George's Mom, Meg, and her husband, Russ, made a weekend stopover in Madrid on their way to Botswana for a photo safari(!) and generously invited us to join them there. We took off early on Friday morning in the English drizzle and emerged into the 35 degree Celsius heat in Madrid in time for lunch with Meg and Russ! After a lunch of meat with a side dish of meat, we made a bee line for the Ham Museum (see picture below). Or rather we couldn't resist stopping in a place that claims to be a museum for ham...indeed with prices like 44 Euros per kilo of ham, it must be a museum! Anyway, then we sauntered off to our real destination, the Museo Nacional del Prado (National Prado Museum). It would have been enough just to have a place to spend the afternoon out of the heat, but instead we became engrossed in the incredible collection. The collection is so large and so full of masterworks, that we had to eventually just use the guide to hit the major masterpieces by the Spanish artists Velázquez (Las Meninas), by Ribera (Jacob's Dream) and, Goya (The Third of May). Not to mention the other major European artists like Hieronymous Bosch (the Garden of Earthly Delights) and Rubens (The Three Graces), whose work I've never seen before. Six hours later we finally dragged ourselves out (or rather were pushed out by pushy security guards) and emerged into the relatively cool evening.
The Spanish dinner hour doesn't start until about 10pm so we liesurely got ready for dinner and sought out one of the few vegetarian restaurants in Madrid: Yerbabeuna. We weren't quite sure what to expect since the English menu had some quite dubious translations (macerated plums, anyone?) but it was delicious! And beautifully presented...all of our dishes had flowers on them. If you're ever in Madrid, give it a try. Don't be scared of the descriptions of salads with "cornflakes"on them.
After dinner we took an evening stroll through Plaza Mayor to soak in the evening life (see picture below). I love the late schedule that Spaniards keep...all the buskers and street performers in the square at midnight amongst all the people finishing up dinner or just strolling like we were. So relaxed and beautiful.
The next morning we met up with Dave Freeland, our friend from LA who was teaching in Barcelona for part of the summer, and all of us took off to stroll around Parque del Buen Retiro before the real heat of the day set in (see photo below). Then we toured the brand new Caixa Forum - an old power station that has been converted into a modern social centre for the city. I particularly liked the "living wall" forming a vertical garden next to the building (see photo below). After a quick lunch of spanish tortillas, we cooled off for a while in the Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, a modern art museum. Even though it seemed like everyone else in Madrid had the same itinerary as us, we still got to see plenty of amazing Dali, Miro, and Picasso works. Then the "museum leg syndrome" hit us all pretty hard, so Meg and Russ retired to the hotel for a while, while George, Dave, and I recharged our batteries at a cafe in a plaza with some sangria (see photo below). Sigh...what a life!
That evening we sought out some tapas for dinner and then some churros con chocolate for dessert (see photo below)! What a brilliant idea: long skinny doughnuts with melted chocolate for dipping! And all this at midnight! I'm a big fan of the Mexican version of churros, but I think this has it topped!
Sunday morning dawned (at 1oam) a bit cooler so we headed to the El Rastro flea market. What a zoo! Once we got through the touristy part, we discovered that the real flea markety stuff extended down all these tiny alleys. The booths included things like the any-kind-of-rubber-tubing-you-want booth and the random statues booth! Very strange! But we felt like we finally saw a non-touristy slice of life before we had to head back on Sunday afternoon.
Did we like Madrid? Well...it was an interesting city...so much going on at all times and so much history. But it was also very urban, with lots of construction going on, and no breezes or water for relief from the heat. So, maybe, go, but don't go in June! As always, you can see more photos in Our Albums to the right. Thanks again Meg, Russ, and Dave for a fun trip!
