May18 just happened to be a day of free entry to all the art galleries in madrid. Visited the Thyssen Bornemisza Museum which started out as the best private collection of art in the world. 1000 paintings from the 13th Century up to the 20th Century. Many beautiful impressionist paintings that I loved one by Munch 1911 "Geese in an Orchard" which shows he can paint happy scenes.
This is by Kandinski 1922 "Untitled":
Then we walked to the Prado but there were queues and the free tickets weren't available until later in the evening. So, we went up and visited Inglesia de Los Jeronimos. This turned out to have an interior as beautiful as the exterior.
Then we walked up to the Parque De El Retiro hoping to find a place for lunch on the way. Unfortunately the cafes along the way didn't open until 1pm so we walked through the park. The lake in the park even boasted a row boat hire facility or for the less energetic a ferry boat ride!
We continued through the park and found El Brilliant for bocadillos de calamares and Sangria or beer!
Then we wended our way through the Reina Sofia Museum which specialises in contemporary art. We saw Picasso's Guernica which was part of wider an exhibition on how he came to paint it.
Then back up through a pretty uninspiring Puerta del Sol. Orange network has been effected by the cyber attack and we can't get sims for a day or so. So we will rely on wifi at night.
We had drinks in the sun watching the world go by. Lovely.
Set out for dinner at 8:30 - really getting into the Spanish way of life! Cressida found the Taverna Tempranillo and it was an inspired choice on the Casa Baja. We got the only large table and had a very memorable dinner. The best dish was baby squid barbecued in a sensational oil. The only glitch was when we ordered Loin Galicia Stone Porker. Some of us were expecting special (!) grass fed pork loin. We got thin slices of beef placed on a cast iron griddle on top of a pizza stone at our table. We thought they must have run out of pork or not understood our order. We asked the waiter a couple of times and the most comprehensible answer was "oh yes, it is very good!". It finally dawned on us that the stone and iron griddle was the "stone porker" and "loin" was beef not pork!
Then it was off to the highly recommended 24 hour Chocolateira San Gines established in 1894 for our first chocolate con churros. Simple but fantastic and very generous. We waddled home!
Walked 18.5 km today - incidental exercise - and we all survived!
Then we wended our way through the Reina Sofia Museum which specialises in contemporary art. We saw Picasso's Guernica which was part of wider an exhibition on how he came to paint it.
Then back up through a pretty uninspiring Puerta del Sol. Orange network has been effected by the cyber attack and we can't get sims for a day or so. So we will rely on wifi at night.
We had drinks in the sun watching the world go by. Lovely.
Set out for dinner at 8:30 - really getting into the Spanish way of life! Cressida found the Taverna Tempranillo and it was an inspired choice on the Casa Baja. We got the only large table and had a very memorable dinner. The best dish was baby squid barbecued in a sensational oil. The only glitch was when we ordered Loin Galicia Stone Porker. Some of us were expecting special (!) grass fed pork loin. We got thin slices of beef placed on a cast iron griddle on top of a pizza stone at our table. We thought they must have run out of pork or not understood our order. We asked the waiter a couple of times and the most comprehensible answer was "oh yes, it is very good!". It finally dawned on us that the stone and iron griddle was the "stone porker" and "loin" was beef not pork!
Then it was off to the highly recommended 24 hour Chocolateira San Gines established in 1894 for our first chocolate con churros. Simple but fantastic and very generous. We waddled home!
Walked 18.5 km today - incidental exercise - and we all survived!
