd seen when we'd walked by earlier. There wasn't really much other than postcards that we wanted. I really liked the ceiling out in the main hall.

We got to see the other side of the Fountain of Cybele.

At 7:45, my husband headed off to the 10 pm concert, because this is Spain and they schedule things like that. The rest of us took the Metro at Banco de Espana, which was rather hot at 7:53. We were grateful for the cool train at 7:58. We changed lines at 8:05 at Principe de Vergaro for the purple line to take us north to the suburbs. At 8:25, we got off the warm train at Barrio del Pilar. Six minutes later we were at La Vaguada, which was a mostly underground mall of multiple levels. We were there for the Disney store. My younger daughter was in search of Disney Tsum Tsums that a colleague wanted because they were not available in the states. She found a couple, and was able to text him to check on others. My older daughter found some tea at the Tea Shop, which is a Spanish company in spite of the name. The mall also had a whole market area that was cleaning up after a day of commerce.
At 9:21, we headed back to the Metro, with many of the shops in the mall still open. We arrived at 9:28 just as the train did. At 9:47, we changed at the same Metro station. That train took 9 minutes to arrive. At 10:06, we arrived at the San Bernardo station and at 10:15, I arrived back at my room only to find it had not been cleaned. That was really irritating. The maid had been told to come back later and obviously never did. And, the room was still too warm.

Spain Day 8 Driving to Madrid July 21, 2015

Today's drive would not be incredibly long, but there was a deadline for getting the car to the rental company in Madrid. So, that made the day a bit more stressful.
By 8:15, we were downstairs for the terrific breakfast buffet. There were so many platters of meat!

 There was quite a selection of cheese.

 The fruit platters showed signs of others having already eaten, although all the tables had been cleared and reset. We had seen a tour bus. Perhaps, they'd already come through.

Everything looked so modern and chic. It was interesting that all of the cereals-which we didn't eat-were Kellogg's products.

 The pastries included churros, but no chocolate for dipping.

 I couldn't resist the chance to have peach juice, which was quite tasty. The potato fritata was very tasty. Every time we saw eggs in Spain, the yolks were orange. Curious.

On the way back to the room to pack up, I took a moment to admire the modern fixtures in the bar just outside the breakfast room and in the lobby below. They were so cool!

At 9:59, we checked out and headed down to the garage to load up the car.  It cost us 13 euros to leave the car there overnight, but at least it was safe. I took the first shift and pulled out of the garage to a grey sky and spitting rain. We said goodbye to our town's namesake, thinking it is really much bigger than folks had led us to believe.

We soon found ourselves climbing in elevation and hitting fog, which made me nervous.

We drove through a 1225 meter long tunnel and came out to great views on the other side. Luckily, there was a rest area and with 18474 on the odometer, we stopped about 10:50 for a pit stop and pictures. It was called Caldas de Luna and it was an awesome spot. The temperature was a very pleasant 68.9 degrees.

We were back on the road at 11. We drove past a long mountain lake and along an excellent road. at 11:20 (18498), we had a toll of 12,05 euros, which is a weird amount.
By noon, I was wearing down, so my daughter took over (18579). She did not want to be the one on the final run into Madrid, so this was a good time for her to give me a break.
At 1, we took Exit 115 on the A6 for a pit stop (18697). There was no food available, so we had to move on, keeping a lookout for food. At 1:25, we found a service area with the Don Paco Restaurante near Avila (18725). We soon found that they don't get many foreigners as guests. The bar area was busy and we were lead to the side dining room. I think, the area stayed pretty empty, while we were there. The menus were in Spanish only and no one seemed to speak English. We pulled out the dictionaries and worked hard to figure out the foods, so that there were no unpleasant surprises. I chose the Menu Diario for 9 euros with Ensalada Mixta (mixed salad) and Pollo al ajillo, which turned out to be chicken in oil and garlic. My younger daughter also chose a Menu Diario, but hers had Judias Verdias (green beans) and Albondigas (meatballs). The older daughter got Macarrones con Tomate (pasta with tomato sauce) and Chuleta de Cerdo (pork chops) for 9 euros. My husband went with Tortilla de Gambas (omelet with prawns) for 6 euros. We ordered a Coke lite for me for 1,70 and a liter of agua sin gas for 1,50. The first items of the 2-part meals were brought out first, even the green beans! I was really surprised to find tuna fish in my salad, but it was a good salad.

