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Published: December 6th 2006
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Fabulous Art and Incredible Crowds
One of Europe’s Finest Art Museums Knowing that the Prado Museum was the biggest and best attraction in Madrid, I wanted to get Kel and I there as soon as possible in our stay in Madrid. Thus, we decided that today was the day to get the Prado out of the way.
After our usual light breakfast we walked from Puerta del Sol to the Prado which was a pretty short and manageable walk despite the chill in the air. Thankfully, today was not a rainy one so we were able to fully enjoy the walk.
The Prado is one of Europe’s top art museums up there with the Louvre museum in Paris. Unlike the Louvre, it is not huge by museum standards, but what it might lack in sure size it makes up for with a large percentage of the best pieces by some of the best artists.
We lucked out and today happened to be one of the only four work days during the year that museum happened to be free. Of course, whenever anything is free the crowds are fierce. While there were definitely
a lot of people, it was never really out of hand.
Kel and I got one of the audio guides. We don’t usually get one of these gadgets because they can get pricey but in this case it was incredibly informative and well worth the 3.50 we paid to share one. If you’ve never used one, basically pieces of art are numbered and if you want to hear about it you push the number into the handheld device and then listen to what it has to say. Not all artwork is numbered but the best pieces and most significant work by each artist has a pre-recorded statement.
We saw work by El Greco, de Goya, Velazquez, Bosch, and Rubens. Not only did we get to see works by these artists, but we saw a lot the art that you see when you study art, look on the internet, or try to buy a poster by these artists. Such pieces as de Goya’s Saturn Devouring One of His Sons, Nude Maja and Clothed Maja and Third of May, 1808, Velazquez’s Maids of Honor, The Drinkers and Cristo Crucificado (considered to be one of the best cruxification paintings of all
time and one of the most emulated as well) were mere inches away from us. Unlike many other contries, Spain and the Prado have done a remarkable job of keeping some of the best work ever accomplished by Spanish artists actually in Spain. I commend them for this because most other major art countries (England, France, Italy, etc) have not doen as good a job of holding onto their masterpieces.
Parque del Buen Retiro After four hours in the Prado, we got some lunch and decided to walk through a nearby park. The Parque del Buen Retiro is Madrid’s version of Central Park in New York City (or maybe it’s the other way around?). Since today turned out to be a holiday for a lot of folks in Spain, people were all over the park which was cool (the holiday is the celebration of the Spanish constitution).
We got about halfway around the park and came to the center of things which is a monument to Alfonso XIII which has a large body of water in front of it that’s called the estanque. On the estanque some enterprising soul was renting boats that you could
row through the small lake. Of course Kel had to get a chance to play “river princess” and be rowed around on a boat. $4.75 later, we were on our own version of a riverboat and Kel was lounging while I rowed us around and around. We got some good pictures and Kel was very, very happy which is always worth it to me.
Christmas Craziness and a National Holiday As we returned to normal civilization we were greeted by tens of thousands of our closest Spanish neighbors traipsing in and around the Puerta del Sol where our hotel is located. Despite chilly weather people were out in force. I got a few pictures of the crowds to give you some idea of what I’m talking about…it was madness. To make things even stranger, people wear wigs and other strange getups for Christmas. We kept seeing these purple and pink wigs as well as people dressed in Indian headdresses, black afro wigs and various other colorful hair pieces. We asked our hotel manager when we returned what the hair was all about and his only answer was…“Christmas.”
I couldn’t really handle the crowd after a
while and we had already been on our feet for the previous 7 hours so I forced Kel to take me back to the hotel. You can be sure that wherever there are crowds, street bands, street performers, and other such craziness that Kel will want to be in the middle of it. I on the other hand would prefer a little less wildness and thus she too had to return and rest the afternoon away.
Hope everyone is well. We miss you guys and remember that people are starting to take off vacations around Christmas. Hopefully you all get some rest and relaxation as Christmas comes on the horizon.
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Christmas Hair
Are you sure you guys arent really in Oompa Loompa land. That hair looks really familiar