THE PRADO MUSEUM

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Today was a Jim Day…Barbara was taking a day off and we were doing Museums. Sat the alarm for 8:30 am and had purchased food for our breakfast to eat in the room. For coffee I had some instant to add to the hot tap water…worked great. We were out the door and headed for the Museo Del Prado by 9:15 am. It was about a mile to the museum and viola…no lines…we walked right into the museum. This museum opened in 1819 as the Real Museo de Pinturas; one of the oldest museums in Europe and considered one greatest repository of fine art.

We spent about three hours touring the various rooms on both levels. No photos are allowed but I did manage to take several…no flash and using my two second timer…several are in my slide show. The first one of Martha and Mary…yep…Mary is in the back with Jesus and Martha is working…opps…the flash went off and the guard yelled at me. From then on I was very careful when I used the camera. Several shots are of painters who are allowed to paint copies of old masters in the museum; thereby learning their brush strokes. Picasso spent five years doing exactly this when he was a young man living in Madrid

About 1 pm we were ready for a change and walked to the nearest Metro, about half a mile; Jim took a tumble on a three inch riser as we were in the tunnel…it’s the little things in life that get you! But he was fine and we boarded the Metro. Three changes later we were in an entirely different part of Madrid; very near to the American Embassy. Our quest was to find another small museum called the Museo Sorolla; his private home was given to Spain to be used as a museum for his works. He is considered in Spain to be the equivalent to Monet. Here we were allowed to take photos without flash and I included many different photos in the slideshow. Many of them are taken in his studio that was located inside his home.

Back to the Metro for a fast trip to Gran Via stop and then a comfortable walk down the pedestrian street to Puerta del Sol and then home to the hotel. Woke Barbara up and after spending a couple hours in the hotel; Jim headed back to the Prado Museum for another two hours…after 6 pm it is FREE!!

Barbara and I headed to the El Core Ingles department store where we located the beauty shop on level five and had her hair washed and dried. Not an easy job as she has very long hair! But what a treat…she felt sooo good after some pampering! Then we walked to the ATM machine for some needed cash and then dinner at MacDonalds….Big Macs, French fries and drinks; just like home in California. After picking up some food for tomorrow’s breakfast we strolled back to the hotel and Mr. Jim had just arrived back from his third museum fix of the day!

Packed our bags and got ready for tomorrow’s journey to Valencia by train; decided to wait and send this tomorrow in Valencia as we have free Internet for the rest of Spain.