My God! No photos.

For those of you who only check in for the photos, come back in a few days.

We headed into the Prado today for a morning of art and culture. No photos are allowed and like a good spanish-australian I obeyed and kept the camera in check. 

I had booked tickets last night, but because Anna was getting in free as a student we had to go via the ticket office to show ID. No worries, I thought, should be quick, I thought. Flash the ID and Fernando is your uncle. Well the train system is quick, but getting into El Prado is a test of patience and endurance. Imagine if you will the worst possible excesses of bureaucratic overkill you will not go far wrong. We had people in front of us who for some reason needed to manually fill in forms in triplicate to get in. Seriously! It was as if they were going to borrow a Goya or Velazquez for a party with their footy mates. It took a good half hour to clear about three or four transactions. Really it would have been quicker and easier to join the normal queue and pay cash. Of course then I would have had to try to get my original money back, and the forms for that looked truly wicked.

Well whinge over, let me get to the rave. It is an awesome museum. The sheer volume of magnificent pieces is truly mind-blowing. Particularly when you think they really only cover 15th century to early 20th century and almost exclusively painting. We were there three hours, and did not get to every room, let alone give enough time to any particular room or painter. We did not even cover the 'master pieces' suggested as a quick intro in the back of the map. Yes we needed a map, at one point Anna tried to find Marjan and I as we had the water. It took her half an hour and a cuple of texts to track us down.

We were of course taken by the Fra Angelico's Anunciation which we had a copy of from Katherine for some time at home. Anna and Marjan loved a special exhibit of notebooks and sketches of 18th century spanish art students on a visit to Rome.  I loved the Goyas and El Grecos, Marjan and Anna the Velazquez. It was just a matter of finding what you liked among the many rooms. Rafael, like all similarly named individuals was very talented, I liked the faces of Murillo, the 3D effect of Van Der Wyden, the outright weirdness of Bosch, the chiaroscuro of Caravaggio.....I could go on and on......and on.....but you really should just see it yourselves.

We left footsore, with heads spinning and fully cultured. Two or three days would be a reasonable time to take this in. I am planning on a follow up of modern art tomorrow. All of the modern stuff is at the Reina Sofia.......so a dose of Picasso, Dali, Miro etc etc.  Marjan and Anna are planning a day of shopping to counterbalance the culture ; so I may break my culture trip with a visit to a Museo De Jamon.

In the afternoon, we did more family stuff with lunch with my cousin and her husband. A seafood paella had been coordinated to match the cocido from the other day. Again it was lovely to be so welcome and at home among people we see so little of.