Madrid has three famous art galleries, sometimes referred to as the golden triangle of art, which are must see's for so inclined visitors.
We began the art athon on Thursday with the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza and bought a ticket that gives entry to all three of the main galleries, thus commtting much of our remaining time here. The Thyssen displays around 1,200 paintings originally from the collections of the Thyssen-Bornemisza family. Now over half the paintings are owned by the Spanish government with the rest on long term loan from the family. It was very impressive, including art from the 15th century through to modern times. I even recognised some famous impressionist works by Monet, Degas, et al.
For a change of pace we then moved on to the Parque del Buen Retiro, an ex royal park that is now the central green (ish) space in Madrid. It is a European style park, with features like boating ponds, exhibition buildings, immigrants selling sunglasses etc.
In the evening we sampled the tapas scene at the market near Plaza Mayor. The Plaza is is one of the night life action spots with bars, tapas, and general social night life through till the early hours. We sampled a few tapas - sangria, paella, Galacian raw fish surimi style, baklava, deep fried prawns. The last couple weren't particularly Spanish! It was crowded, lively, busy, noisy - a real extrovert experience!
Friday we visited the church of San Antonio de la Florida to see the Goya frescoes. The church now has an identical twin church next door which is used for church services, freeing up the original for visitors to look at the art!
Next stop was the Museo Nacional del Prado, one of the biggest art museums in Europe. It shows about 1,500 works (of a much larger collection of around 4,000) including many masterpieces by Velasquez, Goya, Rubens, Titian, Rafael, Sorolla, Caravaggio, Brueghel and others. Even though we had warmed up our art muscles the day before, it was pretty mind blowing - 7 hours of trekking through nearly 100 rooms of paintings and sculptures. Sounds great? Well it was, but with such a huge amount to take in it did become a bit of a blur.
Finished of the day like a true Madrileno with churros! Anyone for sugared doughnut sticks dipped in liquid chocolate?
And the trains...we managed some rides in between tourist sights. It's an interesting metro system, with a very extensive network. The stations we used were quite small, only allowing 4 car trains. All of the trains we saw were made by CAF, the Spanish manufacturer which also produced the new Auckland trains. The track gauge is 4' 8 7/8" - not standard gauge of 4' 8 1/2" - interesting!?
In the evening we sampled the tapas scene at the market near Plaza Mayor. The Plaza is is one of the night life action spots with bars, tapas, and general social night life through till the early hours. We sampled a few tapas - sangria, paella, Galacian raw fish surimi style, baklava, deep fried prawns. The last couple weren't particularly Spanish! It was crowded, lively, busy, noisy - a real extrovert experience!
Friday we visited the church of San Antonio de la Florida to see the Goya frescoes. The church now has an identical twin church next door which is used for church services, freeing up the original for visitors to look at the art!
Next stop was the Museo Nacional del Prado, one of the biggest art museums in Europe. It shows about 1,500 works (of a much larger collection of around 4,000) including many masterpieces by Velasquez, Goya, Rubens, Titian, Rafael, Sorolla, Caravaggio, Brueghel and others. Even though we had warmed up our art muscles the day before, it was pretty mind blowing - 7 hours of trekking through nearly 100 rooms of paintings and sculptures. Sounds great? Well it was, but with such a huge amount to take in it did become a bit of a blur.
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| Other people queuing at the Prado - our pre purchased ticket let us skip the line |
And the trains...we managed some rides in between tourist sights. It's an interesting metro system, with a very extensive network. The stations we used were quite small, only allowing 4 car trains. All of the trains we saw were made by CAF, the Spanish manufacturer which also produced the new Auckland trains. The track gauge is 4' 8 7/8" - not standard gauge of 4' 8 1/2" - interesting!?
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