We waited a while for the rest of the meals to be brought out.

We noted that the omelet was the only thing that didn't have fries with it. Evidently, the chicken joints for my meal is kind of a thing there.The food was good. It did take a while for the waitress to reappear so that we could get the bill.
Since gas was available here, we decided to fill up, thinking that the price would be higher, when we got to Madrid. We could just top off in Madrid. It was a full service station. We got 31,68 liters at 1,149 euros each.
At 2:39, we were back on the road. There were some nice clouds, but a lot of haze. We were beginning to see more in the way of industry mixed with agriculture, as well as a flatter terrain.

Once in a while, we could even see a home. We'd seen so many apartment buildings so far, that an individual home stood out.

At 3:18, we had another toll of 12,35 (18802). Within 10 minutes we came out of a tunnel in the Sierra de Guedarrama and could see the smog of Madrid. Signs of civilization got more numerous, too.

We had a tough time finding a place to change drivers, as the city was suddenly all around us. At 3:47, with the odometer at 18850, we stopped for gas one last time and for me to take over. As we suspected, it was more expensive here-1,169 per liter- but we only needed 8.6 liters. We were on the road at 3:55. The city traffic got heavy fast. We found it very frustrating, that there were no overhead signs with street names. In fact, we found, that they were usually on small plaques on buildings on the corner. We were totally dependent on our GPS. Unfortunately, when Sarah announced we'd reached our destination, there was no sign of the hotel. I lost track of how many times I drove around the block. I became more and more upset as I tried to deal with the traffic, while we searched. We found out, that my husband had not actually put in the address of the hotel. He'd simply chosen the name, when it appeared as a choice. He did not have the address, but rather it was in the trunk.  As my blood pressure rose, I found a side street to momentarily pull into. My older daughter turned on data on her phone and found the address. They programmed the GPS and we soon found that the block I'd been driving around encircled a small park in the interior of the buildings with streets around the park and the  hotel in a building on the interior. I finally pulled up in front of the Gran Hotel Conde Duque at 4:28 (18866).

What added to my stress was that the car was due to be delivered by 5. The family moved all the luggage to the lobby and my older daughter stayed with it, while we set off for the Sixt office. Sarah got us there easily and we found that it was just a store front with no parking. Luckily, across the street, I saw a garage with a sign for another rental company and one for Sixt. At 4:45, I pulled into the first spot we found, which turned out to be pretty much the last spot. The odometer read 18870 and we quickly took pictures of the car. We hurried across the street and found out they were actually open until 7. That would have been helpful to know, when we booked the car. We did a walk-around of the car with the representative, before heading off to find a taxi back to the hotel.
The taxi ride took only 5 minutes and cost 6 euros. At 5:05, we were at the hotel and checking in. We were assigned room 403, which was in the front of the hotel and had a small balcony, which was not really accessible due to my husband's bed being in front of the door. (Yes, we had two beds, neither of which was big enough to be a double, but was too big for a twin.) Our daughters had the room directly above us, 503.

The hotel was obviously older, but the halls had a nice Victorian decor. It seemed to be well-maintained. Unfortunately, the air never got the room truly cool the entire time we were there and the heat in Madrid was quite bad. The bathroom had a bidet right in front of the door, which doesn't show up in the picture. That tub was a bit of a climb and the door really swung out into the room.

The view of the park was nice, but we later found out that just to the right was a dog park and people were out there with dogs until almost midnight.
At 7:50, we set out to explore and find dinner. We wound up at a McDonald's at 8:30, where there were major issues with the order. They were having a deal on a Big Mac with chicken rather than hamburger and we tried to take advantage of the deal and get other stuff, but the guy didn't understand English as well as he implied. We wound up with a ton of food. It did nothing to help my headache.
We were back at the hotel at 9:47, where my husband got a bucket of ice from the bar to cool down  the drinks we'd bought back in Andorra, but hadn't drunk yet. The mini fridge in the room had not had enough time to cool them down.
Both my daughter and I were glad that we wouldn't be trying to drive the car around Madrid. From now on, it was our feet and public transportation.