Sunday 5/16/10 Madrid

Plaza de Colón

Puerta de Alcala

Today we went to five museums in Madrid. After breakfast we strolled over to the Plaza de Colón, which contains a monument to Christopher Columbus and a garden to commemorate his discovery. Then we visited the Museo de Arquelógico, which contained relics from the caveman days, ancient Rome and Egypt and Spain. As we were walking by the National Library (Biblioteca Nacional) we noticed they had a special exhibit of old papers. Although small, it was fascinating because they had original manuscripts by Dante, Herodotus, Darwin, Kant, and others, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man, musical scores by Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, and old maps.

Next we visited the Museo Naval de Madrid, which had models of old ships, and many of the original navigational equipment and maps used by the early sailors.

By this time we were starving and found a place to eat where we tried the tasting menu. Our lunch included calamari, prosciutto, olives, potatoes, crab cakes, good bread, and ham. It was seven dishes in all. Then we just had to get some gelato on our way back to the museums.

We sat and people-watched along the Paseo del Prado and then visited the CaixaForum. It was a neat modern museum rebuilt by architects in an old electric power plant that had a cool vertical wall of plants outside containing over 250 varieties of plants. The inside, which was elevated over the walkway, was stainless steel. On the second floor was exhibit of a modern Spanish artist and on the third floor was an exhibit of photography contest winners with various sequences of pictures. The most memorable was a sequence of Pakistani women grossly disfigured by having acid thrown on their faces by men they knew. Others were war in Lebanon and war in Kenya.

Finally, it was time to go to the Prado, one of the most well-know art museums in the world, since it is free after 5pm on Sundays. It was quite crowded as many people took advantage of the free admission. The majority of the art was religious, though some showed rulers or landscapes. We saw the highlights (mentioned in our guide book) and then walked back to the house. On the way we stopped and drank a hot chocolate, we hoped it would be the famous Spanish thick hot chocolate. It wasn’t but it was still good. Once home we had a dinner consisting of soup, a small salad, a piece of bread with sausage and cheese, and an ice cream sandwich.

The best part was that all five of these museums were free (due to Camille’s excellent planning)!