Madrid (Museums)-Toledo-Alicante

The art in Madrid is amazing. Mind-blowing. Spectacular. I´m actually struggling for adjectives here--let´s just say that I´ve seen some of the best art of my trip. I´d recommend spending at least 3-4 days in the city, and doing one museum a day, rather than packing them all in and risking brain overload.

My favorite is the Thyssen Bornemisza, recommended by my friend Jessica Walling-Stokes. I was initially skeptical when she told me it was one of her top three of all time, but I have to agree. It covers art from about 1600 to the present (earlier work from the collection is at the MNAC in Barcelona) and includes more than 800 paintings. The collection is arranged in such a way that it´s possible to see the development of numerous art styles. The audioguide explains why changes occurred, and also goes into considerable depth about the contributions and talents of individual artists. I´m proud to say that I finally understand Rothko.

I also visited the Prado, which was overwhelming in size (here´s a staggering fact for you: the Prado only has room to display about 1,700 of the 19,000 plus works in its collection. Plans are underway to make a space large enough for it all. Can you imagine trying to see all of that in one day?). The Prado is much more specific in scope and artists (I think there were 8 rooms devoted to El Greco, for example), and much more crowded. If forced to choose, I´d definitely say that the Thyssen collection is better, but why choose? Any trip to Madrid is worth seeing both.

I´ve noticed over the years that people generally have a strong preference for Madrid or Barcelona. I´m definitely in the Madrid camp. The city is organized, easy to explore (really good public transportation system), and full of interesting people. Elese and I spent a lot of time wandering and discovering new things--a large music market outside the Prado, numerous squares filled with cafes, foreign language movie theaters (we saw Star Wars, which was quite watchable).

A note on the food in Spain: how do people survive on it? I´m ready to eat some fruit and veggies--everything here is fried or a starch. It´s quite good, but leaves you feeling very vitamin deprived. I´m reading ¨The New Spaniards,¨which talks about how the Spanish diet has actually dramatically improved in the last two decades--it used to be almost entirely potato and bread based. I´ve also found that Spain is a three drink a day place (at least)--most people have their first cocktail at lunch and continue on through the small hours of the night.

Elese and I took a day trip to Toledo on the 4th. The town is charming, very medieval, and incredibly hot. For the first time in our trip, it topped 100 degrees. I loved being there, and was glad to just be there for the day, if that makes sense. It´s actually the first town in Spain I´ve been in that I thought I could tolerate studying abroad in. The tourist sights are limited and disappointing, but the place itself could be fun to live in.

The highlight of our day there? We stumbled across an art opening for Donovan Wylie and Art Chantry. Chantry wasn´t there, but I did get up the nerve to talk to Wylie (he´s an Irish photographer). I´ve really had a hard time finding new people to relate to in Spain, and this opening was packed with ¨our people.¨Finally people over 20! That care about art! They even served free food and drinks.

We´re now in Alicante for three days, and will return to Madrid for a final trip to El Escorial before Elese flies out. Alicante is on the Costa Blanca, near Valencia. It´s clearly a tourist destination, but more of a place that Spanish people vacation, not foreigners. I feel incredibly relaxed here. The food has been wonderful (we ate at an upscale restaurant called Entre Tapas y Vino last night and had local cheese, local wine, and several delicious fish dishes), and the beach is clean, sandy, and full of interesting people to look at. Both of us are sporting odd red spots from the places we missed covering with sunscreen, but we´re pretty happy.

Elese says she´s very happy and loves the beach here. She´s hoping she´s not too sunburned...