Spain Day 11 Madrid- El Prado July 24, 2015

Knowing we had a big day ahead of us, the daughters and I met for breakfast at 8:15. The saxophone teacher joined us and we enjoyed good conversation with our usual awesome breakfast. We agreed to meet at 9:15 in the lobby.
One of the reasons the saxophonist was going with us was that by now, we are pretty much pros when it comes to the metro. We were glad to explain the system to him and instruct him on how to get back without us. At 9:25, we were on the train to the Bilbao station and at 9:47, we got out at the Atocha station. The weather was quite pleasant and I liked the random fountain in the traffic circle.

Our route led along a botanical garden for a while and we planned to visit that another day. Soon, we were walking alongside of our destination-El Prado.

The thing is huge! It was originally intended to house a natural history museum, but by the time it opened, it was a sculpture and painting museum founded on the royal collection. One of our guidebooks said to take 3 days to do it, but we would do it in one. It's what we do.
We passed statues of famous painters on our way to the Goya entrance.

 

Since we had a combo ticket, the daughters and I did not need to buy tickets, but the saxophonist was able to buy his rather quickly and we all got in line.

I liked these lists of artists that were on either side of the entry porch:

 I thought they were a nice touch.

 The museum opened its doors at 10 and we were in at 10:05. We said good-bye to the saxophonist, who would be spending only a couple of hours there, and we got in line for the audio guide that my husband had recommended. He got it on a previous visit and found it to be invaluable. It cost only 3,50 euro, but we soon decided it was worth much more than that.

We were given a brochure containing a map and thumbnail photos of the museum's masterpieces. Recognizing that there was no way to really give each piece in the museum its due, we decided to concentrate on these "greatest hits". We'd stroll through each gallery, look more closely at whatever struck each of our fancies, and be sure to see each of the 48 paintings, 1 sculpture and 1 cup on the masterpiece list, checking them off as we went. Now, here's the frustrating thing about this list-there is no rhyme or reason to the way it is organized. The rooms are not in numerical order. The artists are not in alphabetical order. By the same token, the rooms themselves are not numbered in a logical fashion. For example, Room 61 is connected to Room 61B, but not 61A. To get to 61A, you go through 60 and 60A. Room 62 is not connected to either 62A or 62B. This made things rather frustrating if you suddenly realized you'd missed a masterpiece and had to go back to find it. I can't tell you how many times that happened. It's a good thing, we each checked off the paintings as we went!

We do not stick together, generally speaking, when we are in an art museum. Oh, we might try to find one another, if we want to say something about a particular piece or to point out one we liked that is not a so-called "masterpiece", but, basically, we each go at our own pace. My older daughter is the fastest of the three of us. Due to physical issues, I would often seek a bench to sit on and listen to the description of a piece. Unfortunately, perhaps because it is so crowded, the Prado does not have as many of those as one might like.

You won't be seeing any pictures here of the art we saw. We knew ahead of time that they did not allow photography and that meant we'd be searching for postcards of our favorites at the end. 

There were pieces that I'd heard of and was particularly happy to see. Fra Angelico's "The Annunciation" was lovely and prints of Dürer's "Self-Portrait" don't do it justice. Velazquez' "Las Meninas" has a lot more detail in it than I expected. El Greco's "Knight with His Hand on His Chest" is rather stern and not something I'd want hanging on my wall. Bosch's "The Garden of Earthly Delights" had so much detail that I wanted to study, but it was hard with so many other people wanting to see it, too. At least one could circle his"Table of the Seven Deadly Sins", which meant you had more of a chance to see things. They really like Goya there and had a lot of space devoted to him. The piece I was most familiar with ahead of time was "The Third of May, 1808", but I didn't realize it until I was standing in front of it. The thumbnail just shows the guy with his hands up. I was happy to find a Caravaggio ("David Victorious over Goliath"), because I like that reprobate's work, if not his lifestyle.

As always in a museum that features only older art, I searched for St. Catherine of Alexandria and found her several times. One that made her truly lovely was by Fernando Yañez de la Almedina called "Santa Catalina" from 1505-1510. She has her hand delicately on the hilt of the sword whose point is touching the broken spiked wheel at her feet. A very vertical composition.

Although the Prado does not have modern art in its collection, they were having a special exhibition of 10 works by Picasso. These they had in the largest galleries that acted as hallways. Our Spain guidebook noted Picasso had been director of the Prado for a time.

