I'm back in Cuenca, Ecuador. It's as if I never left. I returned from Madrid on Saturday during a three day weekend festival celebrating Ecuadorian independence from Spain. Everybody in Cuenca must be on the coast or in Quito, the capital. It's wonderful! So tranquil, hardly a soul in sight, and all the traffic and congestion is like it never existed. Possibly, things may be shaking in El Centro, but there is no movement of groups of people walking back and forth from the center. Even along the river as I walked this sunny Sunday afternoon, there is hardly a soul in sight. Monday, things were back to normal, but another beautiful sunny day, and even for the beginning of a new work and school week things were quieter than usual.
No matter where I travel or how much I enjoy it; I am always happy that I have Cuenca to return to. She may not be as large, culturally sophisticated, or as wealthy as some of these other cities; but she is truly the jewel of the Andes and a wonderful place to live.
I liked Madrid. I only wished I had allowed a few additional days to take in a few other activities and feel more acclimated to the city as well. So I'll share some photos with you of my remaining two days, which were spent in Madrid before returning home to Ecuador.
Once I arrived by the speed train from Barcelona, I quickly wanted to make use of the rest of the day. Luckily, museums are opened until 10:00 p.m. I walked the six minutes from my Airbnb at about 4:30 p.m. to the Reina-Sofia National Museum of Modern Art. This was my lucky day. No lines and the entry was free. As I mentioned in my first post on "Traveling in Spain", I wasn't impressed with the Prado and the Thyssen Art Museums, both of which share a triangular complex with the Reina-Sofia. However, in the Reina-Sofia, I marveled at the paintings for two and a half hours. Reading many of the placards, snapping photos, and taking time to study the paintings to attempt to actually see what the artists were attempting to convey, and what styles and techniques they used to convey perspectives to their viewers. I haven't enjoyed a modern art collection this much since I visited the Guggenheim in Venice in 2015.
Surprisingly, of these three art museums, Reina-Sofia allowed photos to be taken. Unfortunately, photos were not permitted in a few galleries adjacent to one of museum's top attraction, Picasso's "Guernicca", of the destruction of a town and its people during the Spanish Civil War, possibly Picasso's most famous work.
I so enjoyed this museum. I had a magic wand audio, which worked beautifully with explanations of biographical and artistic technical details of specific paintings. I wish I had time to discuss what the artists were attempting to convey, but that would take volumes.
There were wonderful collections, particularly of Cubism and Surrealism, and many of the artists like Picasso, Salvador Dali, Esteban Frances, Jean Metzinger, Angeles Santos, Auguste Herbin, Benjamin Palencia, Juan Gris, and Max Ernest--all contributed greatly to the birth and development of Modern Art movements. Spanish artists were in the forefront of the movement.
John Gris, 'The Bottle of Anis' 1914
Xul Solar, 'The Walker's Meadow" 1917
Augusten Herbin, 'Portrait of Madame H 1912
Angeles Santos, 'The Gathering 1929
Salvador Deli in his early days of painting, 'Girl at the Window' 1925
Juan Gris, 'Open Window with Hills' 1923, and the next painting is a variation from 1921.
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Juan Gris, 'Inlaid Guitar' 1925 |
Salvador Deli, 'Still Life' 1926
John Metzinger, 'Still Life with Fruit and Jug' 1917
Esteban Frances, 'Wire Fences' 1937
Salvador Deli, 'The Endless Enigma
Salvador Dali, The Invisible Man' 1929-1932
Salvador Dali, 'Face of the Great Masturbater' 1929
Benjamin Palencia, 'Still Life' 1925
Max Ernest, 'Red Birds' 1926
Central Court Yard of Reina-Sofia.
Below is the entrance with glass elevators on both sides of the Reina-Sofia. There are a number of restaurants on the square and I enjoyed sitting across the square from the entrance for hours, where I had a meal on three different occasions; especially since two of those meals were at a very good Italian restaurant.
A block from my apartment was the opera house, which has trees and bushes, etc growing on and out of the entire one side of the building. I am sorry this evening post below is so blurry. The day time photo under it, shows just how awesome this is. It is a wall to wall carpeting of vegetation.
Parque de El Retiro
My last full day in Madrid, I walked over to the Parque de El Retiro, Madrid's largest and most emblematic park. Wow, another free entry, and any exhibits were free as well. Another gorgeous day, and I wandered about the grounds for three and a half hours. Not since I visited Kensington Park in London had I been in such a grandeur setting. The pathways were everywhere., and the vast majority were paved. I have no idea how much of the park I actually saw.
Some of the settings were cultivated like below. There was a beautiful rose garden, but by the time I discovered it, I was looking for the exit and my cell phone battery was running low, so no photos of the garden, which was a shame because the roses were in full bloom.
I thought when I spotted this structure that it would be a botanical garden. Not even close.
There were three or four sculpture pieces in all of this space, and there was the beauty of the park to appreciate as viewed through all the glass.
Another building situated in the park, had an exhibit of a Japanese painter by the name of Tetsuya Ishida.
Ishida's theme through all of his paintings in the exhibit--and there were many--dealt with man's lost of identity in a corporate structure of mindless consciousness. A theme that was quite popular in Ishidas's heyday as a painter, which was especially held by those Japanese workers who were disaffected by the Japanese corporate culture.
The worker appears to be an automaton, and increasingly meshed with the machine. Unfortunately, an entire exhibition with this theme gets depressing. In fact, Ishida committed suicide when he was only thirty-two, so I'll spare you most of the collection.
It was an enchanting way to bring to a close my time in Spain, and to spend my last evening in my Italian restaurant across from the Reina-Sofia, return home to pack, and return to Ecuador the next day.
