The Cristal Mysterious

June 10 Happy Birthday AA.

In morning we went to the Museo Thyssen to se the Matisse exhibit and the permanent collection. Matisse is my favorite painter of all time. What the man did with line and color is beyond belief. He completed paintings without completing paintings, without detail but loaded with detail. To see a whole body of his work really brought this home. And I was able to read and understand Matisse’s words on the wall in Spanish. Wowie zowie! After the Matisse Exhibit we viewed the permanent collection. Sadly all the Van Goghs were on loan for the summer. But we saw lots of wonderful work. And left exhausted and blurry after three hours.

We went back to the hotel and changed into shorts for a journey to the Parque Buen Retiro. What a lovely place. The entry was flanked by charmingly innocent sculptures of happiness, generosity and other gifts and virtues. We sat by the lake and watched the boaters boating. It looked like way too much work for our tastes. We strolled around the ark and found a Rose Garden, a few fountains, lakes, fish and ducks. We came across a very odd building, the Palacio Cristal fashioned after a similar building in London. T some point it was used as an arboretum, but now it is empty. Except that when we walked in there was a huge stuffed bear and a huge stuff rat dangling from the ceiling (don’t get any ideas John) and some low strange noises coming from four huge speakers. What we finally figured out is that this was all an extension of an installation piece at the Prado titled Animals Are People Too, or something like that. It was still pretty bizarre. I will post pictures later.

After the park it was siesta time. In the evening we went to dinner and then to a Flamenco show. Very amazing! I got some great footage for my foot video. I have never seen feet move that fast, except maybe in the Stomp. We got home around midnight and listened to the revelers during a fitful sleep until six in the morning. My goodness drunks are loud. Between midnight and two we listened to drunkenness in English and from two until six we listened to it in Spanish. Different language, same sound. Discordant, crashing, hysteria tinged with violence. The soft sounds of street construction took over around eight. So breakfast.

We are packing now to head to the train station for our trip to Fuengirola. I love train rides. If you want to see the underbelly of any city, travel by train. Train tracks are always in the slummiest part of the city from Beijing to Madrid.

Chao.