Cultural Learnings

To do a true Madrid weekend, one must begin Friday night with some drinks and a few tapas around 6:00 or 7:00 p.m. This can be followed by a light dinner at 10:00, and then perhaps a rest until 12:00 or 1:00. When1:00 or 1:30 strikes, head to the discoteca, bar, or other social activity and enjoy yourself until you tire at maybe 6:00 or 7:00 am. Repeat on Saturday. Of course this is not the schedule of all Madrid locals, but is definitely popular with the large young population here. Every night when we go to bed (usually 11:00 or 11:30, boring I know) the streets are relatively quiet with a few people wandering about. Three hours later, the streets are a bustle with young people coming and going from nighttime activities. I am always impressed with their stamina to keep up that routine. I forget that’s the routine of most college students throughout the world though. So the big question is did Trisha and I do a true Madrid weekend? No.

Our first weekend was full of culture and history (you can stop reading now if you were hoping for discos). It began Friday afternoon with our first visit to the Prado Museum, with our language school. Our school offers excursions to local sites about twice a week. The Prado is Spain’s most famous museum and is impossible to do in one or two visits. Our tour leader, who happened to be our language school director, made our visit unique as he provided his knowledgeable commentary all in Spanish. I can’t say I have ever dissected the important elements of art in the Spanish language before, but I’d say we caught about 80% of what he said. Our tour highlighted the works of Goya. Our artistic interpretation of his work at the end of our visit was that his paintings are beautiful and we liked his work a lot.
Saturday followed with a long walk into the northern section of Madrid. It was a lovely section of the city to experience, as it moves away from the hustle and bustle of the busy Puerta del Sol were we live. It had rained early in the morning, so there was a crispness in the air that reminded us of the east coast in fall. The walk took us mainly through streets lined with four story apartment buildings and large leafy trees. There were a few sizeable fountains in the middle of the streets and lovely architecture throughout. The first story of each building had businesses that Trisha and I peaked into just as they were opening. Our most enjoyable discovery was an open-air market selling magnificent looking fish, meats, and fruits. We concluded out journey with a quick stop to Duncan Donuts for a coffee (very exotic).

Later in the day we visited the Mueso Reina Sofia. We would have limited ourselves to just one museum for the weekend, but this Museo was free today. The Reina Sofia is loaded with great Spanish artists both classic and contemporary. Its most famous painting, and perhaps Spain’s most famous, is the Guernica by Picasso. The Guernica takes up an entire wall of the museum and requires at least ten minutes to take in. The history tied to the painting, and Picasso’s reasons for painting it, are very moving. We were both transfixed by it and want to see it again before our time is up. The remainder of the museum was excellent, as we saw other works by Picasso and some by Salvador Dali. We also toured the contemporary art section of the museum, which was a kick, as many of the pieces were interactive.

The final part of our weekend was our trip to Toledo on Sunday. I’ll let Trisha cover that next time, as I have written my fill for the day. I will say that I loved the bullet train! -Travis