That must have been delightful, Nathan! Of the few benefits of the pandemic,
empty streets and roads must count as major.
Another benefit of the half-cocked decisions by the British Government must be
the lack of the normal visitors from the UK, except that it appears that the
Costa Brava brigade are invading normally peaceful British resorts – not a
benefit . . .
Of course, the economic damage continues, I realise.
Chris
> On 4 Aug 20, at 11:16, olympus-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
> Last Friday I made the first trip away from Alicante since coming home from
> my last business trip in early March. I have long wanted to make another day
> trip to Madrid, alone, to visit art museums at my own pace and generally
> enjoy the big city for a few hours. So that?s what I did on Friday, the first
> day of my summer vacation. The logistics were simple: I took the high speed
> train AVE at 7 a.m., arriving in Madrid at 9:30, spent the day there, and
> took a 19:20 train back to Alicante in the evening. I started by visiting the
> Museo Reina Sofia, the main contemporary art museum in Madrid, which houses
> Picasso?s Guernica painting (no pics of that, as there is a prohibition
> against photography in that room, and there are several attendants to enforce
> it). I then took a walk in the magnificent Parque de Buen Retiro, Madrid?s
> equivalent of New York?s Central Park, and then went to the recently
> re-opened Museo del Prado to see (again) some of my own favourites from
> previous visits, includi
> ng the Flemish masters, Hieronymous Bosch, the Spanish painters Vel?quez,
> Goya, Murillo etc. In-between I visited another cultural icon, the bar El
> Brillante, and had an early lunch of their excellent version of one of
> Madrid?s signature sandwiches, the bocadillo de calamares. After the Prado I
> walked to the centre of the city (I walked everywhere; given the epidemic, I
> did not want to use Madrid?s metro to move around as I usually do), first
> Puerta del Sol, heart of the shopping district, and then Plaza Mayor, a large
> square containing Madrid?s old town hall and lined by bars and restaurants
> that usually making a roaring trade vastly overcharging the tourists for
> mediocre food. But not now. The plaza was virtually deserted, and had I
> wanted a table at one of the restaurants that were open for business (quite a
> few had not bothered to re-open) I would have had ample choice. The museums
> were also almost empty?they are only allowed to let in 1/3 of the usual
> maximum number of visitors
> , but do not even come close to that. This was nice for me, not that nice for
> the museums.
>
> The virus-control procedures are quite strict. It goes without saying that
> facemasks are compulsory everywhere; to enter the Prado you must submit to a
> temperature check and if you score 37.5C or above, you will not be admitted.
> I was slightly concerned because I had just spent an hour in the Retiro park,
> and the outside temperature was getting close to the afternoon high of 40C,
> but I need not have worried?my temperature was 36.5. At the Atocha train
> station where were gates through which passengers would pass, and the same
> rules applied?anybody with a temperature of over 37.5C would not be allowed
> to board the train. On the train, none of the usual services were
> available?the cafeteria car was closed, no free earphones or newspapers were
> distributed as is usually the case, and passengers were encouraged to stay in
> their seat throughout the journey and not to talk to other passengers.
> Obviously masks were worn by everyone throughout.
>
> Enough words. Here are the photos I took, many of the art works at the Reina
> Sofia, a musuem I have visited before but always together with someone else.
> This was the first time I really had time to explore it, and I was really
> astounded by the quality of Spanish painting in the postwar decades, when
> cultural life in this country was constrained by the Franco dictatorship?but
> this did not keep its artists from producing excellent work (I see some of
> the same when I visit Poland and look at art from Communist times?the censors
> were too stupid to catch some of the nuances of modern art; writers had it
> more difficult).
>
> So come for a Covid walk around Madrid, that looks familiar and yet very
> different from the city I am used to visiting:
>
> http://www.frozenlight.eu/madrid_july2020/
> <http://www.frozenlight.eu/madrid_july2020/>
> <http://www.frozenlight.eu/madrid_july2020/
> <http://www.frozenlight.eu/madrid_july2020/>>
--
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