Madrid Meditation

Greetings from Madrid! Granada was fantastic and the conference was very fruitful, allowing me to see world-class talks, converse with other researchers, and to lay the ground work for future collaborations.  This level of inspiration would have been most beneficial two years ago when I began this arduous degree.  With 11.5hr days it became difficult to explore much of the city on my own; fortunately the conference made arrangements for the delegates to go on a tour of the Alhambra, the palace of the Islamic rulers of old.  It was a night tour so photography proved difficult but I was able to acquire a few gems.

Thursday afternoon I caught the train to Madrid and with Prynsus have been enjoying the city ever since. Madrid is a lot more touristy and expensive than Granada but it is a beautiful city with a lot to see. Friday we just walked around and made our way through the very imperial Retiro park, with its crystal palace and enormous ducks.

Saturday was our museum day where we visited Museo El Prado and the Reina Sofia. The Prado was filled with classical Spanish art, including Goya, Velasquez, and Rubens. The paintings and marble statues were stunning and I wish I could show you pictures but photography was strictly forbidden.  Culturally enriched we felt the need for something more … modern, leading quite nicely to the Reina Sofia where we found …. well more.    I now have no idea what art is, the modern definition appears to involve piles of used  car tires and quizzical looks. The trip was not a total loss as Prynsus found Picasso’s Guernica, a piece she was desperately hoping had not gone on tour to another museum. Yesterday we woke up early in order to get to the Rastro flea market, a market in the heart of Madrid that organically springs up every Sunday from 9-2 covering 6 or 7 square city blocks. Within its limits we found everything from underwear and fashion to life size brass stags and art. It is difficult to describe this cornucopia of stuff, the best description we could come up with involves your grandparent’s house erupting onto the Spanish streets.

Today we are taking things easy leading up to our Toledo day trip. For now  we are signing off, we shall return with news from Toledo.

Stress Advisory: LOW

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