[Leica] IMG: Madrid, mostly art

[jim at hemenway.com (Jim Hemenway)]

All very enjoyable, Nathan.

Thank you for again visiting Madrid for us.

Jim Hemenway



On 8/4/20 1:05 AM, Nathan Wajsman wrote:
> Last Friday I made the first trip away from Alicante since coming home 
> from my last business trip in early March. I have long wanted to make 
> another day trip to Madrid, alone, to visit art museums at my own pace and 
> generally enjoy the big city for a few hours. So that?s what I did on 
> Friday, the first day of my summer vacation. The logistics were simple: I 
> took the high speed train AVE at 7 a.m., arriving in Madrid at 9:30, spent 
> the day there, and took a 19:20 train back to Alicante in the evening. I 
> started by visiting the Museo Reina Sofia, the main contemporary art 
> museum in Madrid, which houses Picasso?s Guernica painting (no pics of 
> that, as there is a prohibition against photography in that room, and 
> there are several attendants to enforce it). I then took a walk in the 
> magnificent Parque de Buen Retiro, Madrid?s equivalent of New York?s 
> Central Park, and then went to the recently re-opened Museo del Prado to 
> see (again) some of my own favourites from previous visits, including the 
> Flemish masters, Hieronymous Bosch, the Spanish painters Vel?quez, Goya, 
> Murillo etc. In-between I visited another cultural icon, the bar El 
> Brillante, and had an early lunch of their excellent version of one of 
> Madrid?s signature sandwiches, the bocadillo de calamares. After the Prado 
> I walked to the centre of the city (I walked everywhere; given the 
> epidemic, I did not want to use Madrid?s metro to move around as I usually 
> do), first Puerta del Sol, heart of the shopping district, and then Plaza 
> Mayor, a large square containing Madrid?s old town hall and lined by bars 
> and restaurants that usually making a roaring trade vastly overcharging 
> the tourists for mediocre food. But not now. The plaza was virtually 
> deserted, and had I wanted a table at one of the restaurants that were 
> open for business (quite a few had not bothered to re-open) I would have 
> had ample choice. The museums were also almost empty?they are only allowed 
> to let in 1/3 of the usual maximum number of visitors, but do not even 
> come close to that. This was nice for me, not that nice for the museums.
>
> The virus-control procedures are quite strict. It goes without saying that 
> facemasks are compulsory everywhere; to enter the Prado you must submit to 
> a temperature check and if you score 37.5C or above, you will not be 
> admitted. I was slightly concerned because I had just spent an hour in the 
> Retiro park, and the outside temperature was getting close to the 
> afternoon high of 40C, but I need not have worried?my temperature was 
> 36.5. At the Atocha train station where were gates through which 
> passengers would pass, and the same rules applied?anybody with a 
> temperature of over 37.5C would not be allowed to board the train. On the 
> train, none of the usual services were available?the cafeteria car was 
> closed, no free earphones or newspapers were distributed as is usually the 
> case, and passengers were encouraged to stay in their seat throughout the 
> journey and not to talk to other passengers. Obviously masks were worn by 
> everyone throughout.
>
> Enough words. Here are the photos I took, many of the art works at the 
> Reina Sofia, a musuem I have visited before but always together with 
> someone else. This was the first time I really had time to explore it, and 
> I was really astounded by the quality of Spanish painting in the postwar 
> decades, when cultural life in this country was constrained by the Franco 
> dictatorship?but this did not keep its artists from producing excellent 
> work (I see some of the same when I visit Poland and look at art from 
> Communist times?the censors were too stupid to catch some of the nuances 
> of modern art; writers had it more difficult).
>
> So come for a Covid walk around Madrid, that looks familiar and yet very 
> different from the city I am used to visiting:
>
> http://www.frozenlight.eu/madrid_july2020/ 
> <http://www.frozenlight.eu/madrid_july2020/>
>
> Cheers,
> Nathan
>
> Nathan Wajsman
>
> Alicante, Spain
> http://www.frozenlight.eu <http://www.frozenlight.eu/>
> http:// <http://www.greatpix.eu/>www.greatpix.eu
> PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws 
> <http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws>Blog: http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/ 
> <http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/>
>
> Cycling: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/belgiangator 
> <http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/belgiangator>
>
> YNWA
>
> "I?m not arguing, I?m just explaining why I?m right"
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