Plaza de Alonso Martínez

After a late coffee, we followed a new set of twisty streets in Old Madrid to get to the Thyssen. This museum has at least one painting by every well-known Western artist (EXCEPT Velázquez, surprisingly), but to my way of thinking there are only a couple of really swoon-inducing paintings. But we found a way to spend several hours there, and enjoyed it all very much.

My favorite was the medieval “pilgrims mass” painting, which showed a pilgrim on the camino begging in church, or at least with his hand outstretched.

After a good lunch in old Madrid, we took a cab (our very first, we’ve walked everywhere else) to the Debod Temple. When Egypt built the Aswan Dam and flooded parts of the Nile, many temples were in the way. One is now in the Met in NYC, and one is now in Madrid. Since Joe is hopefully going to take a Nile Cruise with a childhood friend this summer while I’m walking in Spain, I thought this was a good introduction!

Walking home, I realized we were about 6 blocks from my 1970 apartment in Madrid, so I left Joe on a bench and took a quick detour. Galileo 82, 2C — the building is still standing, and looks pretty much the same. Couldn’t resist asking a guy passing by to take my picture, but I realize that a picture of me in a doorway is kind of lame. Hard to believe I lived there almost 50 years ago. Yikes.

Tomorrow we head to Soto del Real, where our closest Spanish friends live. Weekend in the country!En savoir plus