By 1:30, we knew we needed to take a break for lunch in the Cafe. It is right next to the Book Shop, but we resisted the temptation. The Cafe is set up in two separate sections. One concentrates on cold foods, which are pretty much self-serve; the other has warm, which you'd ask for. We opted for cold, grabbing our usual 2 Coke Zero and 1 Coke, as well as 2 Roast Beef Sandwiches and 1 Chicken Royal Sandwich. To be healthy, we also got a flat peach and a nectarine to split. The total was 22 euros. After all that art, the food was delicious, but then we love museum food.

 

When looking at the warm food, we'd spied the desserts. We do not pass up dessert, if we can help it. We got a Muffin Sabor, Mousse de Chocolate and a Capula de Arroz, which came to 22,10 euros-more than the meal! But, were they delicious! We'd seen those muffins before-chocolate and orange, very nice. The mousse was so creamy. The rice bars were a bit like rice pudding in flavor.

Our feet were not happy with us and we'd been hearing so much about the monarchy in the past two days, that we spent some time researching them. One of the daughters read to us from the guidebook and we felt like we had a better handle on some of them. They're in enough paintings!
At 2:30, we went back to art-loving. One thing that surprised us was that in spite of being on our feet so long, our iPhone health app was showing really very little in the way of mileage. That was disappointing. I guess, looking at art is good for the soul, if not the body.
The last masterpiece on the list "Cup with Golden Mermaid" by an unknown artist, was absolutely the hardest to get to. It was in the only gallery on level -1. We were going to blow it off, being as tired as we were. Then, one of us noted it would be the only one we missed and we'd eventually feel badly about that. So, we gave up and went in search of it. It turned out to be one of a large number of pieces of plates, cups, serving pieces, etc. in a little-visited, dimly lit gallery. They were the "Treasure of the Dauphin", a collection inherited by Philip V from his father, the "Grand Dauphin". We were actually glad we went and not just because we completed the list. The pieces were amazing! Gold and delicate glass were signature features of the pieces.
At 6:35, we were finally finished with the art and moved on to the shop. That took time, as we searched for postcards and made decisions on little books about the masterpieces. I did not find a pin for my collection, which was a disappointment. As we shopped, we were surprised to see many people pouring in through the Jeronimos entrance. We finally realized that it was because there was no entrance fee now.
When we left through that entrance at 7:20, we'd been in the museum for 9 hours and 15 minutes, spending about 7 hours looking at art. Wow!

 

As you can see, the Goya entrance was much less crowded now. It was also much, much warmer with some small clouds. We saw lots of cops around the museum and just could not figure out why. We also saw this interesting vehicle:

We'd see another of these human-powered rolling beer stands another day.
At 7:40, we were at the Atocha station, which was impossibly hot. It took 19 minutes to get to the Bilbao station to change to the 4 train. However, the trip to San Bernardo was only 3 minutes.
We met my husband for a quick meal at Pandria near our hotel, before it closed. They heated up some things for us that we chose from what was left in their displays. I got Hojaldre Espinacas, which had spinach for only 1,60, a Red Fruit Smoothie and then a 1,45 Hojaldre de Manzana (chocolate cake). The younger daughter ordered an Empanada Carne and a Strawberry-Banana Smoothie. The older  got pizza and her Coke.My husband ordered a quiche with sweet ham and cheese, gazpacho and carrot cake, along with a Strawberry-Banana Smoothie. It all totaled 34,25 euros. It really wasn't bad for food left at the end of the day. The smoothies felt healthy, too.

My husband had time before the evening concert and we all headed over to the Robot Museum across the street. It turned out to be a store with a "museum" in the basement. Not willing to stress my sore knee more, I had him decide whether I should venture down. He found it wasn't worth my time. The store was good though and we spent over 30 euros on Metal Earth Star Wars items and other cool stuff.
We left at 9:03 and were back to the hotel by 9:10. My husband headed off to the evening concert, if you can call 9:30 evening.
A long, exhausting day, but so worth it!

Spain Day 10 Madrid- Palaccio, Cathedral, Performance July 23, 2015

Today, we were only 20 minutes late for our planned meeting at 8 to go to breakfast. We weren't feeling rushed, because we had no museums planned for the day. We did have to be at my husband's 5:30 pm concert at the ClarinetFest, so we couldn't dawdle too much.
We were out of the hotel at 9:33 and on the train just 7 minutes later. The ride to the Opera station took only 6 minutes. There we found a square with a couple of souvenir stands that we just had to check out. We climbed the inclined street that led to the Mercado de San Miguel. Along the way, we enjoyed looking at the street signs, which were made out of tiles and attached to walls. That's not terribly helpful to drivers who have no navigators with them to scout them out and read them, but it is easy enough for pedestrians. We saw these in souvenir shops as magnets, as well larger ones you could buy for decorating your home.

