For our first day I woke up with this view out the window! I think I should enter a postcard contest for all of the cities I've visited...
The adventure began with a 30 minute drive to Madrid from the villa, and a few metro stops. Before we knew it, we were in Retiro park!
This park is so big! Not sure why, but us tourists stick out like a sore thumb here. People trying to sell something, asking for money, or petitioning immediately switch to English as we pass. That's what happened with this street performer. Scarlet was standing in the front and he saw her and tried to get her to come sit in the front. She had none of it and backed up into the crowd.
We made it to the rowboats! And saw Madrid's version of Budapest's Hero's Square. I don't actually know what it is, but I have pictures of it from every angle.
Last night, The boys (Brody and Kaden) were put in charge of boat assignments. I was placed with Dad, awesome Aunt Kenda, and Arden. Arden was placed on rowing duty pretty early on in the ride. She immediately flipped the boat around and started rowing backwards. I tried to explain how this was against the entire design of a rowboat, but she insisted that she needed to see where she was going, even if this made it ten times harder.
Next was the Reina Sofia where I found my new favorite artist! I loved looking at the Salvador Dali pieces. They are just so weird. You can interpret what he was drawing an a bunch of different ways. Here were my two favorites. I decided to omit "The Great Masturbator" in order to keep this blog PG.
I also saw Picasso's Guernica. I've started to appreciate him a little more. This piece looked like a huge black and white mess until I stayed back and studied it a little more. There were picture of the process he took to get to the final product and I began to understand the thought behind the piece. He made this piece during the Spanish civil war and it became very influential even into World War 2. This is hard to see at first glance, but it depicts many horrors of war. A woman trying to run away but unable to because her leg is so heavy - really picasso?Couldn't have drawn her with a normal leg? - theres a dead guy on the floor, a mom with her dead baby, a bull, the sign of strength in Spain, looking panicked, and a horse freaking out. There's a lot of symbolism and parallels in it, but I'm just a beginner. I can feel my art ignorance just melting away.
We also walked around the Prado with Rick Steve's to guide us to the important stuff. We saw works from some people I actually recognized: Rubens, El Greco, Titian -The Venetian - and Goya! Grandpa told Arden to check out the "Garden of Earthly Delights." Here's what that one is all about. Left side is paradise. This is before original sin. The large middle panel shows what can only be described as eternal spring break. No one is clothed, people are riding around on horses, playing with over sized birds, and bathing. The right panel is Hell. All the horrors are depicted. People being eaten, being tortured by giant demons, a pair of ears carrying scissors around. On top of it all, it's all in a Dr. Seuss style with the colors and unicorns unrealistic plants in all pastels. Arden responded that she enjoys looking at more realistic forms of torture. Okay Arden.
We ended the day in a sandwich shop recommended by - Who else? - Rick Steve's! Side note: My mom has actually started emailing Rick Steve's all the good deals we have run into. She's well on her way to becoming his real friend. Anyway, these sandwiches were fantastic! Some people had calamari, or bacon, or jamon, I tried the chorizo. I'm so glad I'm not a picky eater. If I were I wouldn't try these plates I've never heard of. I asked Dad exactly what chorizo was and the answer I got was "Some type of meat." Originally I picked the ham, but when there was an extra chorizo ordered, I was all for it. AND IT WAS THE BEST SANDWICH SINCE ROME! Still not sure exactly what it was, but it kinda looked like sausage and I would eat one every day if I had to.
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