Hola from Spain! I figured a trip abroad was as good a reason as any to revive my Blog. Jeff and I are in Spain as we speak, visiting with our neice Adrianne (aka Adrian, Adrianna, Adri).

We flew into Madrid on Thursday, May 6th and after checking in and dropping our bags off at the hotel, went to the Prado. My Uncle George says that everyone must visit the Prado, because it’s wooden and might burn, and then the art would be destroyed forever. We didn’t see a splinter’s worth of wood, but we did get to see the art! Most of it is from the Romantic/Renaissance/Baroque periods, and lots of it was by Spanish artists we were not familiar with. We did get to see lots of Goya, including his pictures commemorating the Battle of May 2nd (Spanish fighters rising up against Napoleon) and the Shootings of May 3rd (Napoleonic soldiers capturing the Spanish fighters and executing them). Those are two of my favorite paintings, so I was happy to see them in person.

Adrianne met us Thursday evening, and we went out wandering through Madrid. We eventually found our way to Plaza Mayor, where we saw what Adri likes to call The Bread Building (where the Bread Guild met to set the price of Bread). We found a poster advertising a festival in Barcelon where Jeff’s favorite band, Wilco, will be playing later on this month (AFTER we’re gone) and considered ‘borrowing’ it, but it was stuck fast. Nearby we found a nice little restaurant to get tapas. That night we had jamon serrano (ham from special pigs fed a diet exclusively of black acorns), queso morrano, clams in a tomato broth, croquetas, green beans con jamon, pan (bread) and vino tinto (red wine). Plus cafe con leche and cheese cake for dessert. After that we wandered back to the neighborhood we were staying in, had nightcaps at a martini bar, then back to the hotel.

On Friday, after a breakfast of churros con chocolate y cafe con leche we went to the Reina Sofia, a museum with primarily modern art. We saw lots of Dali, Miro, and Picasso, including Guernica, Picasso’s painting inspired by the German bombings during the Spanish Civil War. It was incredible – it’s a moving painting in general, but to see it in person was indescribable. We also got to see early works by all three artists that were neither Cubist nor surreal; it was nice to see some different works by them. After the museum, we grabbed a quick bite to eat, then went back to the hotel for siesta (I like siesta!). In the evening we strolled around again, more in the commercial district. Since we had Adri to translate we went ahead and bought our train tickets to and from Barcelona, and spent some time in an internet cafe. I love the easy access to the internet, but I could do without Spanish keyboards! There are extra characters, and thus extra keys, so I have to do weird things like press Alt-Gr (Alt Grande) if I want the @ symbol! We eventually wound up in a Cuban restaurant where we had more tapas – chicken, pappas in a brown sauce, and croquetas sin jamon this time.

Saturday was pretty much dedicated to taking pictures and buying souvenirs. We did see the Royal Palace, but only from the outside. We got to go inside the Cathedral, but there was a service going on and it was packed, so we only stood in the doorway. Apparently it was the day for everyone in that archdiocese to make a pilgramage to Madrid (seriously, or so Adri translated for us). We saw a statue of Don Quixote and Pancho Sanchez, but were out of film by that time so we had to buy a postcard rather than take a picture! In the afternoon we got the bus to Granada. It was a beautiful drive. We went through Castille de la Mancha, which is more or less the area Cervantes had in mind when he was writing Don Quixote (we didn’t see any windmills, though), then went through a region with mountains very similar to our Appalachins. After that were the Sierra Nevadas, which are larger mountains, and then down into Granada.

Next installment.....Granada!