15 May 2011 – Madrid (Sunday)

Today we are going to explore Madrid attractions.  Our first stop on this beautiful sunny day is the Real Palace.  We arrived to get out tickets looking at this impressive and imposing building.  As we entered we realized that we would not be able to take any pictures inside so I have had to look for some on the internet.

The Palacio Real de Madrid (The Royal Palace of Madrid) is the official residence of the King of Spain in the city of Madrid, but it is only used for state ceremonies.  King Juan Carlos and the Royal Family do not reside in the palace, choosing instead the more modest Palacio de la Zarzuela on the outskirts of Madrid.  The palace is on the site of a 9th-century fortress, called mayrit, constructed as an outpost by Muhammad I of Córdoba and inherited after 1036 by the independent Moorish Taifa of Toledo.  After Madrid fell to Alfonso VI of Castile in 1085, the edifice was only rarely used by the kings of Castile.  In 1329, King Alfonso XI of Castile convoked the cortes of Madrid for the first time. Philip II moved his court to Madrid in 1561.

The Antiguo Alcázar ("Old Castle") was built on the location in the 16th century. It burned on December 24, 1734; King Philip V ordered a new palace built on the same location.  Construction spanned the years 1738 to 1755[1] and followed a Berniniesque design by Filippo Juvarra and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo in cooperation with Ventura Rodríguez, Francesco Sabatini, and Martín Sarmiento.  The new palace was occupied by Charles III in 1764.

Interior of the palace is notable for its wealth of art, both as regards the use of all kinds of fine materials in its construction and the decoration of its rooms with artwork of all kinds, including paintings by artists such Caravaggio, Velázquez, Francisco de Goya and frescoes of Corrado Giaquinto, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and Anton Raphael Mengs.  Other collections of great historical and artistic importance that are preserved in the building are the Royal Armoury, Porcelain, Watches, Furniture and Silverware.

One exhibition of note was the Royal Armoury.  Considered together with the imperial of Vienna, one of the best in the world, consists of pieces ranging from the 15th century onwards.  These highlight the pieces of tournament made for Charles V and Philip II by leading armorers of Milan and Augsburg. Among the most remarkable pieces stands the armory and full tools that Emperor Charles V used in the Battle of Mühlberg, and which was portrayed by Titian in the famous equestrian portrait of the Museo del Prado.  

We left the Real Palace to walk down the Pare Las Vistillas to watch the Regional Folk Dances being presented as part of the festival for the weekend.  Many different regions of Spain are participating since each region has their own dress and style of dances.  We were fortunate to watch a variety of groups step up and present a dance accompanied by local muscians.  The brightly coloured dresses contrasted with the dress of the men made for a really interesting show.  Amoung us we noticed several families with young children. It was common to find young children also in costume dress.  We did notice that there were older dancers and wondered if there was a concern about loss of the dances if the young folks don’t step up to learn the dances.  We are not sure of the answer.

The dancing would continue for several hours but after an hour we felt we needed to move on so headed to El Rastro for the Flea Market.   This is a flea market set up on several blocks of a street shutting down traffic.  Booths on both sides of the street sell absolutely everything you could imagine.  What caught our attention more was the absolute crush of people flowing in both directions on the street.  This likely is a dream for pick pockets and we all took extra precautions as we worked our way along.  I am not sure how anyone could have stopped to shop but people must have.

As we managed to exit the flea market street we realized it was time to eat our lunch so a park was needed.  We found a quiet park with shaded seats to take a break before we marched on to find the Museum National Center of Arts - Reina Sofio.  Today entry is free so we decided to explore with a goal to find the Picasso painting.   In the museum was running a film about the Spanish Civil war with original film footage.  Unfortunately we had to leave since the museum was closing early today so we did not get to see the entire film.  

The Reina Sofia Museum, whose official name is Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Queen Sofia National Center of Art Museum), is a national museum dedicated to contemporary art. The Reina Sofia Museum is located in what once was the General Hospital, one of the older neoclassic buildings in the Atocha neighborhood in Madrid.

