We did our ABCs today. Art, Basilica, Crypt … with a couple of other activities thrown in for good measure. This morning, we set off to the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza part of Madrid’s ‘Golden Triangle of Art’. When we visited the Prado on Sunday, we purchased a combined ticket entitling us to visit the Prado, the Thyssen and the Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofia. Well two out of three ain’t bad. We’re not going to be able to get to the Reina Sofia as it is closed on Tuesdays, and we are not going to have another opportunity. But, having purchased the combined ticket, we broke even this morning when we arrived at the Thyssen.
The Thyssen is housed in the Villahermosa Palace which was built, renovated and extended several times between 1754 and 1807 on the corner of Carrera de San Jeronimo and the Paseo del Prado. The collection housed in the museum was started by Baron Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza and extended by his son Hans Heinrich with money made in the family run business empire based on the iron and steel industry that was founded by August Thyssen in 1871.
In 1993 the collection was acquired by the Spanish state. The museum showcases European and American art from the 14th to the 20th century and what a collection it is. As fans of the impressionist movement, we were very happy to admire works by Monet, Degas, Pissarro and others. We were also interested to see works by Picasso that were not in his most recognizable cubist style. The collection also includes works by other great masters such as Rembrandt, Rubens, Van Gogh and … Jackson Pollock. Not on the same scale as the National Gallery of Australia’s ‘Blue Poles’ though.
After the museum we had started our walk back to the apartment when we noticed that the Neptune Fountain did not have temporary fencing around it today as it did on Sunday. It looked much more attractive without the fencing, so we negotiated our way onto the bus stop near the roundabout to photograph it again. Right, if the fencing has been taken down from around this fountain has it also been removed from the Cybeles Fountain? Seeing as we could walk ‘home’ past that fountain just as easily as continue the way we were headed we decided to walk over to Calle Alcalá to check. Yes, it was worth our effort as there was no ugly temporary fencing around this fountain today either.
On Sunday there did seem to be a strong police presence in the city so we felt that there may have been a demonstration somewhere in the city while we were out and about and did consider whether this was why there were barricades around the fountains. We did see a couple of people with flags featuring red, yellow and purple and red, white and green, but saw no evidence of a rally or people marching in any sort of protest. Funnily enough on our return to the apartment today an article came up on Bernie’s news feed which informed us, after the fact, that there WAS a demonstration on Sunday by the Spanish Republicans and the Basque Country Autonomous Community of Spain who want King Felipe VI deposed and they chose the 10th anniversary of his ascension to the throne for their protest. The flags that we saw on Sunday are the flags adopted by the Republicans and the Basques.
We lunched at the apartment again today before heading out again to have a go at riding the Metro. We walked down to our local station, Sol. We used the machine to purchase a ten-trip combined ticket which we thought would cover the trains and buses around the city. We headed down to Line 3 to take the train to Plaza de España. It was only two stops but would have been a twenty-minute walk. From the station we walked to the Templo de Debod in the Parque de la Montaña. The temple is an ancient Egyptian temple housing a small museum that was moved from Egypt and rebuilt in this lush park with panoramic views over the city. The temple dates to the 2nd century BC and was donated to Spain by the Egyptian government to save it from flooding following the construction of the Aswan Dam. The site was a little disappointing because, one, we have been to Egypt and seen some amazing temples in situ and, two, the pond around the temple is dry. However, the view over the city of Madrid was impressive.
We walked back to the Plaza de España to see the monument to Miguel de Cervantes who is considered to be the greatest writer in the Spanish language. The monument was commissioned by King Alfonso XIII in 1915 on the 300th anniversary of the publication of the second part of Don Quixote. The main body of the fountain was erected in the 1920s but the full monument was not completed until the 1960s. Very popular it was too with far too many tourists posing with the bronze statues of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, checking their photos – in front of the statues – re-taking their photos and then posting them on social media, still in front of the statues!!! So annoying. We did not feel the need to pose WITH the statue we we happy to just take a photo of the statues.
Next, we decided to have a go on the bus to travel to the Basilica de San Francisco el Grande (Saint Francis the Great). We hopped on the No.3 bus and Bernie tried to scan our Metro card. Nope, whatever it is we bought it does not entitle us to travel on the bus! Fortunately, here in Madrid you can purchase a ticket with your Visa-card – or phone – on the bus. Not like in Melbourne where it’s no pre-purchased Myki, no ride on the bus.
