March 21

Madrid

Overlooking the river

Life in a European Hotel room is different. The Palace is a luxury Hotel, not quite as posh as the Mandarin Oriental or the Ritz, but in many ways nicer. The common areas are more convivial, the staff are helpful and polite, and they all understand English, although some better than others. We especially liked the restaurant vibe with the stained-glass dome. Our room looks east over the Thyssen Museum and is on the top floor. The bed, the service items, the available outlets are all well thought out and easy to navigate around. The coffee machine is a Nespresso brand and only delivers 4 ounces per pod.  The Coffee downstairs is excellent. The bathroom is big with double sinks and a roomy shower.  The towels are 5 feet by 3 feet and plush. The necessary room is separated by a door and has a commode, a phone and a bidet. And a bidet … Paul discovered that there are YouTube videos on how to use a bidet. Paul also discovered that they do not tell the whole story. In short, bidets are not for Paul. Shirley is silent on the subject.

Today has rain in the forecast and so we took a cab to the Royal Collection. This amazing collection is housed in a modern new building made of concrete built over the ruins of the original walls and buttressing the foundation of the Cathedral. It is designed like the GEM (Great Egyptian Museum) in that long large galleries hold the treasures. The space seems immense.

View of the A gallery about halfway into it

With all that space, the exhibits can be arranged to the advantage of the view. There are two galleries, the A for Austrian or Hapsburg Dynasty, and the B for the Bourbon Dynasty. The contents are taken from the palaces and possessions of the respective kings and queens. They collected a lot of neat items.

Book explaining Aztec hieroglyphs from the 1500’s

They had many tapestries all made in Flanders to adorn the many rooms of the palaces.  Each tapestry began with a “cartoon” or painted fabric over which the artists would weave and knot the appropriate colors to make a tapestry.

Cartoon of the scene of loading Noah’s Ark

Cartoon of the scene of Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights

Many of the exhibits featured armor for horses and men. There was a dearth of the weapons of war and only a few paintings of battles.  Most of the art was religious or mythological with a smattering of period pieces showing off the grounds of a palace.  Naturally portraits took up a lot of space as well.

A wood cut by a female artist of Michael and the Devil (She used her own face as the model for Michael)

A rare Caravaggio (His red is amazing!)

After the tour, we stopped at the cafeteria for a coffee and to bid adieu to our wonderful guide Sara. It has been our experience that engaging a guide when visiting a city, as opposed to self-guided tours, is definitely the way to go.  There is so much more they know about the city than you can glean from Rick Steves or the YouTubers. We drew a royal flush when we engaged Sara.

When we left the Royal Collection, we walked in the misty rain to Plaza Mayor where we said goodbye to the Aria’s. Then we strolled up the now familiar streets to Puerta del Sol and to Lamucca for a pizza. We chose the “black” pizza that was somehow made by including activated Charcoal.

The crust somehow included activated charcoal ?!?

Some of the stores along the way were very strange, like the Poop Store.  Here is where you can purchase all manner of famous figures pooping.

The poop store

Of course, there were a lot of very nice and classy stores mixed in with the souvenir stores and the restaurants. Eventually we made it back to the Hotel for a siesta and some blogging. We are faced with the chore of packing as we will be picked up at 7 AM tomorrow for our flight back to Atlanta and home.