El Prado

We slept late, ate breakfast at our apartment, grabbed a coffee at a café near the Prado (see photo…I am determined to post multiple photos of me holding a coffee cup) and entered the museum at 11:30 AM. We spent all day there (except for a 2 hour lunch at a place called “Finca” Susana…Susana’s lodge or estate) and left at closing, which is 8 PM. We still didn’t see everything. The art was wonderful, everything we had hoped for. I appreciated having Sharon with me to give me periodic art history lessons. Basically, we walked through the history of art (from 1300s until 1900s) in Spain. Much of the influence comes from France and the Netherlands during those years, but there is a distinct Spanish style of which the Prado is very proud. As off season patrons of the museum, we had few crowds and saw two special exhibitions, including an exceptional exhibition of Velasquez and his development as an artist, as well as a Goya sketch room (a room that included sketches from his personal sketch book…very weird). As an aside, we were in the room with about two people when we stepped back and saw Las Meninas, the painting that some feel is the most important painting in the world…Of course the Spanish feel that!

There is much religious art in the Prado and we absorbed all of that with joy. Plus, the El Greco paintings have a certain icon style to them that we both appreciated. All in all, a great day. Tomorrow we head to the Reina Sophia to see Picasso’s Guernica. The other photo is Sharon in our beloved apartment. Here is our evening meal. Manchego cheese (semi-curado…semi-cured), French herbed cream cheese, jamon (ham) de Iberia, tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, vino, water and Wasa crackers, our tribute to my Swedish ancestry and a helpful addition of fiber for beautiful, but diabetic Sharon. We continue to love every minute of our travels. Both of us are healthy now. Even Sharon’s cough has dissipated.