May 24 to 26—El Parque del Buen Retiro, el Prado, and Alisa!

Dear Family and Friends,

Thursday, May 24, the rains finally caught up with Martha’s head, keeping her in bed with a migraine until 1 PM to let her medicine work. What a gift to be able to lounge through the day instead of pushing herself to work or do other tasks! By early afternoon, she was feeling much better, although the rains kept coming most of the day. Dani and Martha headed to el Prado, just about a mile away from the apartment, to see about getting annual passes to this premier art museum as well as other museums around Madrid and greater parts of Spain. At the entrance, however, we were turned away as we needed to supply them with two passport photos (which we had brought many of, thanks to earlier guidance from Captain Heckel teaching Martha that it was important to have these photos along for journeys such as this) and a photocopy of our passports. We had all of these available, just not with us!

So, we agreed to return on Friday and headed into

el Parque del Retiro, one of the grand landmarks in Madrid, where kings once lived and relaxed, and many monuments and tree-shaded paths are ready to be explored. With the rains, few people were out and about in the park, giving it a “just ours for the day” feel and allowing for fun picture-taking of Dani the Statue and in usually-congested areas, such as the Estanque del Retiro lake below the monument to King Alfonso XII. We also took time to feed the birds beneath the statue to Alfonso XII, explore where a zoo was located in the park until 1972, walk by a row of bookstore shells (only two or three were open this day), and generally have a great afternoon slopping around in our raincoats.

Our favorite find in this 320 acre park (so far) was la Rosaleda, a glorious rose garden with sweeping archways of flowers and fountains on each side and in the center. Walking back towards the area of el Prado, we came across the unique statue of el Angel Caido (the Fallen Angel), which is supposedly the only European statue dedicated to Satan, and wandered through what we believe was an olive grove dedicated to the victims of the 2004 Spanish train bombings. We also learned of weekend concerts in the park and hope to return some evening in the coming weeks to enjoy some free music.

We did stop to make more copies of our passports so that we would be able to keep our originals from home, and enjoyed a calamari bocadillo (hoagie) and some cerveza at a local cerveceria stand. OH, and Martha found a 2 GB memory card for her camera for only 19 euro! SCORE! We now each have a camera to use on this journey. Our evening was perfect back at the apartment, watching the tellie and doing some writing!

Friday morning, Day 11, we were up and headed back towards el Prado, passport photos and photocopy in hand, as soon as Martha could be dragged from bed! We stopped so Martha could by a sketch pad and some pencils before hiking down to el Prado. We worked with the ticket master to procure our laminated passes that allow us—whenever we want (EEEE!)—into el Prado, el museo Reina Sofia (more modern art museum than el Prado), and bunches of other museums in the area, as well as in Toledo, Barcelona, and parts of southern Spain (they gave us a list, thank goodness).

Our morning and part of the afternoon were spent among Romanesque sculpture from as early as 100 AD and the Spanish artists from 1500 to 1850, including Tiziano, Tintoretto, Verones, Bassano, Velazquez, el Greco, and Rubens. Martha took notes of some of her favorite images, and both she and Dani enjoyed seeing

La familia de Felipe IV (known also as Las meninas), one of the most famous paintings in the building, created by Velazquez where he has included a self-portrait and a mirror that displays the king and queen, thereby making you, the viewer, royalty. It’s gorgeous. Another work that particularly enthralled both of us was Tintoretto’s Judith y Holofernes, where two gorgeously-adorned women were seen having beheaded a general to save their city. The blues in the painting, the action of the women cleaning up from their devilish activity, the blood-red foot of the woman kneeling … very interesting composition and topic.

We did not even attempt to spend all day amongst the art as we did in London at the National Gallery (until our eyes and feet ached) since we can come back at any time!!! So, we headed out to try the menu del dia at La Finca de Susana, a restaurant nearby that is recommended in the Lonely Planet. We did stop momentarily at a souvenir/artisan shop to look at the wares: Lladro, swords, mosaic pieces, and other artistry. Onward to the restaurant, we found a full house enjoying the 8.40 euro meal of two courses, dessert, and a jar of wine. Dani had the paella followed by meatballs and potatoes in a rich sauce. Martha found the white sauce over her stuffed tomato to be exquisite, and the full fish well-cooked although full of tricky bones. The accompanying potatoes, however, were also amazing. Dessert comprised flan for Dani and helado chocolate (hmmmm, ice cream) for Martha. What an awesome find! We agreed that this would be “a place to take visitors”!

