03/16/24 Vacation Days in Madrid

But aren’t they all vacation days, you ask? Yes, but we often have things scheduled all day and sometimes in the evening. For the last few days, though, we have only done one thing which required us to be anywhere at a particular time. Other than that, we have just visited places we know, walked new routes, tried a few new restaurants, and looked in many, many shop windows. It has been very relaxing and just what we wanted for these last few days in Spain.

On Thursday we visited the Prado Spanish National Art Museum. Its collection is based on the royal art collection. We haven’t been there since 2019. Our recollection is that it was often so crowded that one could hardly move, much less get close to the art. That was not the case for this visit. I bought timed entry tickets for our visit and we had to wait no more than a couple of minutes in line before being allowed in early since there were no crowds.

There were still a lot of people in the museum, but we found it easy to get around. The largest inconvenience comes from groups of tourists who cluster around a guide and stand in front of an artwork for several minutes, blocking access. We make an exception for groups of young children who often sit on the floor and listen to a teacher talk to them about a painting. The teachers always involve the children in a discussion and the young people (less than 8 or 9 years) are actively involved. They must come away with a real appreciation for their art heritage.

There are 3 floors in this large museum and we have never managed to visit more than one on any particular visit. This time was no exception. We spent most of our time looking at art created by Spanish masters such as Velázquez, Murillo, Zurbarán, Goya, and others. There are also what I would call “pseudo-Spanish” artists such as el Greco, who was Greek but spent most of his working life in Spain, and Peter Paul Rubens, who was Flemish but spent time working for the Spanish royals. In the past, we have often gone in with a plan: I want to see this, then that, then this other. That works, but it means putting blinders on. This time, we decided that we wanted to see a restored work by Caravaggio, but other then that we would just move from room to room. As is usual with us, our brains became overloaded in a couple of hours. It was a wonderful, unhurried, visit to an outstanding museum.

The only [tiny] downside about the Prado is that picture-taking is not allowed. However, almost all of the 7800+ works are online and are of better quality than I could manage.

After the Prado, we thought we would return to a restaurant we like near the Opera house. I thought I knew how to get there but the Google Maps directions plotted a completely different route. Now I can see how people who blindly follow driving instructions can end up lost because the map directions took us on a completely roundabout path with far more changes of direction than were necessary. We both kept saying “this isn’t the way” but we followed the path anyhow. We ended up seeing new streets, and getting where we wanted to be, and had a good meal, but we could have become lost easily.

On Friday we had an even less structured day. We chose to visit places we knew but to get there by new routes. We are pretty comfortable walking around this area, so we did not bother with asking Google for directions. We went to a large department store—El Corte Inglés—which is housed in a tall building. The top floor has observation windows which give a good view of the area. I can report that the gelato stall on the 9^th floor is back in business after being closed for a while. Its closure was a disappointment, so we were glad to see it back in business—even if we did not have any gelato.

While exploring, we discovered a new-to-us Mexican restaurant close to our apartment. We went there for our mid-day (3 pm) meal. The food was quite good [“very good”, according to Patricia] and we may return on Saturday.

We head back to Santa Fe on Sunday, so we will spend part of Saturday packing and getting the apartment ready. We have to fly to Boston, where we arrive late at night, and continue on to Santa Fe on Monday.

We have not taken many pictures here in Madrid because I have consciously tried not to take the same pictures as I did in previous years.

We have had a great visit to Spain and Italy, and our decision to not overcrowd our days has proven to be a good one.