madrid

 

Friday, June 25th

We started off the morning early with a delicious breakfast at the hotel. Perfect in every way, except bacon should not be cold, limp, and flat. I questioned if it was even cooked at all. Following breakfast we headed off to tour the Prado Museum. The Prado holds more than 3,000 paintings. Francisco de Goya is the most well known painter and has entire rooms dedicated to his works.  It also holds the Las Meninas by Diego Velazquez, which Rick Steves reports to be “considered by many to the be world’s finest painting, period”. Our tour guide spoke mostly in Spanish and well my Spanish 1001 education was far from being sufficient so most of my information came from tour guide books. Gene Openshaw wrote the tour that I followed, on my own, because I probably speak the least amount of Spanish in the group. The Prado is known for being the greatest painting museum in the world. No photography was allowed within the museum so I’ll be posting some google images of the different paintings I saw.

The most well known painters that we saw; Diego Velazquez, Francisco de Goya, Titian, Peter Paul Rubens, and El Greco

After touring the Prado we walked through the Puerta del Sol, which is the center of Madrid. From here we could see the TIO PEPE sign, which was Madrid’s first billboard and the only one of its kind allowed today, and the governor’s office. Outside the governor’s office was where the war against Napoleon started in 1808. Long story short ( as Hunter likes to  say...) Napoleon wanted his brother to be King of Spain and when he made that happen the people waiting to hear in Madrid rioted and the French guard massacred them all. (Why the French guard was there...I’m not really sure?) This is where the scene of the Second of May, 1808 and the Third of May, 1808 came from because Goya worked just right up the street.

We then walked through the Plaza Mayor, with a statue of Philip III directly in the middle. Before ole phil was in the middle, it served as a stage for theater. One of my travel books say that “during the Inquisition, many were tried here- suspected heretics, Protestants, Jews, tour guides without local license, and Muslims who conversion to Christianity was dubious. The guilty were paraded around the square before their execution, wearing billboards listing their many sins. Some were slowly strangled as they held a crucific, hearing the reassuring words of a priest as this life was squeeze out of them with a garrote. Others were burned”. (Rick Steve’s Spain 332)

The Royal Palace- Which I actually have one video from inside. Yes, I did get scolded harshly and my “ No Hablo Espanol” did little to appease the guard.
-More than 2,000 rooms. We maybe saw 20?
Lions everywhere! Symbol of power
Royal family no longer actually lives here. Good choice. I would hate for tourists to walk through my house all day long.
Video clip I’ll be posting soon is of the Gala Dining Room.
- More information to follow soon.