As we rode on the bus, we debated whether we should alight at the cathedral to visit the crypt that was closed on Saturday when we tried to visit or just go straight to the basilica. In the end the decision was made for us. No-one else wanted to get off the bus at the cathedral stop so we sailed straight by it. We alighted at the next stop at the basilica. We wandered up the steps into the lovely garden at the back/side of the basilica. Finding no entrance there we returned to the front … which was all locked up.
Attempting to read the signs in Spanish we decided that the basilica was not re-opening until 4.00pm. It was about 3.53pm so not long to wait BUT where is the entrance? The gates looked like they haven’t been opened in a decade! We could see a queue along the street, a line of people waiting with their shopping jeeps. What’s that about? Are they waiting for handouts? We wandered a little further and down a lane that had us looking at a building that was either a hospital or an aged care facility?
We returned to the front and a man was just entering via a side door and he was telling another couple that the front gate would be opened in a couple of minutes. True to his word he was letting us in the front gates two minutes later. The basilica, which is close to the city’s Latin Quarter is a neoclassical style monumental basilica which sounds very grand, but it’s actually quite unassuming from the outside. However, once you enter it is pretty WOW!
It is filled with artwork by Goya and other Spanish artists of the 18th and 19th centuries together with lustrous white marble sculptures of the saints. Its crowning glory is its impressive dome, the largest in Spain and the fourth in Europe, behind Saint Peter’s Basilica and the Pantheon in Rome and the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Flower in Florence. It is said that the temple is built on land that was offered to Saint Francis of Assisi following his time in Madrid in 1214 on his pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. After three earlier temples on this site the current basilica dates from the late 18th century.
After admiring the basilica, we decided to walk back to the crypt at the Almudena Cathedral since we will never be as close again. On our arrival we discovered that the crypt only re-opened at 4.30pm so if we had tried to visit it before the basilica … we would have been disappointed. As it turned out we visited the two sites in exactly the right order. We entered the crypt to find a beautiful Romanesque Revival church with a Latin-cross plan that takes the same dimensions as the cathedral above making it the largest crypt in the country The crypt has five naves, 20 chapels and features over 400 columns and is the resting place of some of Spain’s most noble families and King Alfonso XII’s first wife Maria de las Mercedes de Orléans.
Rather than deal with the hassle of more public transport we decided to just hoof it back to the apartment. We were only one kilometre away, so it wasn’t far to walk, and we rewarded ourselves with ice-cream at La Deliceria our local ice-cream shop! My iPhone told me just the other day that I have averaged more steps than usual over the last five weeks, so I figure I don’t have to feel guilty about eating ice-cream every day?
As I have been typing the travel diary Bernie has been looking into booking tickets for the train to Toledo tomorrow. Oh, dear, we have really stuffed up as there are no seats available to travel to Toledo until after lunchtime. Damn, maybe we should have booked as soon as we arrived in Madrid or, maybe, we should have booked weeks ago? After our experience travelling from to Obidos from Lisbon last year we wanted to keep things flexible because it was such a hassle when the train we had booked to Obidos was delayed.
Bernie checked the bus BUT that website said ‘all stops to Toledo’ … without saying anything about how many stops that is or what time the bus arrives in Toledo. That left us with the option of booking a day tour to Toledo. At least this tour is just Madrid to Toledo and return, we don’t have to worry about the bus travelling to two destinations. If being herded around like cows starts to annoy us surely we can tell the guide we are bailing out to make our own way around Toledo and simply meet up with the coach at the assigned place and time for the return journey to Madrid?? Hopefully better than forgoing our day trip to Toledo all together.
What is this wet stuff falling from the sky? We headed out to dinner to discover that it was raining. Bernie has been checking the weather forecast and we were expecting some rain on Thursday but … it has come early. We headed down a street we have not tried before to find some dinner. We found our way to El Sur de Huertas where we ordered seafood paella. Despite my reservations about ordering a paella each, rather than one to share, when they arrived they were small paella pans and not too much for one person, although I did let Bernie help me finish mine.
Steps: 17,575 (11.11kms)