Madrid!

October 13, 2009

This was the day for the Prado Museum. We were there from 10 to 2. We could have been there longer. We could have been there days. There is so much to see. The place is huge and the paintings so numerous it’s as numerous as leaves falling in autumn. I personally like the paintings with a historical theme. Many were quite morbid but interesting…like the story of Isabel. She was forced to marry a man other than her true love who was of fighting for fame and glory. When he came back, she refused to see him considering the circumstances. He dies with a broken heart. Isabel comes to see his dead body, kisses him and dies herself. The painting depicts her dying as she kisses him. Heavy. There were many, many others with similar heavy themes. I also liked two watercolors done by a master oil painter, sorry don’t know his name. There were the only watercolors in the museum. They actually looked like oils. Emi liked a portrait done by El Greco. It was actually the only painting by El Greco that Emi or I did like. It’s very famous. I’m sure you’ve seen it, a man dressed in black with ruffles around his neck and hands and his right hand is in the same position as Christ in another famous painting that he did; it looked sort of like Spock doing his "live well and long" gesture.

So by the time we were finished it was time for dinner and we had the daily menu at a restaurante Cubano called Tocororo. It was totally full. Remember the rule, “Don’t go into an empty restaurant.” Well we didn’t.

Then it was a 15-20 minute walk to the rail station. The train ride was nice, nothing like an airplane, but it was long. It took 4.5 hours to get down to Granada. In Granada it was a short taxi ride to our hotel, check-in, then eat, then sleep. Another day down. Tomorrow it’s the Alhambra. Don’t know what it is, to tell the truth, but that’s why you come to Granada.