Statue of the Bear and Strawberry Tree

We squeezed as much joy out of our last day together on vacation - is it really vacation if one is retired? I don’t know.

In any case, it was the Día del Museo! All museums were free today. We started strolling from our hotel on the Puerta del Sol past some pretty spectacular buildings. What is it with magnificent ministry buildings? There were two of the most outstanding ones for the ministry of agriculture, go figure. Loved it.

First museum up: Thyssen-Bornemisza. I do love this art museum. It is a private collection donated to Madrid. It is organized chronologically. I skipped the early stuff and started with 19th century works. Exquisite collection. Eloquent curation and storytelling. Gail isn’t as much a museum person but… it was the day of museums!

Next up was the Prado. I went in and Gail found a sunny spot to read. After about 2 hours in the Thyssen, I was just a bit too overloaded so I whizzed through some of the collections. Pretty amazing.

I collected Gail and we went in search of a chocolate donut that Sheryl and I had the last time we were in Madrid 20 years ago. I remember it was near the train station so off we went. We didn’t find the donut but we did find some giant and slightly disturbing baby heads. I only took a shot of the sleeping one. The awake one looked maniacal. There are baby heads in front of the Boston art museum. Another question. What is up with that?

One more museum. Gail insisted that I see Guernica by Picasso which is housed in the Reina Sophia. They have a huge collection of resistance posters and artworks helping to place the work in its proper context. So heartbreaking.

On our last night we had dinner with some friends of Gail’s from her days in Nicaragua in the early 80’s (after our work together in Chicago for the ERA). They spoke only Spanish. Miguel, an author, Isaac, a professor, and a lovely woman (I can’t remember her name - Gail? Help me out here). The four of them plus one more had lived together in a big house in Nicaragua while organizing in support of the socialist government. Heady times. We talked about Spanish politics, US politics (it is like a train wreck - everyone just can’t look away) and a bit of old times. As a professor, Isaac was pretty easy to understand as was the woman. Miguel, not so much. He spoke very quickly and had a thick accent dropping ends of words and substituting “th” for “c”. I got about a third of what he talked about. It was fun to experience the language outside of a transaction or learning environment and just enjoy the conversation. They were so interesting in all the ways old friends with political leanings can be. It was fun to participate and watch these comrades argue and laugh together.

After dinner, Isaac walked Gail and I home, sort of. He took us on a tour of some pretty special historic buildings and memorials telling stories of the deep history of the place. At over 25,000 steps and a plane to catch the next day, we bid farewell at about 11:30pm. I’ll sleep on the plane.

In the morning, Gail got up (she has one more day in Madrid) to get me to the metro station. We had a teary goodbye, and I was on my way home - in just 36 hours. On my way.Read more