Your pre-theatre blog from Madrid: mannerism, models, me, and modern literature.

---

A lovely day in Madrid. Sunny and 20 degrees. Many Madrilenos were actually able to take off the puffy coats they were wearing when it was chilly earlier this week. Last week, when it was 9, we saw a female police officer on duty outside a government office with a scarf pulled up over her nose (Susan assures me that scarf was not uniform issue, either) and she wasn't the only one!

Back to the Thyssen, thinking we had bought a year's pass to the museum. Traffic was thick - this is the Friday of a long weekend. Our driver had a lot of work to get through the crowds. Tipped him 25% - two whole euros on an 8 euro fare. Got a huge smile for that. Wish I had given him more but all I had was a 10.

Museum passes were one admission only. Damn. Bought new tickets anyway. We really wanted to see the rest of the collection. It is so much better presented than at the Prado. Even the old masters are sympThetically lit and you don't have to strain your eyes to see them in typical dim museum lighting. Also the crowds are considerably less while the collection is scarcely less great. I took pictures of almost everything until I ran out of energy.

One thing: there is a double height portrait of the duchess of Sunderland. The artist has stretched and distorted her body so she looks elegant instead of alien. I had just finished taking a picture To prove that when I saw a young woman down the gallery hall. Thin, blond, and maybe six two, she was also wearing six inch heels. Picture me turning back to look at her grace and then back at the fashion model down the way.

Okay, so maybe I was wrong a bit. I include pictures of both. Decide for yourselves.

Also, the museum had an exhibit on the Legends of the West going up: largely photos of First Nations peoples with the occasional cowboy thrown in. To celebrate and advertise, they had put up a tipi outside the front door. I was wearing my black Stetson to keep my bald little head from burning.

Oho, says I to myself. Legends of the West is it now?

How could I resist? Susan is not to blame for the photograph. I made her do it.

Then we went off for lunch to Casa Alberto, a 190 year old restaurant whose premises were a tavern as far back as 1600. Cervantes wrote part of Don Quixote here - the first novel ever in a European language and still regarded as one of the best novels ever written. How on earth did he ever come up with the idea?!

Part of this blog was written there! hindered by our abrupt and efficient waiter who kept moving things like he owned the table. He put our drinks down in the table and rushed off. Moments later, after we had had our first sips and put our glasses down where he had placed them originally, he came bustling over and moved them a foot further over, away from the busy aisle. "Move inside," he announced, talking fast. Then off he went again.

Okay. Hm.

The food was excellent and reasonably priced. Potato salad with aioli for tapas. Then "ravioli" of slices of zucchini wrapped around ground lamb flawed with fresh lemon thyme, sautéed wild mushrooms with Gorgonzola sauce and finally a piece of cod on a bed of sweet peppers, sun-dried tomatoes and olives. All of this with two glasses of wine each set us back only 35 euros.

I'll bet Cervantes wouldn't have had his drink moved.

Last pic is of African peddlers at the plaza near us. All of what they are selling is illegal knock offs. What you probably can't see is how each has his goods laid out on one piece of Cloth. Each holds a rope which is tied to the four corners of the cloth and the sellers - 8? 10? Of them - face outward in a circle. If the police arrive, they pick up the rope, the goods are held In an instant bag and they take off like grayhounds. We saw such a chase one night: the cops had no chance of outrunning these guys!

Tonight we go off to Las Carboneras for our flamenco show. I have heard that it is touristy but of excellent quality. Kind of like us.

Report tomorrow.

Tim

---