WE ARRIVED IN MADRID ON THE wrong side of Winter with cloudy skies and damp chill replacing the sunshine of Tenerife. To make matters worse we had to wake at four in the morning for our 6:30 flight, followed by a 30-minute bus ride into town and a kilometer “bag drag” to our apartment.
Kitchen/Living-room/Dining-room all in one
And plenty of hot water
Our below-ground AirBnB has no kerb appeal whatsoever but is surprisingly wonderful inside, although Cristina's taste in art is more modern than ours. The living/dining-room/kitchen is bordered on both sides by open patios and has everything we’ll need for the holidays; fridge, 2-burner stovetop, oven, microwave, toaster and a selection of coffee-brewing devices. I find it amazing that tiny European kitchens nearly always have an espresso machine the size of a small car! The bed is comfy and the shower is hot and strong!
Great Grocery Store
The neighborhood is chock-a-block with panadarías and fruit stands and we have a choice of small grocery stores. We are only a 30-minute walk from the famous Prado and Thyssen-Bornemisza museums and there is a metro stop on the corner for excursions farther afield.
Museo Nacional Del Prado
What can you expect from someone named Hieronymus?
Most attractions will close early on Christmas Eve and all will be closed on Christmas Day so we hit the Prado first thing this morning. It was John’s second visit and Connie’s third but this time we both qualified for “pensioners” half-price admission. Prado is one of those museums that forbids photos so the paintings you see here were lifted from the internet.
Francisco Goys's Maja—both "sin and con ropas"
Armed with a list of the Prado’s “must sees” Connie led us on a journey of European art. Goya and Velázquez featured greatly as did Reubens and Raphael, among others. Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez is rightfully the prize of the collection but I question the inclusion of Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights in the mix.
Bringing out my inner socialist
Actually the painting that most moved me—possibly because of listening to all 103 episodes of Mike Duncan’s podcast The Russian Revolution—is the enormous Workers on Strike in Vizcaya, an 1892 oil painting by Vincente Cutanda.
Saphires and Diamonds and Gold, Oh My!
A surprise, for me at least, was found in the collection of Tesoro Delfin from the collection of Luis, the great Dauphin of France. I am not usually attracted to crystal and jewelry and such but emerald- and diamond-studded Cup with a Gold Mermaid was truly breathtaking!
