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Published: March 2nd 2008
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Naval Museum
A quaint, but outstanding museum. Madrid Museums #2 and #3 of my trip! Although the Naval Museum is on one of the busiest strips in Madrid, you could walk past it without knowing you did. It is situated between the Prado museum and Plaza de Ciebles, so is quite easy to get to. The biggest hint for when you've found it is the ship sign hanging out in front of the door. The sign ads to the charm of the museum. Entrance is always free which is a plus!
I wasn't sure what to expect once I got there, and I was pleasantly surprised to say the least. There were many rooms filled with artwork, weaponry, maps, trinkets, and everyday objects like a game case, mirrors, spoons and forks...All related to sea travel, exploration, and naval war. There were four things in this museum which I found particularly excellent-one being the map of the new world that Juan de la Cosa, first mate on the Santa Maria, created. It is the first map of the new world! That was pretty neat to see and got me thinking about how closed off the world was back then...Columbus really just sailed out into the
Archaeological Museum
A shot of the front doors. The temporary exhibit was ending that day, hence the long line forming outside. ocean hoping to find land at some point; they really didn't know what was out there! The other interesting things I saw were some weaponry from the Philippines which included swords with sharks teeth along the edges, wooden replicas of ships that are about as a big as a bed (very detailed too, with cannons and everything), and also the bows of about a dozen ships, with figures ranging from Neptune, to women, to different sea creatures.
I should have taken lots of pictures but I didn't think I could. I am realizing now though that museum rules are usually you can take pictures "sin flash" or without flash. I hope to take my sister there once she comes and I'll get pictures of the things I have mentioned so I can post them up. Even though most guidebooks list the Prado and other art museums as the "must sees" for museums, out of the 6 museums I have been to so far in Madrid, this one has topped my list. Yes, it is off the beaten track and you will probably never wait in line to go in, but it was so rich in history, culture, and talent (in reference to most things in the museum!) that I would recommend it to anyone visiting Madrid.
Archaeological Museum of Madrid On the Saturday that I went to the Naval Museum I was going to tackle the Archaeological one as well, but once I exited the Naval Museum I opened my map to see that the Archaeological museum wasn't listed where it was supposed to be! The building where I thought I was supposed to be is the national library, and the museum shares half of the building. Well my map only had the library listed so I walked around Madrid for a bit and headed home. I checked the map on my wall in my room back at the school and realized that the museum is where I thought it should be, and my travel map just didn't feel like mentioning it!! Luckily I still had one day of the weekend left so I made that my Sunday mission. Usually on Sundays many museums are free, and so was my luck for this one! I wasn't going there to see anything in particular, just to see what they had to offer. It wasn't bad, but didn't blow me away like the Naval museum did. The odd thing with this museum was that if something was on exhibit in another city or country, they put a little note where the item was supposed to be, instead of taking out the pedestal and placard for it. What was even more absurd was for larger pieces, they had a print-out of what the object really looks like in place of the actual thing! So if they were missing a piece of some Mayan temple for example, they had the note saying where it was on display at the moment, and then an A4 sized sheet of printer paper, with the picture of the object and some text about it. Quite strange.
Some of the more interesting things I saw in this museum were the skeletal remains of a woman, adorned with the original jewelry and possessions found near her. I can't remember where she was found, but it was neat. There were also some archways from a muslim temple I believe, and I took a picture of one because it was beautifully constructed. Also, one of the ceilings in the museum was really decorative, so although the picture I took is a little wonky (as the Brits would say), you get an idea of how it looks. All-in-all I did enjoy this museum, just not as much as the Naval museum.
I am falling behind on blog posts, and am already on to museum #6 of my journey, so I have some catching up to do! The next three museums I'll blog about are the Natural Science museum, Thyssen-Bornemisza museum, and Museum of the Americas, plus I have to mention Plaza de EspaƱa and Temple of Debod too...Whew I have a lot of blogging to do!
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