Adventures in Spain–Madrid; October 2-5, 2019

 

We, Barb and I and our friends Bill and Colleen, have been on an incredible adventure.

On October 1, 2019, we flew out of Phoenix AZ , with a stop in Frankfurt. After nearly 24 hrs in transit and into a time zone differing from Phoenix by 9 hrs, we arrived in Madrid.

 On the 2nd we toured the beautiful Park of Madrid and visited the Prado Museum, officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, the main Spanish national art museum.

We spent Thursday the 3rd getting the “big picture” in Madrid by walking around and riding in the top of a double-decker tour bus.

We visited the Royal Palace on the 4th.

 On the 5th we visited the Museum Cerralbo, which houses the art and historical object collections of Enrique de Aguilera y Gamboa, 17th Marquis of Cerralbo, who died in 1922. The museum, which is housed in the former residence of its founder, opened in 1944. The building was built in the 19th century, according to Italian taste, and it was luxuriously decorated with baroque furniture, wall paintings and expensive chandeliers. It retains to a large extent its original aesthetics and features an interesting collection of paintings, furniture, archaeology, ancient weapons and armor. [Wikipedia]

We also visited the massive Museum of the Americas (Museo de América), a national museum that holds artistic, archaeological and ethnographic collections from the whole Americas, ranging from the Paleolithic period to the present day.

As an institution, the museum was founded in 1941. The permanent exhibit is divided into five major thematical areas:

  • An awareness of the Americas
  • The reality of the Americas
  • Society
  • Religion
  • Communication

And finally we rode an elevator to the top of the nearby tower Faro de Moncloa, which afforded a fantastic view of Madrid.

On October 6 we took a rented auto from Madrid to Itrabo, in the southern part of Spain.  For that story, tune in to the next post.