The day Kate’s been most anticipating. The Prado art museum. Again, well within walking distance. And again, a much later start than we’d hoped. But we made do. We had a few tasks to check off before we left. Change some Euro, Buy some fruit, and perhaps most importantly purchase some forgotten toothbrushes. Zeke and I headed out to a bank I’d noticed on my run. They took their security very seriously. The only way into the bank were these glass doors that temporarily sealed you in a little box sort of like an airport sniffer. It was an odd experience and we only figured out how to operate them after watching one of the locals pass through. I also made my greatest Spanish language learning so far…. After Zeke was standing directly next to the teller counter and I noticed a look from the teller that told me perhaps he was doing something wrong, I looked down to see a red line on the floor with the words “Por Favor, Espere Aqui Su Turno”. Experience immediately told me what it was and I said Zeke, back here behind the line. Then I had him translate for me. Please, Wait here for your turn. Turns out we’d forgotten our passport so needed to head back to the hotel. The lady said ‘lo siento’ as I left and I wondered what the heck she’d said, when I recalled a conversation I’d had with Zeke just the day prior where I’d asked him how to say I’m sorry. BINGO. Lo Siento. So back to the hotel. At this point Jane was also up and about, so we grabbed my passport and headed back out to try our luck again. Zeke pointed out that maybe we should use the other teller as she was younger and likely knew more English. But I wanted to challenge ourselves (him) so we took on the same teller. I knew immediately that we’d impacted her routine, as she had to head back to the manager to ask him something when we slid our travellers checks through the window. I could see her frustration mounting as she pulled out what was apparently a typed up instruction sheet tucked neatly away in a file cabinet behind her and apparently not often used. After a few minutes frustration on the computer attempting to enter my passport information, she asked me a question. My blank face was certainly no comfort to her. But the younger lady pitched in… What is your address here? Are you staying at the Hotel Agumar. Si Si Agumar. The older teller returned to her typing, but things didn’t get better. Turns out the American Express system was down (or at least that’s what she told us), so we ended up sliding some more US$ through the window and cashing more US$ than I’d hoped to. Hopefully the travellers’ checks will be as easy to use down the road. Task 1 accomplished. To celebrate Jane grabbed us each a mint at the teller window. And we headed for some fruit.
I was headed for the big Supermercado that we’d noticed earlier, when Zeke spotted a fruit/veggie store that looked perfect. Lots of fruits I recognized, Manzana (apple), Naranja (orange), Uvas (grapes), Platana (plantains – sort of like bananas), and a few other oddities. I started squeezing the fruit for ripeness, when a lady rushed up to me with a plastic glove and a bag. Lo Siento. I get it, put the glove on before squeezing the fruit. We stocked up and headed for our last stop. Toothbrushes.
Janie spied the green neon cross that seems to mark every Pharmacy. And we guessed they’d have toothbrushes. I wondered how you say toothbrush in Spanish, or at least how to mime it out. But luckily, they were sitting right up front and we needed only point at them. Zeke used a little Spanish on the man at the window, and he asked Zeke “Habla Espanol”. He replied “Si, Un Poquito”. The man smiled.
We returned with our bounty, and quickly fueled up (the Naranja were terrific), then on to our walk to the Prado. A quick little detour to pickup Maeve’s hat that I’d left on the bus tour, which by sheer luck had it in their lost and found at the far end of the Prado! And some jostling to find the proper entrance to turn our web-purchased tix into real tickets, and some misunderstanding over our carry in bag and a stroller offered to us, which surprisingly Zeke seemed to understand. But finally we were in the Prado.We hit the prerequisite bathroom stop, while Kate got her audio tour. Unfortunately the kids audio tour was only in Spanish. The Prado doesn’t allow photos, so no photos on this blog. But famous painting after painting after painting after sculpture after paining. Way too many to remember them all. The one that stood out for me was a portrait of a queen or duchess or some other royalty which literally seemed lifelike from a distance. As if she could walk out of the painting. I imagined how pleased the duchess must have been after spending the money on a fine artist (don’t know who) to do her portrait, and how please she must have been having it hanging in her home and showing it off to her company. Upon walking closer and examining at arms length the facade broke down and you could see the individual brush strokes and technique. But amazing to see how the artist commanded the medium to represent such a life-like portrait at a distance. Even her dress seemed to shimmer at each point were you’d expect the light to reflect.
Jane had a tough night’s sleep and made some poor choices, but she got things back on track and we finished the day in good standing. At one point, she told me she needed to use the bathroom and I knew she knew where it was so I sent her off. After taking our fill of the bronze and marble statues, we started wondering what was taking Jane so long. I had Kate go check it out. Kate came out of the bathroom smiling. Apparently the door had jammed and Janie had locked herself in the bathroom and was starting to get frustrated. Again, she recovered gracefully and I ran up to her with a big hug over-exaggerating my joy in finding her safe and sound. We joked that this could have been the sequel to Night at the Museum… Night at the Prado. Theo, Maeve and I headed back early. Zeke decided to stay.
Here’s a few of his thoughts on the Prado… After Dad and the other kids left, mom showed me one of Boscos famous works. It was a picture of the Garden of Eden, Earth and Hell in three panels. I especially liked how it was mostly imagination and how there was no blood in hell (like the gore in many of the other paintings). After that I saw a room that I really wanted to go to. Sala ciento uno. In it were very extravagant bronze and glass cups and salt cellars that they used in the 1600s. My favorite was called the mermaid, a salt cellar that was held up from the base by a mermaid. The mermaid was made of gold and had many beautiful jewels on it. In the room next to it, there was some wonderful pieces of art done with glass. They were like painted pictures made of colored glass. The people who made them had to cut small pieces of glass and put them back together to create the paining. Earlier I’d noticed a special room on the map. This exhibit held about 10 tapestries, depicting the love of Herse and Mercury. And the envy of Aglourus, Herse’ sister that turned her to stone. They were large banners meant for large halls in castles, that were made with real-gold thread. The people were lift-sized and a different part of the story was covered in each tapestry.
After the kids and I left the Prado, Theo and Maeve spent quite some time chasing pigeons. Theo quite prides himself as a bird chaser and has a long history of it on many other vacations. Here’s a shot of them and their new friend chasing pigeons…
No comments:
Post a Comment