Spain Day 1: The Prado, Olives, and Eating Like Kings

Through a fortunate (read "lucky") set of circumstances, Brady and I traveled to Spain with another couple from work--Will and Karen Summerhays. It was a whirlwind trip that we're still recovering from, but worth every minute on the plane, every penny spent, and every hour of sleep lost.

After 24+ hours travel, we arrived in Madrid as evening set in. Our hotel was posh and square in the middle of the city. It overlooked construction, but there is no hotel that does not overlook construction at present. Madrid seems a little over-ambitious with its improvement projects, but perhaps they will complete them in the next decade? We felt for them losing the 2016 Olympic bid after seeing how much work the city was putting into improvements!
The city comes alive in the evening. Many of the city's 3.2 million residents turn out for walks and dinner, and they do not leave infants and young children at home. It was surprising, despite reading about it before leaving, to see full families out and about after 11pm, and many people were still on the streets as late as 6am the next morning! We spent our first evening exploring the streets, eating "Tortilla Espanola" (basically an omelet), and trying to contain our American enthusiasm.

Our first day started with a bang...and shivers. We underdressed with our layers, and wished for coats and scarves. We spent time looking for an open cafe, and here we are waiting the final moments before the cafe of our choice opened.

Side note for Aaron: We got our zoom lens! Here is an intimidating cop car that was checking us out from across the street:

Yummy...hot chocolate. Modify that: hot, European chocolate. Thick, creamy, and delicious.Yes, it close-your-eyes-and-sigh good:
Europe is able to place fountains all over street corners without looking like they are trying too hard.First stop: The Prado Museum, one of Europe's most celebrated museums with over 3,000 paintings, and several of the most famous works of all time.

Just before entering, we saw a sign saying, "No dogs," and right next to it, a lady walking her dog on the grounds. Maybe that tiny cop car should be checking her out.

Here we are in front of a statue of Velazquez, a 17th century Spanish painter renouned for his court portraits, most especially his "Las Meninas" (or "Maids of Honor"), which many art historians consider the greatest piece of art, period. Karen S. and Brady ranked this as their favorite piece in the museum.

Also in the Prado are works by Francisco de Goya, another court painter who is more famous for his dark and controversial work than his court depictions. For instance, his "The Naked Maja" caused an uprising during the Spanish Inquisition, and he was required to paint the lady with clothing on. Rather than painting over the naked woman, he repainted the entire picture with clothing. The two paintings stand side-by-side in the Prado. It is obvious that the naked picture had his heart, and the clothed woman was an afterthought/requirement. Other works include "The 2nd of May," and "The 3rd of May," which capture Napoleon's French forces firing on Madrid's citizens in the city.
Another famous painting was Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights," a triple canvas (i.e. triptych) full of demons and nightmares. The message is either ignore the pleasures of earth, or end up in hell. It was creepy!

My personal favorites were Raphael's "The Cardinal" and Fra Angelico's "The Annunciation." I was surprised to choose either as my favorite, but the way art affects you is hard to define. All four of us walked out of the museum delighted with the experience.

We zoomed over to the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, which would have hit us as exceptionally unimpressive but for Picasso's "Guernica." This is often considered the best piece of art in Spain. It is a massive depiction of the 1937 bombing of civilians in Guernica, a city in northern Spain. Franco gave Hitler permission to test German's air raiding abilities on the city. Unfortunately, while viewing the painting, we left our notes and descriptions in our backpack, which was checked at the front desk. Even without these ideas to guide us, it was obvious this painting was about misery, agony, and brutality. The colors were navy, gray, and black, with grim subjects--a woman and child, a wounded woman, a speared horse, and Spain's national symbol, a bull, looking on. "Guernica" was exiled (and kept in America) until Franco's death. Picasso also said he would never come back to Spain as long as Franco was there, and unfortunately died before Franco. After a fulfilling morning/early afternoon, we meandered through the city and stopped over for Tapas (appetizers) at a charming outdoor restaurant.

Brady and Will went crazy over their tomato-dominated lunch (sarcasm).

Karen S. lived in Spain for several months doing "Study Abroad" through BYU. When she was here, there was no temple for the now 40,000 church members. In 1999, the temple was built, and located right next to a MTC and chapel.

Touring Europe's massive cathedrals, I sometimes wish I was Catholic. ;) The temple was a beautiful and simple reminder of our faith. It also supplied us with a clean bathroom and FREE WATER.

After our side trip to the temple, we stopped by Retiro Park--a 300 acre abyss. It was lovely! Families, street performers, and soccer games everywhere.

A glass museum in the park--empty and closed at present.

Time for a siesta to prep for our 9pm dinner reservations. The Spanish do meals a little differently--an early morning breakfast, followed by a heavy lunch around 2pm, and dinner no earlier than about 9pm. It was suprisingly easy to adjust to this dietary schedule.

As we exited the park, we took a quick detour through hundreds of olive trees. Maybe it's living in Kauai, and the constant pick-and-eat-various-fruits routine on the trails, but I lost my mind and picked an olive. I was so embarrased, especially when a Spanish man started railing at me, immediately going to a cop to report me. Thankfully, the cop was more interested in finishing his book than delivering a ticket.

Besides green olives (yum!), Spaniards love their "jamones"--cured ham (cured for 2+ years), sliced thin and served cold.

We had one month to plan our trip, and during that time, Karen S. worked hard on finding dinner reservations. She wrote Cafe de Oriente with a request for a table overlooking the Palacio Royal, where she ate with her family years ago. They responded by saying that area was closed, but they would host us in their best room--a private room where the King and Queen dine! We were in awe of our surroundings.

The King's chair:

If only our experience with the food matched the environment! First up was a complimentary appetizer--a gigantic anchovie on bread. We all suffered through it, wishing we had more mature taste buds. Karen S. said she wishes she had put it in her money belt. It crossed her mind as a serious possibility after the first bite.

Here is our goat cheese salad that had more goat cheese than anything else--no kidding, it was 3/4" thick!

Will learned the hard way that there are two ways to order steak--red and raw. The poor steak was a blood bath! He reluctantly sent it back, basically asking them to char it, and it still came back red.

Brady loved his meal:

We realized early on that we were lucky to be traveling with Will and Karen. They were the perfect travel companions--willing to survive on 4-5 hours of sleep, plan a tightly scheduled itinerary, and thoroughly soak up and LOVE another culture. We were fortunate that they were both fluent in Spanish--our Spanish know-how stops after about "hola" and we probably would have thrown around words like "amigo" and "enchillada" without them.