We spent a day wandering the La Almudena Cemetery. It’s absolutely enormous, rather young in age (1884), and quite a mix of well-maintained graves and crumbling to nothing edifices. Plus, of course, it has cats.
We enjoyed a day in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum (one of the Big Three. Museo Reina Sofia is still on the hit list). B probably spoke heresy when he said he liked it better than the Prado. But really, it makes sense. It’s organized chronologically so it’s a bit like your art history textbook. (Full disclosure, I never took Art History, Brian did.) It’s got a flow to it that makes the changes in themes and materials very clear. It’s eclectic, since it comes from a private collection and reflects the tastes of about three people (and their purchasing advisors?). But since the collection was begun so recently, it solidly nails a Who’s Who of artists. Several of my favorites were represented: Memling, Pissarro, Magritte.
Navidad is in full swing here and we went out on Black Friday to see all the lights. The major Plazas and Squares are filled up with trees (fake), ice rinks, carousels, creches, and so many lights. It was fun to wander up and down the car-free streets and marvel at the choices each neighborhood and Via makes with their décor. I do not know what ring-railed lemmings have to do with Christmas, but I am here for it. I also appreciated that with all the crowds the non-profits were out: the bloodmobile was recruiting off of the Plaza Mayor, and two separate dog adoption events were plunked down under holiday lights.
We’ve spent time marveling at architecture, and managed to find the ugliest holiday sweater, all within blocks of our lodgings.
Dedfinitely ugly, but the Danish ones are ugly AND crass.
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