Madrid 2

So here it is - our final blog. I still think blog's are useless, but here goes.

We arrived in Madrid yesterday evening. Dropped the car off at Avis at the Atocha train station with little fanfare. We've been renting cars and tooling around Europe for eight years now and have never had even a scratch on a car. I guess we've been lucky since some of the streets are narrower than my outstretched arms. Kind of longish arms if I had them, but, suffice it to say the streets are tight.

We proceded to use the Metro to get to our hotel. It was easy to find where we needed to go but was a pain in the butt lugging our junk around up and down countless staircases. They don't seem to have many escalators in their system here. Much to my delight, when we got to the hotel we discovered a McDonald's right across the street. Again, let me reiterate, I think it's just plug. You know, food you eat just to get by on. In our case it was late and we didn't want to go searching for a place to eat.

Yesterday morning we got up just in the nick of time to hustle downstairs for breakfast which was included in our room rate. It was good. First time I've actually had a meal that would be considered breakfast since we left. Most days we got up late, no breakfast was included in our room rate and I would just tell myself that I was too close to lunch to bother eating anything breakfasty so I should just hold out for lunch at the omnipresent McDonald's at the center of wherever it was that we would be that day. I think the McDonald's corporation won't let one of their stores be opened in a European city unless it is close enough to throw a rock and land it either in the main plaza or hit the front door of some important monument. I don't know if McDonald's is in China yet but it wouldn't surprise me if the first one is in the Forbidden City...

Anyways, we had breakfast then went to the Prado Museum just a few blocks away. I'd been there once before some 12 years ago or so thus it was all pretty fresh to me. I just remember it being home to many a respected painting. There was a great exhibit on Picasso detailing his work over some time to produce his own version of Velasquez's Las Meninas. It's a brilliant Picassoesque version of what many would argue is the greatest painting ever produced. Anyhow, it was all a thrill. We spent many hours inside the museum finally emerging both of us with a tired and wobbly set of "museum legs". Anneka wanted to head back to the hotel and I wanted to go to...

Duh.

I just found out that Anneka wrote about all this yesterday. Oops.

So! Today we got up, again in time for breakfast. Afterwords we headed off to the Palacio Real - the Royal Palace. Our guide book says it's the third largest after Versailles in Paris and Schonbrun in Vienna. It's contemporary with both of those other two so they all share a lot of similarities. Long, long hallways and literally thousands (2000 in this one) of rooms only a handfull of which tourists ever see. I asked a worker there what they did with the other 1950 Royally unused rooms 300 years ago and they said they had absolutely no idea. It was amazing as usual - until we got to the severely Rococco styled rooms. Honestly I though I was going to vomit. There were a couple of rooms that were so swirly and golden that your eyes couldn't even focus. Anneka had asked why the current King and Queen of Spain don't reside there today and when we entered those rooms I think she got her answer. They'd appear permanently seasick anytime they were ever seen if they did.

Following the palace we toured the Royal Pharmacy. That was cool as we'd never seen one of those. Imagine room after room and shelf after shelf of jars and vats of plants you'd never heard of. If the king ever got sick his in-house "Pfizer" would just whip up a recipe of select bark, dirt and stones and all would be well. After the Pharmacy we went to the Armory. We're always amazed at the intricacy of many of the suits of armor on display at the castles and palaces we visit. Some appear very functional while others are clearly for show. I always wonder silently just how many suits of armor does one king need? It's not like the dudes ever gonna use it. Not like in olden days when the king might actually find himself out on the battle field wielding his sword. It seems like they'd have a nifty, and extremely pricey suit of armor made just to wear it and have a portrait painted of them. Today it seemed like King Ferdinand II had a hundred or more. And the swords those guys had to carry. Some are ceremonial and easy to distinguish as such since even Conan the Barbarian couldn't hoist them much less some coddled, anemic, prissy17th century king. Others look clearly useful yet again they leave you wondering how someone would actually wield them for anything longer than five minutes before literally drooping it to the ground in agony. The dang things look so heavy!... And among the oddities to modern man with the armor and the swords go the early guns. Any gun you see in a palace is one probably more for ceremony than anything else. but those too, how did they hold them and actually shoot them? There isn't even a semblance of a "pistol grip" on them so I envision one of these mini canons being shot and having the shooter take one in the gut as the gun kicks violently backwards out of their hands since they're like guns in the form of a stick.

Following all things royal we trotted off to the Reina Sofia museum, home to Guernica by Pablo Picasso. This painting is easily a national symbol in Spain and is displayed beautifully in this top tier museum. The museum also houses such other distinguished artists as Joan Miro, Mark Rothko, Salvador Dali and others.

Dali was one wierd duck, man.

But Guernica was tops. When you understand the history behind the painting it makes it so relevant when you actually see it. Plus it's huge! The thing is like 15' tall and some 30' wide. It makes you wonder how he ever got it out of his studio. Anneka did much better in the Reina Sofia than I thought given 98% of what she saw was artists she'd never heard of. We both had a great time but we eventually reached our art saturation point and took off. We found dinner at the local TGI Friday's in town alleviating us completely of the culinary uncertainty we both hate as we search for somewhere to eat. And, evening done, Europe trip done, bags packed here we sit. It's late and we're tired and tomorrow will be a rude awakening as we attempt to get up at seven to have a bite to eat before catching the bus to the airport.

It's been a blessing to be here as it is each time we come. We are sad to leave but anxious to get home to our friends and family and to our routines - so, we are ready to go.

Adios, as they say here in Spain!

Chris and Anneka