Back down the hill we strolled to el Museo National Centro del Arte Reina Sofia, the second of three prized art galleries in the city. Here more modern arts are housed: the cubism and surrealism of Picasso and Dali being the central focus, but we also enjoyed works by Balbuena, Santos, and Ponce de Leon from the early twentieth century. Dani’s favorite of the day was to again see Dali’s

Muchacha en la ventana, an early work using his sister as a model; she pointed out how she can already see Dali working, at age 21, with warping images round edges (see the way her camisole falls over the window on the left). There was quite a lot of sculpture in the few rooms we explored today, but Martha’s favorite of the day was an amazing sculpture by Gargallo called Gran Profeta; she looks forward to returning with sketch pad in hand to try to capture that interesting work on paper. We also studied Picasso’s Woman in blue and Guernica, including photos taken during the early evolution of the grotesque reflection of the bombing in Guernica in 1937, early sketches that showed how the imagery developed, and a separate room with photos that showed the impact of the Spanish civil war years from 1936 to 1939.

Again, we decided it was enough for the first day, just before we got to the surrealist wing that houses most of Dali’s famous works. We intend to make next Wednesday, May 30, a full day of the art museums, armed with sandwiches for midday! We enjoyed a nice evening at home, and looked forward to Saturday after hearing from Alisa that she would be available to hang with us all day!

Saturday morning, Day 12, we woke up around 9 AM to shower and head out the door to the Tirso de Molina metro stop. Four trains later, we were uptown with some time to kill before meeting up with Alisa at 11:15 AM at the Novotel Puente de la Paz hotel. We caught up a bit in her hotel room as she finished getting beautiful for the day, then headed out to catch the bus downtown and grab a bite to eat. We recognized the square near La Finca de Susana, so took her there! No menu del dia on a Saturday, unfortunately, so we each chose our choice of cuisine: salmon for Alisa, meatballs for Martha, and veal fillet with spinach (three pieces of a leaf … they are not big into greens here) for Dani. We shared a bottle of wine and sipped coffee as the restaurant filled up. We never thought it could happen in Spain, but after two hours of enjoying our meal and chit-chatting, we were asked to leave because of the line outside!!! No worries, as we were about done anyway, and the overcast day had little promise of downpours.

Our trio headed to el Parque del Retiro, where Dani and I traced some of our path from the previous day to share with Alisa, especially the rose garden, where we sat with our shoes off by the central fountain and discussed life, love, religion, and the exciting lives of our sorority sisters in America. Alisa has changed very little in the five years since we saw each other last; she continues to be a strong, independent woman who is finding her way in a world where she has pieces of her life on two different continents. Now, she must decide whether to leave her home country once again to live in a foreign land, with a different language, and the unknown. She’s a very thoughtful person, though, so I know that she will feel the situation out thoroughly before acting, and that gives me the greatest hope that she will find her happiness. One amazing change about her, however, was that this time, she actually admitted her true age! (Yes, Alisa, you’re 23 years old. Always …)

Walking out of the park, we passed through the same line of book store shells that we had seen the previous day. By now, the sun was shining and the streets were filled with people buying books, going to book signings, and enjoying family time in this grand park. We walked out, sat down for a quick libation, and headed towards el Corte Ingles so that Alisa could look at shoes for her grandfather. No luck here, but we did try some nice perfumes. Too soon, it was time to put Alisa back on the bus to her hotel and her boyfriend, Pedro, and his family. We send our love to you both, and look forward to meeting Pedro in Sarajevo in about a month!

Dani and Martha took the long way home, cutting through el Plaza de Colon (Columbus Plaza), with its iconic statue of the great discoverer and grand modern sculpture, where the skateboarders and bike riders were doing tricks in the fading sunlight. We walked up through Chueca, a trendier part of town, and stopped for bocadillos at a place recommended in the Lonely Planet. We’d thought about checking out the nightlife on our first Saturday night, but we are old folks, after all, so we hopped on the metro home instead and were content to look forward to enjoying a night out at the discotec sometime in the near future.

Much love and light,

Martha and Dani