One more day in Madrid

It’s bloody cold here! We are both awake early this morning around 4-5am , shivering in our beds. And where we are heading in the next few days could get colder and possibly below zero. So it’s either buy a blanket/s, or use the gas heater which we haven’t used yet (although Bob has a reluctance based on gas in a small enclosed space). But the decision is made - we try the gas heater to see what’s it’s like - and it’s a revelation!! We have to turn it down in case we start to sweat! So that problem is solved for tonight and future nights up here at elevation.

Today our main goal is to go to the Prado Museum (no it’s not full off Toyota 4WD’s). We traverse the public transport system again, and then walk to the Prado via Gran Via (main drag), which is lined one after the other for one kilometre or more, with beautiful Art Deco, Neo Classical, Modernist and other various style buildings. And it’s teeming with people such that you can kind of ignore the traffic as you negotiate your way along the footpath, and carefully, have a gawk up at the buildings (or in Bobs case stopping every 20 metres to take a photo).

Lovely buildings along Gran Via:

There are beautiful parks and a boulevard lined with trees and gardens leading to Prado Museum:

On arriving at the Prado, we see that Seniors get in half price (bewdy), but then as we buy our tickets the lady says it’s free for everyone today as it’s the anniversary of the Prado (19.11.1819 was when it first opened to the public) - so even better. We do pay for the Audio Guide though, so that’s €10, but a bargain really.

You can choose with the Audio Guide, to do a 1 hour (hello Wayno), 2 hour, 3 hour, or entire collection tour (which given the vastness of the collection might require 3 days). The Museum is quite a labyrinth of passageways and rooms everywhere - we find it difficult to navigate because the audio guide sends you to different locations at different times (not in an orderly fashion of following numbers). Anyway, we choose the 2 hour tour, which takes about 3 hours, as you try to follow where to go next. Suffice to say, the art is outstanding, and the audio helps to explain it. It is heavy with religious masters, which we generally enjoy but neither of us will likely remember. Except perhaps for the triptych “The Garden of Earthly Delights” with Paradise on one side, Hell on the other, and all sorts of weird and wonderful nudes, fruits and fantastical doing sexual things going on in the middle panel - by Hieronymus Bosch the Dutch painter If you wish to Google).

On the way out, we stop quickly (cause we need to get a train/light rail/bus home and the bus timetable is flaky at best), to look at a special sculpture exhibition by Juan Muñoz which is lifelike figures mainly, often full size engaged in a range of activities, some mundane, some reflective, some a bit troubling. Although we don’t have any photos of any art from inside the Museum (don't think you're allowed t take photos), I have included a couple of photos of some of these sculptures that are outside in the forecourt - which seem to display an unholy pleasure in a man falling (pushed?) down the stairs on his head. To be honest, this exhibition floats our boat more than the old masters in the main museum, but that’s just us. 😁

Juan Munoz sculptures:

And the return transport works out beautifully by sheer luck - 2 min wait for train, 4 minute wait for light rail, and minus 10 seconds wait for bus as we had to run across the road in front of it to flag it down.

And so ends 2 lovely days in Madrid.

Adios