The idea behind the Reina Sofia Museum was originally as an expansion to the Prado Museum in order to cover art history from the end of the 19th century through to the present time. However, later earlier painters such as Goya were incorporated to Reina Sofia’s collection.   Among the Reina Sofia’s masterpieces are the art collections of Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali.  However, the crowned jewel of the museum is, without doubt, the Guernica painting by Pablo Picasso.  The Reina Sofia also houses other famous Picasso paintings such as Mujer en Azul (Woman in Blue), Pintor y la Modelo (Painter and the Model) and Mujer en el Jardín (Woman in the Garden).  In regards to foreign painters, the museum also boasts a number of pieces from painters like Georges Braque, Albert Gleizes, René Magritte, Francis Bacon or Max Ernst. Other examples of pop art include Luis Gordillo, Ouka Leele and Eduardo Arroyo.

From here we continued to walk up to the Real Jardin Bontanico.  This planned garden had a variety of flowers and things to be explored but I suspect we were a bit early for the real beauty of the flower beds.  Walking along shaded paths looking at the natural beauty and enjoying ourselves was the goal and it was achieved.

We left the gardens to walk a short distance to the Parkque De El Retiro.  The Jardines del Buen Retiro or Parque del Buen Retiro, or simply El Retiro, is the largest park of the city of Madrid, capital of Spain.  The park belonged to the Spanish Monarchy until the late 19th century, when it became a public park.  We did not stay long in this park even though it was beautiful for a few reasons.  We felt the need for a sit down and break and we wanted to be at the Museum National Del Prado at 5 pm since entrance is free after 5.  So we did a short walk around to have a quick look, then headed off looking for a coffee shop. 

When we finally found a coffee shop we were all a bit tired and very thirsty.  However as we crossed the boulevard to get to the café we noted a very large group of fireman spread out over the entire area looking like they were relaxing.  We suspect we were seeing a demonstration of some sort but could not be sure since we could not read all the signs.  They were lounging around and chatting with each other so it was not march or anything.  The café was really busy with firemen coming over to get coffee, beers, snacks or whatever.  We were lucky to find a table so sit on, even though not all 7 together, and have a drink and a tapa.  The noise in the room was so loud it was difficult to try to talk, but it was definitely a friendly place.  Our waiter had a sense of humor which helped ease any sense of unease.

A few minutes before 5 we decided to head over to the Museum National Del Prado only to discover a lineup of people that went from the ticket booths clear down the side of the museum.  It was several individual wide so we had a debate if we wanted to go bad enough to stand in the line which could take more than an hour.  Wes convinced us to go to the end of the line and see how fast it moved before deciding.  We learned that the line moved quickly since there was no tickets being sold and what we thought would take well over an hour only took about 20 minutes. 

We entered the museum to look at some of the classical paintings on display.   Some of the artists and paintings we saw of note are:  Rafael – El Cardenal; El Greco - La Adoracion de los pastores & La Trinidad; Ribera – El sueno de Jacob; Velazquez – Los borrachos & Las menina; Goya – La familia de Carlos IV & Saturno devorando a su hijo; Rosales – Isabel la Catolica dictando su testamento; and Moro – Maria Tudor.  Again because we were not able to take pictures inside the museum I can only search the internet for samples of these.   However, I would like to note that the picture that was most disturbing was Goya’s Saturno devorando a su hijo.  On the contrast he also painted the most pleasant picture of boys playing and picking fruit which I thoroughly enjoyed.  What a contrast these two were.

We returned to the apartment having a very long day and feeling tired for tea, then happy hour and finally a dinner out.  After dinner we had thought we might walk down and watch the fireworks behind the Real Palace, but realized that we were too late.  The fireworks were at 9 and we did not finish dinner until almost 10.  So we decided to continue our walk to the palace where we could hear very lively music.  We discovered that at the Jardines De Sabatini there was a dance.  The dance music was very latin and included such as the cha cha.  Since it was Gene’s birthday today she and I decided to do a bit of a cha cha right on the sidewalk.  What fun.  Then we continued down into the park to watch the dancers on the dance floor.  At one point I helped a couple of girls with a jive move they had never seen before.  By now it was time to return to our apartment – almost 11 and we really did have a full day so sleep was next on the agenda.