Madrid, Spain

I woke up today at 08:45, showered, dressed, had some coffee, washed some dishes, and turned on the television to listen/watch some bland 90s music videos and some great 60s/70s/80s music videos. Michelangelo then got up, made himself a breakfast, and got ready for the day. For my breakfast, I had a bottle of beer. Once we were both ready, we exited the apartment around 11:00 and walked to the Gran Via Metro Station; we then rode the metro train to the Anton Martin Metro Station. From there, we walked to the Museo del Prado, which is the primary Spanish national art museum and was founded as a museum in 1819 AD. We paid for our entrance tickets and began touring the museum, starting on the first floor; we then walked around the ground floor, the basement, and finally the second floor. Unfortunately, no photographs were allowed inside, but the following is a selection of the masterpieces we viewed: Titian’s ‘Bacchanal of the Adrians’, Titian’s ‘The Fall of Man’, Rubens’ copy of Titian’s ‘The Fall of Man’, Rubens’ ‘The Three Graces’, Rubens’ ‘The Judgement of Paris’, Rubens’ ‘Saint George and the Dragon’, Van Der Weyden’s ‘Descent From the Cross’, Bosch’s ‘Table of the Seven Deadly Sins’, Bosch’s ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’, Bosch’s ‘The Haywain Triptych’, Bosch’s ‘The Temptation of Saint Anthony’, Bosch’s ‘Cutting the Stone’, Dürer’s ‘Adam and Eve’, Dürer’s ‘Self Portrait’, El Greco’s ‘The Holy Trinity’, El Greco’s ‘The Adoration of the Shepherds’, El Greco’s ‘Knight with his hand on his Chest’, Caravaggio’s ‘David Victorious over Goliath’, Velázquez’s ‘The Drinkers’, Velázquez’s ‘Les Meninas’, Goya’s ‘The Parasol’, Goya’s ‘The Clothed Maja’ and ‘The Naked Maja’, Goya’s ‘The Family of Charles IV’, Goya’s ‘The Third of May, 1808’, Goya’s ‘Saturn Devouring his Son’, Rembrandt’s ‘Judith at the Banquet of Holofernes’, Picasso’s ‘The Two Brothers’, Picasso’s ‘The Seated Harlequin’, and ‘La Gioconda’ (a copy – of sorts – of the ‘Mona Lisa’ which is believed to have been painted my one of Leonardo da Vinci’s apprentices – this was an unexpected pleasure and interesting to view). Overall, it was an impressive museum and it took us about five hours to see everything (this time includes a break we took at the museum’s café where I had a cappuccino, chocolate chip cookie, and a muffin that was half chocolate and half orange flavored – delicious). We exited the museum at about 16:45 and then walked southward to the Museo Reina Sofía, which is Spain’s national museum of art from the twentieth-century AD (thus containing a lot of modern art . . . which doesn’t exactly match my tastes). Michelangelo and I entered inside the Museo Reina Sofía, paid for our entrance ticket, and then walked through the exhibitions; we started on the first floor and then moved up through the second, third, and fourth floors before finishing around 19:30. Inside the museum, we saw artwork created by Picasso (including his masterpiece ‘Guernica’), Dali, Sorolla, Gris, Lopez Garcia, Man Ray, Ernst, Braque, Miró, Léger, Masson, Calder, Duchamp, Bacon, Johns, Warhol, and Luna (with his interesting and grotesque drawings on the Spanish Civil War). Also, strangely enough, this museum had several classic films being played for visitors to watch (e.g. Jean-Luc Goddard’s ‘Two or Three Things I Know About Her’, Buñuel’s and Dali’s ‘Un Chien Andalou’, and Pontecorvo’s ‘The Battle of Algiers’); so I guess visitors could spend all day inside watching these and other arty films . . . or they could just watch them on YouTube. After touring the museum, Michelangelo and I walked out the front entrance and we ate dinner at a restaurant on the opposite side of the plaza; I had a beer, a vegetable pizza (made with tomatoes, eggplant, courgette, onions, and roasted red peppers), and a selection of appetizers (garlic bread, mozzarella sticks, mozzarella cheese and tomatoes with balsamic vinaigrette, and mozzarella cheese and tomatoes with a pesto sauce). After dinner, Michelangelo and I walked back to the Anton Martin Metro Station and rode the metro train back to the Gran Via Station. From there, we walked back to the rented apartment and had a bottle of Moscato d’Asti (DOCG) – which tasted excellent – while we checked our emails and the latest news. After 23:00, we decided to go outside and try to find a “happening” bar. We walked around the vicinity of Gran Via, dodged quite a few prostitutes on Callo Montera (if you want dick bugs, go there), and wandered around for a half hour until we gave up (it is a Monday night, so that could be the reason). We then returned to the apartment, tried a bottle of sherry (it tasted very sugary and of prunes, dates, and raisins), put that in the fridge (it wasn’t much to our liking), and then opened a bottle of Spanish Cabernet Sauvignon that tasted of vegetables, blackberry, and pepper. We then watched some bullshit on the internet (e.g. Jimmy Fallon, etc.) and I typed today’s journal entry. Eventually, I went to sleep after 03:00.