The Prado and beyond

Friday May 13, 2011                                        Day 317

We had breakfast at a little bakery/teashop a few blocks from our hotel, where Roger had a mini empanada and we each had a croissant stuffed with dulce leche. They were both quite good - Roger shared a bit of his empanadailla with me and I found it to be quite tasty - it was filled with spicy meat. My back was bothering me, so we returned to the hotel so that I could do back exercises before we went on to tackle the Prado.

The Prado contains art from about the 16^th century to the 19^th century. We saw lots of Valasquez paintings - they are proud of their native son. There were a number of Van Dykes and a large collection of Reubens works. Later works have all been moved to the Reina Sophia museum which we visited yesterday. The Prado really wore me out. It was probably the cumulative effect of two days in a row of museuming. 

At the Prado we saw several groups of students with their teachers. Often
the whole group had colored paint or chalk on their noses - even the teachers -
apparently so they could be identified with their group if they got separated.
It is unfortunate that this photo is so blurry, but you can see two children with blue noses.

Roger and I continued our interesting discussions about what constitutes art. I asked myself several times in the museum why these pieces are good art. I have determined that I like plebian art the best - that of the common man, by the common man, for the common man. I have only a limited appreciation for mythical and allegorical art, religious art, and the paintings of kings and queens and aristocracy. Give me a good Van Gogh any day.

Lunch was at an outdoor café across the street from the Prado, where we were serenaded by street musicians. I spent 20 Euros on a CD which was so bad that we later abandoned it when we left France! From there we retreated up the street to the subway and returned to our hotel, quite worn out. I napped for an hour or so while Roger read. This is an unusual turn of events for us - usually I read or work on the computer while Roger naps.

Our luncheon serenaders

Someone painted a "shadow" of this post on the sidewalk -
note that it does not match the post!!

We had dinner at an Italian restaurant, and it was quite good. We waited until almost 9:00 to even leave the hotel, and when we arrived shortly after the hour, they were seating patrons for dinner. Among my choices were a tomato soup with roquette sorbet, which was quite interesting. The combination of tomato soup with a scoop of slightly sweet, roquette-flavored ice cream, was unexpected, to say the least. As always in European restaurants, we had trouble getting our bill so we could pay and leave. Indeed, it took us 20 minutes from the time we finished our dessert and began looking for our waiter until we were able to walk out after paying the bill. Apparently most of the restaurants do not expect to turn their tables over in an evening, and the patrons kick back and take their time to enjoy their meals and each other’s company.

We did not get back to the hotel until after 11:00, and we stayed up only a little longer before dropping into bed. Unfortunately, the walls of room were too thin - at 4:00 a.m. we could still hear a couple of guys talking.