El sábado en Madrid

Yesterday we mentioned a little restaurant near the hotel.  We had dinner there last night.  Nothing special although the local eat here and it has a pleasant, friendly atmosphere.

Our Neighbourhood Bistro

This morning we discovered Plaza Mayor.  This is a central plaza in the city of Madrid and is located only a few blocks away from another famous plaza, the Puerta del Sol which is practically next door to the hotel. The Plaza Mayor is rectangular in shape and is surrounded by three-story residential buildings with over balconies facing the Plaza. It can hold up to 50,000 people and was built to impress.  Rest assured it still does. Completed in the second decade of the 17th century it has been a market, open-air theatre, a bullring, a place of execution and a backdrop for tournaments.  In size and impressiveness it reminded us of St Marks Square in Venice.

Plaza Mayor

After lunch we went our separate ways.  Virginia now has the cold that Bruce had in London so she stayed close to the hotel, later drowning her sorrows with some retail therapy at El Corte Ingles which is Spain's premier department store.  Behind it is a tale of rags to riches.  Ramon Reces Rodriguez emigrated to Cuba at the age of fifteen, worked as a shop assistant then returned to Spain in 1934.  He opened a small shop in Madrid and never looked back.  There are El Corte Ingles stores everywhere.

El Corte Ingles

Bruce went to the galleries (well, two of them).  Starting at the Prado he limited his viewing to two things.  First, a marvelous exhibition of the works of the young Van Dyck.  While the paintings and drawings were fascinating, the most amazing was a self-portrait he had done when he was about 16 years of age. 

The Young Van Dyke

Then it was off to see the El Grecos.  Bruce said that he had never seen so many works by El Greco in one place including small but beautifully done figures of Epimetheus and Pandora.

Epimetheus and Pandora

Then it was off to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia where Picasso's Guernica is housed.  There is an enormous amount of very interesting modern art there, but Bruce had seen Guernica in New York, in the Museum of Modern Art in the 1960s, and wanted to see it again.  It lived up to his expectations.

Pablo Picasso - Guernica

One side note on all this.  When buying a ticket at the Prado, Bruce asked if he could get a "seniors" ticket and without hesitation was given a half-price admission.  Then, as if that wasn't enough, when he arrived at the Reina Sofia, it was just after 4:00pm and admission was free.  Overall it was a very inexpensive feast of art!

This was a busy sábado en Madrid.