May 9, 2024
Buenas Dias Madrid
Jet lag is gently moving on for both of us. This morning, we woke at about 4am, considered briefly if it was wise to rise and then decided it was best to rest. The next thing we knew, it was 8 am and the murmurs of the waking city could be heard through the soundproof windows. Chalk up a second night of good sleep for both of us.
Our plan for today was to assemble the bikes and visit the Reina Sofia Museum to see Pablo Picasso’s Guernica painting. Note that ‘our’ in the first half of that sentence refers to the team’s bike mechanic, the one, the only… David. He chose the afternoon time slot for bike assembly so that meant we’d visit the museum in the morning.
The museum didn’t open until 10am so we had plenty of time for a lazy start which involved crossing the alley beside the hotel to a small breakfast joint where we had orange juice, cafè con lechè and scrambled eggs with bacon and toast.
At about 9:30 we made our way in the pleasant warm breeze towards the closest Metro station, Gran Via. It was just 3 blocks from our hotel. We could have walked to the museum, but chose to give the metro a try this morning. It’s a great way to get around Madrid if you’re ever here. We found our way to the underground line that passes the Reina Sofia and waited for a couple of minutes for the train to arrive. They run every four minutes at this time of day. Oddly enough there were not a lot of people using metro which was fine by us.
After 4 metro stops, we got off and worked our way up to the street level. The Atocha train station, Madrid’s (if not Spain’s) largest train station, was situated just across the street and the museum just across from the station. It was all rather compact and convenient, albeit noisy as the buildings are separated by grand avenues pulsing with traffic.
I’d learned just this morning that the museum is free to seniors over 65. It was our second such treat of this trip (the first being the BC. Ferries). When we arrived, there was a short line to get in which quickly dissipated when the doors opened at 10. We flashed our driver’s licenses reached the front of the queue and were ushered in to the museum.
The Reina Sofia is a large four storey stone building with a large central courtyard where you can wander through the garden or take respite on a bench to admire several 3d sculptures. Our legs were fresh so we made a bee-line for Pablo Picasso’s Guernica, along with most of the other visitors. The nearby rooms had paintings, posters and magazine covers from the 1936-1939 period in Spain. It was a turbulent time, to say the least, and artists portrayed the strong emotions of that time in their work. I found some of it chilling and I felt woefully ignorant of that period in history but fumbling my way through the French magazine articles left part of me wanting to learn more about what went on in the Spanish Civil War. Another part is not sure.
The 1937 Guernica painting is an education unto its own. I only learned about this painting when we visited Spain, (including Bilbao) in 2016. Ever since then, it’s lingered impn my thoughts as something I would like to see in person. And today was the day.
The painting is large and imposing at 11 1/2’ x 25 1/2’ and portrays the suffering, violence and chaos experienced by the citizens of Guernica when their town was bombed in April 1937. About half the visitors today held up their phones to take photos and half stood and gazed, as did I. Some alternated, phone up, phone down.
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6 months ago
In addition to Picasso’s paintings (there are others besides Guerinca), we took some time to see the surrealism pieces by Salvador Dali and others.
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I found it interesting to see two groups of school children, probably just grade ones, getting a lesson in art at the museum today. They were all sitting cross-legged in front of one of two abstract paintings, engaged with their teachers as they were being asked questions about the paintings. Very impressive, indeed. Well done, teachers… and kids!
We were done by 12:30, so ducked back to the metro and back to the hotel room, where David set about assembling the Bike Fridays. Meanwhile, I wrote in the journal. Once the bikes were assembled, we packed our carry-on bags inside the suitcases, along with ither items we won’t need while we are on tour, and took them down to the front desk. The hotel will store them for us until we return at the end of the trip, at which time today’s ritual will be done in reverse.
We headed out for a stroll at about 6:30, winding our way along the small neighborhood streets to a small plaza for tapas and beer. There are endless such places to walk here. The streets and sidewalks are in excellent condition and they are clean. The store fronts often draw you in to have a closer look, like the glove making place shown below. If new fashion is tpyoir thing, there are plenty of those shops as well.
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6 months ago
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6 months ago
6 months ago