  

We noted that the last two had the seashells and recognized Santiago, so we knew this was referring to the Camino de Santiago. It was nice to run into it again. 

The Mercado had been recommended as a place worth seeing. It was not as large as the one in Barcelona, but still had too much fish. It was too early in the day to think about getting food here, especially after the large breakfast at the hotel. Still, it was worth seeing.

 

From here, we headed for the Plazuela del Conde de Miranda to find a convent. Not just any convent, mind you. A colleague had told me about the place, but could remember no details such as name or exact location. However, a Google search of Spanish convent and cookies yielded entries with the required information. That did not mean it was exactly easy in the event. When we got to the small square at 10:10, this is what we found:

  

Nothing said "El Convento de Corpus Christi". I know they are cloistered, but if you are going to sell cookies, there should be something to help. We walked down to the pink building and turned right up the narrow street and thought we found the correct number, but the door provided no information.

 

We walked back to the little square, deciding along the way, that the pink building was probably a church. An older lady, who, frankly, looked homeless, came out of the open door in the pink building, firing Spanish at us. One of said, No habla Espanol, and she made an eating motion. We said, Si and she took us back up to the brown door, still talking away. She pressed a button and spoke into the intercom. She made a motion that we interpreted to mean that we had to wend our way around, once through the door. Someone responded to her and the door buzzed. We thanked her an walked into the dark passage. A small courtyard was ahead of us.

 

There were small tiled pictures of saints in a few places. We neither saw nor heard anyone. Into one more dark passage and we found ourselves in front of the turntable I'd heard and read about. We sawa a sign with a list of items and prices. Our feeble Spanish was failing us, though. A female voice said something and the turntable turned revealing 2 bags of cookies and a box of doughnuts. Referring to the price list, we chose one of the bags and put 10 euros in its place. We were about to go, when the voice spoke again and the turntable turned again with 2,50 in change. I would have been perfectly happy with the convent keeping the extra, but since she seemed to want us to take it, we did. (We waited until later in the evening to try the Galletas, which were quite good, with a hint of lemon.)

 

Back outside, the lady came out of the doorway to us again. My older daughter gave her money as a thank you for helping us, but she gave us three prayer cards. It was an unusual experience.

It was getting warmer as we headed off for the palace. At 10:30, we happened upon a souvenir store at Calle de Mayor that had the first Christmas ornament I'd managed to find in Spain. It was a shopping bag with Madrid buildings in it and was the exact same style as one I have from New York. I found a nice tie for my husband and some other items and both daughters found things as well. 

10:50 found us in front of the Palaccio in the hot sun.

It was rather impressive looking for a city palace. The royal family doesn't live there, but they do use it for formal occasions. It cost 10 euros to get in and take yourself on a tour. We didn't bother with the earphones, but relied on the paper we had and the signs. Picture-taking was only allowed in the courtyard and in the entry staircase area.

Posing at the top of those stairs just below the statue was quite popular. 

It had been hot in the courtyard and, while the air conditioning was not great, the palace was a little cooler. We saw the rooms of former monarchs. We had time to look at the previous king's abdication letter and to visit the throne room, where they have diplomatic gatherings. 

We also visited the armory and took pictures of the surprisingly forested area to the west and south. We could see where there was an amusement park tucked into the woods. This side of town was  hillier than ours, although ours had its undulating streets.

At 12:47, we retreated to the second floor cafe for lunch. It was vaguely cafeteria-style. I decided to go healthy and made myself a 9 euro salad to which I added bread, which turned out to be 1 euro, and a 2 euro can of Coke Zero.

We took our time eating, partially to stay somewhere cool. At 1:30, we repaired to the shop, where one of my purchases was stamps of the royal family.

At 2, we were out of the palace and into the tremendously hot, clear day. There were some clouds on the horizon to the north, but that was it. We heard the only Spanish guitar of our entire trip from a guy sitting outside the gate, but he was playing an Italian tune! We walked around to the north side of the palace to check out the gardens there.

We had discovered the cathedral was directly across a large open area from the gates of the palace. It was not on our itinerary for the day, but we're Catholic, so how could we not go in?

