Retiro Park and the Reina Sofia Museum of Modern Art

This was my favorite piece at the Reina Sofia. It is a titled Adam and Eve. I literally stood in front of this painting for about eight minutes and couldn't get enough; I just think it is so beautiful and an interesting way to think of that biblical story.
Oh, so just some background: The Reina Sofia is a famous modern art museum in Madrid and the home of Picasso's Guernica. It has a really wide range of pieces some I was totally on board with and others not so much. Mostly, I am just a big time museum nerd lately so it was a blast to see everything.

Picasso - Man's Head

I don't think I can adequately explain what these do for me, but I love them.

Resurrection

Outside the Reina Sofia. Those sweet glass columns are the elevators. I felt like I was in Willy Wonka's factory riding in them and it was way cool. Definitely appropriate for a Modern Art museum.

Before hitting up the museum, we decided to explore Retiro Park for a bit. It is basically a forest with some perfectly manicured gardens mixed in in the middle of Madrid.

There is a beautiful book market outside as well. I wanted to buy everything then I realized I wouldn't understand it - Dang.

Here we are shining with excitement! I love these girls! We enjoy lots of adventures together!

Priveledges - Not Rights

So, living in Spain has helped me to appreciate some of the privileges I have enjoyed in the past now that I have learned to do without in some cases. Here are some of the things that have made the list:

1. Pleasant showers
2. Shaving
3. Doing my hair
4. Boneless-skinless anything
5. Not being stared at. Turns out that staring shamelessly at people is totally acceptable here. Everywhere we go men and women of all ages seem to find nothing more interesting than staring right at you. The weird thing is, they don't even look away when you meet their eyes.
6. Toilet paper - apparently it is not a necessity everywhere as an lovely old lady obligingly informed us one day
7. Being able to understand at least 87% of what people around me are saying
8. Dog-poo free streets

More excitingly, in no particular order these are some of the things I am taking advantage of now that I will miss terribly when I return:

1. Cute people in their golden years walking around town at all hours and talking to you
2. Said elderly people sporting hair in all colors of the rainbow (my favorites are old lady blue and magenta)
3. The same people walking around in full length fur coats of all colors and styles
3. Beautiful buildings older than 200years
4. Everyone around me speaking a language that I love to hear and learn
5. Being able to enjoy every second of a road trip because the landscapes look like they were created to take you breath away
6. Fresh food markets where everything is cheaper and more delicious than in the U.S. of A.
8. Having someone else do my laundry and make me amazing ten star quality food
9. Having a second family in Spain
10. Being able to walk or easily take the metro/train everywhere I want to go
11. Cheese.
12. Seeing original pieces of famous and less-famous-but-still-amazing art

...Continued with a little of Madrid thrown in

These street performers in Madrid had me at the first note. I just wish I could have jammed out with them! I have realized that music is a weakness of mine but it is one I am glad to have.

Yes he is playing glasses of water. He was playing Fur Elise and it was so cool!

This is a sweet tree I pass on my walk to the train station everyday. I decided to document my journey.

Another picture for the Phone AT&T - I feel like by the end of this trip I could do a decent commercial.

Tordesillas

Katy and I fell in love with these rugged fellows and decided we couldn't leave without pictures. What can I say, they just stole our hearts with their Spanishness

THis was in the coutyard outside of a Monastery we saw. It was in the Mudehar style which means that moors built it for the Christian after the reconquest. I have to say this may be my favorite style. You can't see it here, but the tiles and patterns are amazing!

Sometimes there are just random words of graffiti on otherwise clean walls. I liked this one.

The view of Toro - where are all the places like this in Utah/Colorado?

This was a lovely little cathedral in the small hamlet of Toro. I loved it. Inside you can see one of the few representations of the pregnant virgin and an amazing polychrome wooded doorway. It was very cool.

Avila, Salamanca, Toro, Tordesailles

As you have probably noticed I am a fan of visual dialogues. These places are beautiful and I love the sagging doorways, crumbling colorful bricks, and mossy stones that overwhelm this country.

For those who don't speak Spanish ladrones means thieves. Appropriate I think.

This is outside the Cathedral of Salamanca. There are actually two Cathedrals connected to each other; the new and the old, with the new one being over 600 years old. Definitely a different sense of time here. Anyway we toured them the day before and started in the new Cathedral. It was beautiful and impressive as they all are, but my favorite part was the track of opera music soaring quietly through the air. It gave me chills and I was excited that I recognized the song. I feel like we never have enough time in these places.

The old Cathedral did not have the same overwhelming presence and was much simpler dating from Roman times, but that made it almost more special. There were amazing carvings and paintings on the stone walls that just amazed me. How did they do that? And, how has is lasted all this time?
Anywho, we decided to wander out early in the morning before the city woke up to explore and here are the findings. I love those quiet hours.

Yes, breakfast of Champions! Hot chocolate is a normal breakfast food here and it is amazing. Their version is called ColaCao and is a little more bitter but made with fresher, creamy milk. I know it can't be healthy but I am going to enjoy it while I can. Luckily, that is not what we eat with the Padres Espanoles.

Doesn't this just make you want to cry and be inspired? Everywhere we go really is a religious experience.

....and then there's the bat wings. Sweater Stories take two outside the amazing medieval walled city of Avila that has been perfectly preserved since the Christian reconquest of Spain.

We were walking on the top of the walls and I saw this man patching up crack and smoking his cigarette just begging to be photographed.

I just can't get enough of these colors, it is the stuff of dreams

yup! The gang's all here!


Also, welcome to the coldest day in the life of my feet. I eventually had to locate a store with wool socks.

Mitten Love

So, cool thing about these Lions: These little fellas surround the Cathedral and anyone seeking sanctuary could be outside the power of the local police once they were inside the domain marked by these lions. Then the local religious authority could protect them or, if they really were criminals, return them to the law.