The world famous nightlife lived up to expectations. Not in a glow stick toting club scene way but in a relaxed wandering wide eyed sort of way. Old, dark wood, wine and tapas bars, retail shopping open till 10.30, huge parks and beautiful old buildings lit up showcasing their fineties in detail.
The stone buildings sit shoulder to shoulder on the promenade each unique, with thier huge statues, balconies, domes, all decorated with mixes of stone, gold and brass. Then into the side streets, the streets are thin with towering stone apartments of different shades of pastel pink, yellow, cream, green, all with the typically Spanish black wrought iron balconies many dotted with colourful pot plants hanging greenery and flowers overboard.
The shopping got to Andy on our first day when he hit Zaras, his clothing Mecca. We spent a mere three hours deciding on a top notch new wardrobe, down to the shoes for his return to NZ. It's now on a ship to Mamas house and I am jealous of his splurge! I just couldn't think winter wardrobe let alone try it on. Stifling in this heat. There were some beautiful and affordable pieces that would put some of our boutique designers to shame, however not enough for me to go crazy. Budget is too tight. Womens wear in NZ is far better than the mens thankfully.
Now for the art. In one day I can confidently say we saw works from over half of the worlds master painters accross only three museums. Dali, Goya, Durer, Picasso, Miro, Lichtenstein, Delaney, Riviera, Bosch, Ernst, Manet, Monet, Rothko, Kandinsky, Velazquez, Raphael, Rubens, El Greco, Bruegel, Kirchner, Pollock, Bacon...it goes on! Absolutely mind blowing.
The first museum, the Prado, has over 1,300 paintings on display and apparently a total of 10,000 including the archives. It's considered one of the top collections in the world. Unquestionably it holds the world's finest collection of classical Spanish painting...who were very much inspired by bible tales.
Christ, I have never seen so many images of Christ in my life! Easily 600 paintings of Him in different torturous moments, for all of us remember, tears and blood streaming. They're fantastic and powerful pieces but did wear us down after a while and I'm sorry to say we found ourselves skipping whole sections of the bloody contorted pictures.
Mary held the number two spot, typically portrayed holding a grinning Christ on her knee - with the face of a 30 year old on a pudgy baby frame - I mean come on, didn't a baby with stubble and smile lines give a strong cue who his daddy was!? Guys.
The Prado was built in Goya's day in Madrid and has a huge collection of his works, portraiture and my favourites - the Black Paintings. He painted these Black Paintings directly on the walls of his last manor in the outskirts of Madrid purely out of his own desire unlike his other commissioned works. They are powerful to say the least. It's thought they're themed on the dark side of humanity, with themes of the Spanish war, fates, witchcraft and chaos they conjure up all sorts of feelings, passions and thoughts on reflection. Amazing. Thats the magic I hope for when visiting a gallery, inspiration.
I discovered Bosch at the Prado, a Flemish painter who painted well beyond his time, as masters do. "The Garden of Delights" is a painting showing Adam and Eve on 3 panels, in life, heaven and hell. He painted a unpredictable and chaotic world of bizarre animals, forms and acts he said 'as strange as life itself'. Looking forward to learning more about his painting, Brett, if your not already there you will like his stuff.
The second Museum, the Reina Sophia had the one and only "Guernica" by Picasso. What a moment, turning around and seeing that. Huge, overwhelming, powerful and plus some. Two guards stood at either end dwarfed, staring back at the crowd, all still, in silent awe. My eye moved over it again and again peeling back the layers of the work, the horse, the lying man, the mother and child, the flame, the Spanish bull all fratured in the rays of white light and shade. The plans and progress of the work are on display too which give insight into the forms and plan of the work. I love his individualism, through the day we stumbled upon several of his in different Museums and knew in a second that they are his due to his unique style.
Dali also blew us away, such busy works in such comparatively small canvasses. My eyes danced around his seeing new forms in the foreground then stepping back into the background. The transition seamless. One moment its a face then a lake. Such perfect paintings. Even with my face to the glass I could barely see the brushstrokes.
The last gallery we visited was the Thyssen, a private collection of Noah's arc proportions. It contains samples of the full history of the painting movement. From the Italian primitives to Renaissance, to the Fauves to Expressionists to Abstract and Surreal to Pop and beyond. Room after room we walked through the history of art. sigh....
And that's just the galleries. The other important thing that makes or breaks a city, other than an excellent metro which Madrid boasts, is the coffee. It was strong, fresh, everywhere and finally affordable. After Greece and Turkey where wed pay up to $NZ7 for a bad reconstituted milk coffee, a descent flat white in Madrid is typically $NZ2 and the best chocolate croissant of our lives only $1NZ! And the food... forget about it! A great pasta on the main drag is only about $NZ9 and a bottle of descent rose only $NZ7 in a silver service restaurant. Hog heaven.
Andy keeps murmuring about how easy it would be to live in Madrid. Its true, its right up our ally and tempting... but at the moment for us, there is no place like home and no bigger draw card than our beautiful friends and family that we miss and talk about every day. Yes alread, after our 1/3 way mark, we're talking a lot about home, what we want, and what to do. Yet we still have 8 months up our sleeve! So don't you worry, home is still where the heart is.