 

This wasn't the main entrance, so we walked around to the left and paid 1 euro each "donation" to go in at 2:15. It was really rather surprisingly modern for a cathedral, but we found out it was just finished in the last century.

I loved that ceiling! A side chapel that was reserved for prayer was even more modern, but one couldn't take pictures in there.

The devotional altar on the same side as the chapel was quite impressive.

I was thrilled to find my patron saint, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, again and now with not just the spiked wheel, but also the sword that eventually was used to kill her. Unusual to see that.

I bought a pin and postcards from the shop out in front of the cathedral before we moved on at 2:50. Along the way, I bought a pretty fan. I had not been planning to buy a Spanish fan on this trip. I think, they just wore me down.
Our next destination was one whose recommendation my older daughter had gotten as being the best chocolateria in Madrid. In spite of the heat, we were going there for hot chocolate with churros, which is evidently a big thing in Spain. At 3:15, we were in Chocolateria San Gines with its pictures of famous people who'd been there, like Richard Gere, on the walls.

 

When I reviewed it on TripAdvisor (positively), I found quite a few reviews. The hot chocolate is thicker than the drinking chocolate and not as sweet. For 3, 90 euros, it came with 6 churros, which seemed perfect for the three of us until we ran out of churros before running out of chocolate. This probably explained the smile/smirk from the clerk, when my daughter had ordered.  She got us 6 more for another 1,30. They were crispy and fresh and wonderful in the chocolate.

 

We were brought one glass of water, which was evidently part of the deal, and we shared it. That was not enough, so my daughter got us 3 chocolate shakes, which are just shaken chocolate milk, for 2, 60 euros each. The heat of the day was still getting to us, even though we had been drinking the water we'd brought from the hotel, so we shared 2 slushes (like slushies) as well.

We headed off to find the bear that is the symbol of Madrid about 4 pm. Twenty minutes later, we found him at Puerta del Sol, just hanging out at the far end of the plaza.

 

Having done our duty in this regard, we headed down into the Sol metro station at 4:25 and hopped on a train 2 minutes later. At 4:31, we were at San Bernardo and in our rooms in just under 20 minutes.

The room still wasn't cool, but I tried to cool off as best as possible for a few minutes, while dumping out all of the purchases. At 5:09, the daughters were back for us to head out for the concert at the Teatro at the Conde Duque, which used to be a barracks for troops and horses and now it's a civic building for art displays, concerts, archives, etc. 

We were outside the hall at 5:22 waiting for the other concert to end. The usher waved us in during applause, but it turned out they still weren't finished. So, my husband and the flute and saxophone teachers from his university had to wait until after their 5:30 scheduled start time to be able to begin. The audience was disappointingly sparse, but they missed a very fine concert. My husband had enlarged his music and was able to see well-enough to play very well, in spite of his cornea transplant and cataract surgery of less than one month ago. People came backstage afterwards to congratulate him and his colleagues.

At 6:30, we were back in the hotel to relax a bit before dinner with the two teachers and the flutist's husband. We met them in the lobby about 40 minutes later and walked to the restaurant on the corner, el Sustanciero. The flute teacher is from Puerto Rico, so she was invaluable in deciphering the food choices and in making suggestions. We started with a wonderful cheese plate and one of cured meats.

The musicians and the spouse were going to share paella, but the daughters and I demurred, since we don't like fish. Unfortunately, it turned out to be lobster paella. That we would have tried!

 

I ordered Entrecot de Ternera al gusto, which was very good.

 

My older daughter chose Carillera Iberica c/Salsa, which she enjoyed.

After these two, we shouldn't have been surprised that my younger daughter's Presa Iberica c/cebolla also had fries.

We traded these plates amongst the three of us to maximize our tasting experience. My husband was very happy to have people to share paella with, since we wouldn't eat it and it is normally for a minimum of 2 people, because it takes so long to make. Several bottles of wine added to the conviviality.
Some of the talk was about the saxophonist's misadventures on this trip. His luggage still had not arrived and he'd had to go to a nearby department store to buy clothes. If his luggage does not arrive tomorrow, he'll be heading home without seeing it the next day. He was interested in visiting the Prado tomorrow, as are the daughters and I. So, we will see to it that he gets there.
My husband paid the 149,10 euro bill- on my Capital One Mastercard- to thank his colleagues for coming over to Spain. The very pleasant meal didn't end until 9:40, when we walked outside to this lovely sunset.

What a lovely way to end the day!