Madrid's Mercado San Miguel

After the incident with the suckling pig we walked around and to the nearby Mercado San Miguel. It is Madrid's oldest market but was recently renovated and converted into a tapas shopping mall extravaganza. It is large and interesting because, instead of 20-30 different tapas joints, all serving pretty much the same things, you have 20-30 specialized tapas joints. Seafood here, jamon there, olives there, caviar here. (Caviar?!) See below. In any case, we resolved to come back for another dinner-on-a-stick after our visit to the Thyssen. And we did.

Us, there

Has the whole world gone mojito?!

Welcome to the seafood department!

Olives tapas, with jamon, salmon, squid, cheese...

We think this might have been Japanese tapas

Potato chip tapas

Turkish tapas, the pistachio particularly tempting

So from this bin, I predict that tapas/pinxtos soon will be known simply as "shots"--
food shots--more alluring to the younger American tourist

Caviar shots

Mozzarella shots

From the Mozzarella bar

What youngsters do while parents take shots

Sangria on tap

Wine guy

After the olives shot, I had this seafood shot

There is exactly one market type store in the market; here, a beautiful pyramide
under construction; cherry shots?

Black rice paella; I do not understand why (some) people think paella is such a
big deal

Yogurt shots; read the label

Pizza tapas; I mean, shot

Avid customer

Coffee shots

We thought we might end it all with a shot each of Ginja, the incredibly wonderful
Portuguese cherry liqueur; but this was a watered-down abomination, not even
served in a chocolate cup

So we repaired to the Amorino's across the street; a great ending to a great day

Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2

Continuing our visit to Madrid's impressive Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza; the pix I've posted only suggest its vast range and mostly omit the modern stuff...

Pedro Pablo, The Toilet of Venus

Rembrandt, Self-Portrait #4,627

Jan Steen, Tavern Scene; notice the guy in
back; we'll see him again 

Eugene Boudin, Etretat, Cliff of Aval

Albert Bierstadt, Sunrise at Yosemite, 1863; Thyssen has many
Bierstadts

A Russell! Charlie Russell, Piegans Preparing to Steal Horses
from the Crows, 1888

One of many of Frederick Edwin Church's paintings at the
Thyssen, South American Landscape, 1856

Toulouse-Lautrec, The Jockeys, 1882

Gauguin, Fire st the River Bank, 1886

Franz Hals, Fisherman Playing the Violin,
1630

Another, somewhat atypical Franz Hals, Family Group in a
Landscape, 1640s

Remember the guy from the Tavern Scene?
Here he is, Jan Steen, Selfie, 1650s

Watteau, The Rest, 1709

And a Fragonard, The See-Saw

Stuart Gilbert, Portrait of George Washington's
Cook, 1797

One of many John Singer Sargents, Portrait
of Millicent, Duchess of Sutherland, 1904

One of many Catlins, Falls of St. Anthony, 1871

Delacroix, The Duke of Orleans Revealing to
the Duke of Burgundy His Lover, 1826;
possessive pronouns are really tough

A magnificent Courbet, The Water Stream,
La Breme, 1866

Van Gogh, The Stevedores of Arles, 1888

Another Van Gogh, Evening Landscape, 1885

Edward Hopper, Hotel Room, 1931; as I was looking, up came
two young American women, both pushing strollers with
face-painted 3 year-olds aboard:"Mommy loves Edward Hopper
paintings" "I love Edward Hopper, Mommy"

Georgia O'Keefe, New York with Moon, 1925

Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, 1

Madrid has three large and famous art museums, the Prado, the Reina Sofia (Guernica and more), and the Thyssen-Bornemisza. For reasons we can not imagine, much less remember, we had never been to the Thyssen, and so, after a day's rest and relief from Goya and El Greco, we spent most of a day at the Thyssen, being overwhelmed by the size and quality of the collection and the visiting special collection of masterworks from the Museum of Fine Arts/National Gallery from Budapest. The Thyssen is very young as major museums go, just 25 years, but almost every historically great painter is represented in some form or another. In a couple of its many halls are the largest collection of American (USA) paintings we have seen in Europe. I took 260 pix at the Thyssen, but will heroically edit them down to 40 or so, more or less chronologically. There were many discoveries, many curiosities.

Entering the Thyssen-Boremisza; the big 3 story building is
on the left

NO FOTOS in the special visiting collection; understandably;
complete photographic freedom in the regular collection

Christ and the Samaritan Woman, Duccio de Buoninsegna,
yes, that Duccio; 14th century

Rogier van der Weyden, Madonna Enthroned

Jan van Eyck, Annunciation diptych

Holbein, Jr., Henry VIII

Domenico Ghirlandaio, Portrait of Giovanna
Tornabuoni, late 15th

It's been a long time since we've seen a real Della Robia, here,
Saint Augustine

It's a gorgeous museum, excellent display, all the amenities; the
gift shoppe is exceptional; the cafe/cafeteria maybe the best we
have seen

Leonardo Da Vinci, Virgin and Child with the
Infant John

Ha! Fooled you! It's Luini again!

Cranach, Virgin with Child Eating Grapes;
notice the Child's head is way too big

Albrecht Durer, Christ among the Elders

Cranach again, Reclining Nymph

Hans Baldung Grien, Adam and Eve, 1531; you
can see they were heading for trouble

Cranach's portrait of Charles V

Among the things we've learned on this trip is to look for
paintings by Joachim Patinir, a pioneer of landscape painting;
here, his Landscape on the Flight to Egypt, 

A c. 1570 Last Supper once attributed to El Greco; before
he became El Greco

Francois Clouet, La Carta Amarosa, 1570

Caravaggio, St. Catherine of Alexandria, 1597

Claude Lorraine, of course, Landscape with
Flight to Egypt

A Canaletto that is not of the Grand Canal! Warwick Castle,
1749

Peter Brueghel, Elder, Storm on the Sea of Galilee, 1596