El Prado

So we did the Prado again. Eight hours. Eight hours of glory. We have learned how to do these half dozen of the greatest museums in the world. You fortify yourselves, intellectually, aesthetically, and nutrionally, and then you go, seeking out your favorites, anticipating where the greatest crowds will be and avoiding them, taking breaks, taking sustenance, returning once more unto the breach, seeking ever more. Leaving when you're done and can do no more. Then reveling in the experience, registering what new you have learned, and memorializing it. So it was that day.

We paid our admission and picked up our audioguides and headed immediately for 56A or was it 56B and Bosch's Garden of Delights. It's not even remotely Spanish—it was among the Flemish masterpieces looted by the Spanish in their Netherlands wars of the 16^th and 17^th centuries--but it is always the biggest draw in this museum. Items in the gift shoppes confirm this: Vicki almost bought a Jim Thompson pashmina of the Heaven panel...would really have Thai'd things together. A museum that is home to Titian and Velasquez and El Greco and Ribera and Murillo and Goya and more! And we had it to yourselves for half an hour, and then more Bosch, and then a big Elder Brueghel that was discovered and added only in 2012. We went to the cafe for sustenance and a break, and then headed back for the tour proper, roughly chronological, mostly painting, more masterpieces than you'd see in a whole course on Western European art. (The same can be said of those other half dozen greatest museums). Dozens of Rubens; Tintorettos, scores of Titians; and then the Spanish painters. Yes, there's Las Meninas. He used only half the giant canvas! And the 3^rd of May, and Saturn. And somehow back there a Botticelli trio on a story from Boccaccio, a type of Botticelli we have not seen before.

When we visited in 2010, there was a strict no fotos policy and the staff to enforce it. I didn't dare. In 2013, there seem fewer staff, many covering two rooms, but again I didn't dare. Nor did anyone else. Much to my surprise, however, the Prado now allows you to grab pix off its website—they didn't do this is 2010—so I'll grab and post just a few below to convey our interests and delights. It's a great, great museum. We'll be back!

PS Caravaggio gets very high billing at the Prado currently; on the basis solely of his early David and Goliath (starring someone else as Goliath); such is the attraction currently of Caravaggio.

PPS "Pedro Pablo Rubens" still cracks me up!

Hieronymous Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights

3rd panel of the Botticelli wedding allegory from Boccaccio

El Greco, St. Andrew and Someone Else

Velasquez, Las Meninas

Goya's 3rd of May

Madrid

Madrid is not our favorite European city. We have tried. Our first visit, 3 years ago, was marred by the weather and a miserable campground experience. This time the weather was much improving and the campground experience, at Camping Osuna, was just fine. A 10 minute walk and you're at the Metro and maybe 20 minutes more to the Plaza del Sol. But then you get there and after walking a bit realize there is little of real interest. For us, anyway. We did a 2 hour walk--Fodor's, and, I add, the worst walk description we have yet endured. It got interesting in the last block or so. See below. We go to Madrid for the Prado, which is marvelous, but that's the next post. Or not.

The interestingly signed entrance to Camping Osuna

We had a nice lunch at Finca de la Susana

And browsed a few pig stores, wondering whether the
color-coding was similar to that of the candles at Montserrat

And here we are, now on Fodor's walk, at the Plaza de la
Whatever; note the matador trying to stir up business;
there was also a grossly over-weight Spider Man; we
proceeded on

City Hall, the original city hall, or possibly some other
structure

Things got interesting only near the end of the walk, at the
music school, with its semi-Nabokovian assertion of "no
aesthetics without ethics" and "no ethics without
aesthetics"

And then really interesting with the Calle de Lepanto and
its remembrance of...

Cervantes' loss of (use of?) an arm in "the Naval"

And then, Velasquez' apartment across from

The Royal Palace (another Versailles imitation)

And its equestrian pose of Phil 4, from a
sketch by Velasquez

And then the Opera

We even tried the churros and chocolate sampler at Valor; I
am so done with churros and chocolate now

Montserrat: The Holy Bits

The abbey and church go way back and are still famous for their art, boys choir, and as a spiritual retreat.

More of the complex; someone could do a really great
Mount Rushmore here

Another of the larger gift shoppes in
Christendom

It's the abbey of St. Mary of Montserrat;
some really weird sculptures around...

Entry to the church

Benedictine Bracket

Inside the church

Aisles lined with these incendiary devices;
it's a Romanesque church and needs all the
light it can get; well, depends on your
contemplative vs. touristic needs

Graven image in glass case

Color-coded  candles

More weird sculpture

Better suits my iconographic tastes

Green candles, there

Vicki poses for scale with the Very Large, presumably Very
Important Candles

Montserrat: The Natural Bits

Son-in-law Will reminded us to visit Montserrat, a beautiful serrated mountain and abbey near Barcelona. We visited it the day we finally left Barcelona, tarried a bit, and then headed on to Madrid and the Prado. Traditionally, Montserrat was identified with its Benedictine abbey, and according to lore, including Wagner as I recall, the site of The Holy Grail. According to Python, it was elsewhere, but that's another story. In any case, in our times of leisure and recreation, Montserrat is as much a scenic and recreational destination, honey-combed with hiking trails. We didn't do any hiking this visit--Barcelona wore our legs out--but may well some other time.

It was enough of a hike from the parking lot to the abbey

View from where we parked; those are the snowy Pyrenees
in the distance

Setting of the abbey

Funicular Not Taken

The whole massif is a pinkish conglomerate,
the giant spires of which gave rise to lewd
comments by certain members of our party

From the square before the abbey church

Looking back to the valley below; the road up to the abbey
was quite good, easily wide enough for passing tour buses

More of the interesting formations

Ditto; we saw many hikers and many trail-heads; the whole
is a national park, indeed, Spain's first national park

Ditto, now driving on toward Madrid

Ditto again

And again

Fins Que Ens Trobem De Nou, Barcelona, 3

Still more. I'll explain any on request...each has a story or many stories.