I started the morning by taking the metro to Puerta del Sol, which is pretty much the center of the city. I saw workers dismantling the large Christmas decorations there. This is also where you can see the statue of Madrid’s symbol, a bear sniffing a madrone tree.
From there it is a short walk to the Plaza Mayor, which is huge and impressive.
From there I headed towards the Museo del Prado, and saw an interesting storefront and a plaza with a monument to Calderón de la Barca. An exhibit of famous Spanish actors had been set up in the plaza.
The Museo del Prado was my next stop. I avoided the lines by buying an entrance ticket online. The ticket is for a particular time of day, so do not arrive late. Here are some pictures around the area of the museum.
I don’t have any pictures from inside the museum, since photography is prohibited. I finally saw Bosch’s “Garden of Earthly Delights” in person. It’s truly amazing and large, but (yeah, you guessed it), not as big as I thought it would be.
If you go there, you definitely should see the Treasures of the Dauphin (rooms 100-102). I rate them four stars out of four. On the other hand, the cabinet paintings and the stuff on the third floor (rooms 85-94) scores negative three stars out of four.
Lots of religious art. I have now seen quite enough of adorations of the Magi—although Bosch’s version manages to add a few really creepy elements, much to my delight—Christ getting his crown of thorns, Christ getting put up on the cross, Christ on the cross, and Christ being taken down from the cross to last me for a long time. Enough, already.
I also learned that King Carlos III had a very impressive nose, and that King Felipe IV looked very much like the late American actor Fred Gwynne. And you thought I didn’t have any culture.
I walked north to the Puerta de Alcalá and Plaza Independencia, which took me past the Telecommunications Palace and the Crystal Gallery, which used to be parts of the royal palace.
The Crystal Gallery was part of the Royal Palace in the 17th century, and was a recreational garden in the 19th century. It is now a walking area and patio of the Palace of Telecommunications, covering 2300 square meters. (This is according to a sign that I saw there.)
The arch at Plaza Independencia near Puerta de Alcalá was built by King Carlos III in 1778.
Turning east, I soon got to the Parque del Buen Retiro, or “park of the pleasant retreat,” which is Madrid’s equivalent of Central Park.
Despite the cold weather (3°C/38°F), there were quite a few people out walking their dogs, watching street performers, enjoying puppet shows with their children, and getting psychic readings.
The park is also replete with fountains and memorials. Only a few pictures of these here; you are probably getting tired of them too.
This building housed an art exhibit by René Daniëls: “An exposition is always part of a larger whole.” Entrance to this museum, part of the Museo de la Reina Sofia, is free. When I came in, they gave me a ticket for free entrance to the main museum; I’ll probably go there tomorrow.
Leaving there, I passed a large stone sculpture before arriving at the Crystal Palace (not to be confused with the aforementioned Crystal Gallery). According to a sign out front, the palace was built in 1887 as part of the Exposition of the Philippines. It’s 22.6 meters tall.
It was housing an exhibit called “Written in the celestial bodies” by Soledad Sevilla. It consisted of a large blue screen inside the main building. The pictures don’t do it justice—it was really a great effect. The close-up picture shows that the screen wasn’t just solid blue.
I headed out of the park to the Atocha rail station, passing a bridge over a stream and either a sculpture or a wooden play area that was now badly broken.
I took the Metro to the Gran Vía station, and from there walked past the Museum of history, then up Calle de Bravo Murillo back to the hotel. (This was a long walk.) Along the way, I stopped for a late lunch at a place that had paella. It was a little hole in the wall, and the odd smell inside should have warned me off. The paella was a plate of rice with pork and one shrimp. Not worth the money, but this will at least teach me not to go to places that are rated two stars by The Goops.
Here are a couple of pictures where you can see new and old things near each other. The first is at the Puerta del Sol; the second is near the Museo del Prado.
The Metro has some very clever signs. The first one says:
More for Less. You won’t find another Metro in the world that offers so much for so little. WIth this ticket we put at your service:
- 292.4 km of rail
- 300 stations
- 308 trains running each hour
- 508 elevators
- 1,691 escalators
- 690 commercial supervisor
- 1,800 security agents
Madrid Metro. The best Metro in the world. Use it.
The main text of the second poster is “The line that answers your questions.”
I passed by this sign announcing an expansion of the high speed rail system, and noticed the amount of investment: 200,946,908.01 €. I’m sure that extra .01 euro will make all the difference.
Here’s Axe body deodorant, keeping it classy as usual. Hover over the picture to see the translation.
Here are signs with a cat and a dog. The first is on a restaurant/bar, the second is on the lawn at the Museo del Prado.
Here are some store signs. The second one is for a hair salon. I like the stylized euro symbol on the iberCaja (bank), and really liked the Saint Bernard on the San Bernardo (Saint Bernard) Auto School. The last one caught my attention, though I didn’t care for the look.
The first picture shows the symbol for Bank of Madrid (sorry about the bad focus). The second shows an ATM defaced by graffiti artists. The text reads, “This bear steals your money.”
And finally, this “wanted” poster from the CGT, an Anarcho-Syndicalist trade union. The people are executives of large banks, and the number at the right of each picture is their salary in millions of euros. The text reads: “They get luxury salaries; the employees don’t get an agreement. / For a dignified agreement.”
