Coaching for Pizza: The Prado Museum and More: Day XVI Euro Adventure 2022

Thursday, October 6, 2022

We had only one planned objective today, to visit Madrid's world class art museum, the Prado, in the morning.

After that we would go any way the wind blows.

Our day started here for breakfast

Brian noted that my head

wound sustained earlier in our

Adventure now looked a lot like

the jam on this piece of bread

Queen Isabel II looms over the

Opera Metro station that we used today

We got off of the Metro at the Banco

de España stop only to run into this

loud but non-violent protest

The Italian TV crime series that we love,

Inspector Montalbano, is based in Sicily

which for a time was part of the

Spanish Empire

We passed lots of tall buildings on

our short walk to the Prado Museum

Plaza de Neptune

The Francisco Goya statue

and three random tourists

This statue sits just outside of the Prado's entryway and for good reason.

Goya was a romantic painter who is considered to be the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th-century and early 19th-centuries.

He, along with Diego Velasquez, Spain's great 17th-century painter, are the two featured artists in the Prado.

But they are far from the only ones.

The Prado's collection features art from the 12th-century to the early 20th-century

A partial list of some of the famous

artists whose work we will get

the opportunity to view toay

This dynamic statue is the first

piece of art that we saw as we entered

the Prado Museum

I thought it was worth further viewing.

Crushing a helmet

Victor and Vanquished

Lay own your weapons

The Prado's hallways were

long and rich in art as one

would easily suspect

I pondered this minor woman's

possible thoughts in a huge painting

I took this picture and was promptly, and rightfully, yelled at by a museum guard saying "NO PHOTOS!"

I had not noticed this edict when we entered. The Prado is the first major sight that we have seen in our time on the Continent these past 16 days with such a policy.

Having gone to Catholic schools and knowing that Spain is still considered a Catholic country, I thought of the physical punishments that were doled out by the nuns and priests back in the day for disobedience.

As I did not want to endure that again, I put my phone back in my pocket and took no more photos inside the museum.

One of our group, who shall remain nameless, did not heed this warning completely. He did take a few more photos when no one was looking.

WHAT THE DEUCE?

I didn't know that Brian took this photo until we got outside of the museum and it's a corker!

The Abbot in white is St. Bernard who founded the mysterious Knights Templar in the 12th-century.

This painting symbolizes the fact that during his lifetime he was a dedicated follower of the Virgin Mary and praised her to everyone.

As gratitude for St. Bernard's devotion, Mary is seen here squirting a perfect three point shot of her breast milk into St. Bernard's mouth without spilling a drop.

It's the Catholic Church, you just can't make this stuff up.

The next two photos were downloaded from Google images, I follow the rules once I know them, and show my two favorite paintings that we saw today.

Las Meninas

Easily Velasquez's most famous work.

Saturn Devouring His Son

This is one of Goya's famed Black Paintings. Draw your own dietary conclusions.

We roamed the halls of the Prado for about two and a half hours and came away greatly impressed.

Once outside, we realized that we were hungry again.

We passed this nice fountain

on our walk from the Prado to . . .

. . . the tapas bars on nearby

Calle Jesús

Taberna Maceira, a Galician themed

restaurant, was the perfect call

When we lived in Madrid in the Fall of 2016, both Laurie and I had found this to be a great spot although it is not, strictly speaking, a tapas bar.

The funky decor was unchanged

We were about to be served

a really good lunch

First up was a plate with amazing

cheeses from Spain's Galicia region

The grilled vegetables were

equally outstanding

Our third dish of these delightful

Spanish padron peppers were a big hit

The patatas bravas on the left was

the crowning touch to our shared meal

We needed to walk a bit for the good of our digestive systems and to get back to the Metro stop.

Along the way we saw . . .

. . . a cool ceramic . . .

. . . a colorful archway . . .

. . . and this empowering sticker

We got off of the Metro at Puerta del Sol as the ladies wanted to do some shopping . . .

. . . for shoes mostly

By a stroke of luck, both Koreen and Laurie found the one pair of shoes to buy that would complete their vast individual shoe collections.

Their collections are considered to be the equivalent of the Louvre and Prado Shoe Museums of Camarillo, California.

Our walk up Calle Montera

ended at Gran Via

A tribute to Salvador Dalí,

Spain's famed 20th-century

surrealist artist

Lottery queue

The blue awning on the right provides shade for a business that sells lottery tickets. The line to buy tickets wraps around the corner on the left.

My guess is that either this week's lottery has an enormous jackpot and/or this particular store has earned the reputation for having sold lots of winning tickets in the past.

We still have not bought any

cookies from this great shop on

Puerta del Sol

A random artist on Calle Arenal

I love his little color pallette.

Are we really back at San Ginés

for more chocolate and churros

Perhaps.

OK, you got us

We had not gotten any dessert after our splendid lunch at Taberna Maceira so we were due for some postre.

Careful Brian, it's about to drip!

The Love Couple frolicking yet again

That poster behind me is of none

other than Capitán Contreras

Capitán Alonso de Contreras was a 17th-century Spaniard who was a member of the Knights of Malta. He was also a soldier, corsair and writer whose autobiography detailing his exploits has been well known in these parts, just not to us.

His writings have inspired other writers and been made into movies as well as this keen poster.

I salute you my dear relative from long ago.