Arriving in Madrid, Spain

Now that I've been home for almost two weeks and have loaded 700 images to my computer, cleared out a month of emails and snail mail, I'm ready to share my experiences and impressions of Spain with you. To make it easier for both of us, I'll divide the blog into 5 weekly segments - one for each city I visited.

The order of the 5 blogs as I visited them are: - Madrid, Cordoba, Seville, Granada and Barcelona.

As part of the cultural experience, I decided to stay with families via AirBnB. As much as possible, I wanted to repeat the opportunity I've had by staying with friends in Paris and Naxos. The only exception was Cordoba. I just couldn't find anything that met the criteria and so I stayed in a wonderfully located hotel.

In Madrid, my host family was Jose and his partner, Marcello. Jose sent me directions for arriving at airport Terminal 4 (T4) to take the train to their home. Try as I may, I could not find any sign of a train. The entire plane unloaded and left with their baggage. I was all alone trying to find the blankety-blank train. I must have roused the interest of security cameras. Finally, a guard asked me what I was doing. This is how I found out that I was at T4S (S=satellite). No wonder I couldn't find the train!

By the time I arrived at their apartment, I was concerned that no one would be waiting. As it happened, Marcello greeted me and showed me to my room. It was a lovely, large bedroom and  my own bathroom equipped with everything I could possibly need. Given my interest in fine art and the Moors' time in Spain, Jose put together a map of the most important places to visit in Madrid.

My plans got a big kick in the head, so to speak. You see, the trip to Spain was arduous... a train to Seattle, a flight and overnight in San Francisco and two flights the next day - first to Dallas and then on to Madrid. By the time I arrived in Madrid, I had caught a bug. Jose was so compassionate. He raced around the apartment locating a heating pad and decongestants; which helped immensely.

I couldn't imagine being in Madrid and passing on all the art museums for a dang cold. I had three museums I wanted to see. I rallied enough to take the bus to the Prado. It's a huge museum and I only managed to see a portion of it.

Most outstanding for me was a special exhibit of Valezquez's works, a stunning self-portrait by Albrecht Durer and the statue of Goya in the beautiful gardens surrounding this enormous museum. (see images below)

On the 5th day, with the cold bug passing, I headed for the high-speed train that would take me to Cordoba and what would be the most exalted and overwhelming site of my journey. Ah, but that's for next week.

The Prado:

Diego Velazquez "Las Meninas" (1656):

Albrecht Dürer "Self-Portrait" (1498):

Statue of Goya in Park at the Prado: