The Pantzers parlay Portugal

June 18: Madrid

Today saw the Pantzers get cultural with a visit to the famous Prado Museum

The main Spanish national art museum, the Prado houses collections of European art, dating from the 12th century to the early 20th century. The Prado’s walls are lined with masterpieces from the Spanish, Italian and Flemish schools including Velazquez’ “Las Meninas” and Goya’s “Third of May 1808”.

We spent a couple of hours there, followed by a well deserved ice cream under a shady tree.

I went off to the contemporary art museum, Reina Sofia, while Warren and Di headed back to the Gran Via where they found a great lunch spot, novelty shops, and street hawkers. Warren watched the street hawkers who was selling designer handbags and jumpers. All the merchandise was connected to the hawker with a piece of string, so that when the police were near, the hawker could quickly gather up the bags and disappear from view.

And for any Real Madrid fans among our blog readers, here’s some recognition of them (I’m not going to explain the pictures as REAL Real Madrid fans will know!)

Meanwhile back at the Reina Sofia, it is Spain’s national museum of  20th century art. The museum is mainly dedicated to Spanish art. Highlights include collections of Spain’s two greatest 20th-century masters, Picasso and Dali.  The most famous masterpiece in the museum is Picasso’s 1937 painting “Guernica”.

Then I braved the very hot weather (37 degs) to walk the streets of the Lavapies district looking at some of its street art. I was the only one on the tour so it meant that we could stop from time to time and seek relief in air conditioned cafes.

Here’s some of the art on view.

I got to learn the difference between murals, illegal graffiti and the growing use of digital displays with 3D imaging – you just need to point your camera at a QR code to see this.

All the Pantzers were pretty tired by the end of the day. It’s goodbye to Madrid and its beautiful architecture.