Digesting

Arrived back just after midnight after a wonderful 60 or so hours in Madrid, along with 5 other members of my bookgroup.  This included 3 other blippers  HazelH, RB13 and ArcLight. I captured the  non-blippers  C & M in my blips for Fri, Sat and Sun  and I in turn was captured in a  meta-blip by ArcLight. 

We packed a lot into our 60 hours with sightseeing punctuated by eating with ham on toast and patries for breakfast, tapas for lunch and Spanish with Japnese flavourings one evening for dinner and a more traditional Spanish mean the other. And if this wasnt enough we found time (and spice)  for Churros and Chocolate at Chocolateria San Gines.


The trip had been prompted by a growing appreciation of Velazquez following our reading of The Vanishing Man: in Pursuit of Velazquez by Laura Cumming. We went on our pursuit first thing Saturday, arriving at opening and heading straight to Las Meninas where enjoyed some momemts of solitude before the crowds built up. It is an amazing picture and it was fun to stand and watch from differnt viewpoints, realising how well Velazquez captured perspective and depth of field. His others works are also striking, my favourites being the portraits of non-Royal persons . He really seems to capture the humanity of those that he painted.  We also visited the Reina Sofia (where we all went to see Guernica and then separted to pursue individual pursuits: I took in a Dorothea Tanning exhibition whose earlier work I enjoyed the most) and the Thysesen. This was new to me and I absolutely loved it - so a good reason, if one were needed to go back to Madrid.

In between times we walked and walked and walked (over 20k steps each day),coming across  celebrations in honour of La Almudena, a wedding, the Retiro, Plaza de Mayor and much much more. 

A good time was had by a all and our next trip is now being planned !