Picasso Museum, Frederick Maré Museum

Posted on May 21, 2016 by Trudy

I know I am terribly slow finishing these last few posts from our trip but finally, I am going to get it done. Thanks for hanging in and being patient.

Sunday, December 6, 21015

We only have four days left until we leave for home and there is still so much we haven’t seen. It is difficult to believe we have been travelling for almost three months and now it is almost over. Today we are going to visit the Picasso Museum and the Frederic Maré Museum. They are both free today as it is the first Sunday of the month.

On the way to the Picasso Museum we pass the MEAM (European Museum of Modern Art) where we saw the Odd Nerdrum Exhibit way back in September. All the streets in this area are very narrow and I am glad Bob seems to know where we are going, because I certainly don’t!

The Picasso Museum is always busy and today we need to line up and wait to get in but the line moved fairly quickly and we were entertained by this very talented group of musicians while we waited.

There are no photos allowed inside the museum and they are very strict, so I have no pictures of what we saw, but here is a link to the museum collection if you want to see some of the work on display.

The Picasso museum is located in five large town houses or palaces. The original palaces date from the 13th-15th centuries, and the buildings have undergone major restorations. The museum is quite ornate and has many interesting architectural details and courtyards. We spent several hours here, there is so much to see; there are 4,251 works in the permanent collection!

On our way to the next museum we stop to visit the Santa Maria Del Mar.

This church was damaged by fire in 1936 and we can still see soot on the walls and ceilings, and the damage that the fire did to its columns.

The columns are spaced 43 feet apart, the widest of any Gothic Church in Europe. This church was built in just 55 years, from 1329 to 1384 and it is the only surviving church in the Catalan Gothic style. The interior is quite beautiful, and full of light even though it is not ornately decorated like so many of the churches that we have seen.

We climb some old stone steps and there is a great view from the second floor behind the altar looking towards the front doors and beautiful stained glass windows.

Next stop, the Frederic Maré Museum. We had a very brief visit to this museum in September but it was closing so we had to dash through the little bit of it that we saw. It was a fascinating place and we wanted to return for a more leisurely visit. There is a lovely secluded courtyard right outside this museum so we stop for a much needed rest and a rather late lunch.

This quote from the museum’s site explains this rather curious museum, and a virtual reality tour gives a better idea of our visit to this fascinating museum.

“The Museu Frederic Marès is a unique collecting museum that preserves the collections assembled by its founder, sculptor Frederic Marès (1893-1991), which came to form part of the patrimony of the city of Barcelona through his donation in 1946. Two years later, this museum was inaugurated in a part of the old Royal Palace of the Counts of Barcelona in the heart of the Gothic Quarter. Its original Verger or courtyard garden, still remains intact.

Frederic Marès turned sculpture into something beyond his artistic calling. Throughout his lifetime he amassed an extensive Hispanic sculpture collection which ranged from the ancient world until the 19th century, in which religious polychromed carvings predominated. This now makes up the most uniform section of the museum. Marès also donated part of his own sculptural oeuvre, which is on display in his Library-study.

The Collector’s Cabinet is the home to a display of tens of thousands of objects that make up a vast collection of collections that documents past lifestyles and customs, mainly from the 19th century. There you can find amusing, unique items like fans, pipes, clocks, jewellery, photographs, toys, keys, pharmacy bottles and reliquaries, all presented in an intimate atmosphere evoking Marès private universe.”

Here are some of my pictures of this incredible collection.

There was an old picture of the Liceu Opera House, where we will see an opera tomorrow.

We make our way back to the Barcelona Cathedral to get a picture. Last time we were there, a large tent and stage ere erected in front of it which made picture taking difficult. Today there is a Market in the square in front of the Cathedral, so there are balloons in my photo and lots of people everywhere. There were Christmas tree vendors, and several families were buying their trees,

and there were rows and rows of stalls selling nativity scene figurines and crèches of all styles, sizes and shapes.

We leave this busy street and catch the metro back to our neighbourhood and our narrow, quiet street.

Granada Cathedral and Alcaiceria Market

Posted on December 12, 2015 by Trudy

We are back home and although we had a good flight home it was still 24 hours from the time we got up until we arrived home. It is going to take a while to get back on Alberta time. I have fallen behind on my blogging but I am going to continue posting until I have it completed. Thank you for following along with us so far and I hope you will enjoy the rest of our trip.

Saturday, November 21

We spend another day in Granada, as we want to visit the Cathedral and the Alcaiceria, which is a reconstruction of the Moorish Market that burned down in 1843. This market is a maze of narrow streets and colourful shops that are absolutely crammed full of merchandise. We purchase a few souvenirs and Bob has a few laughs at my rather pathetic attempts at bargaining.

The Cathedral is right beside the market so that is our next stop. Upon entering the front door this is the what we see. Here is a closer view of the magnificent dome over the altar. This cathedral has a very ornate very large organ. I spotted this stand with several huge medieval books but it was in a roped off area so I couldn’t get any closer to get a good look.A bit further on down one of the side aisles I was thrilled to find a display of these ancient books. They were behind glass but I was able to get a much better look at them.The lighting wasn’t the best, but there were several cabinets with books inside. While I was absorbed in studying the calligraphy and painted images, the lights in the cabinets shut off and it was too dark to see them anymore. I had no idea why the lights shut off and although we returned a couple of times to check if the lights had been turned back on I was out of luck. I am glad that I at least had the opportunity to see what I had.

We have seen similar skull and crossbones in almost every cathedral we have visited. They are on tombstones embedded in the cathedral floors.The pillars and ceiling are quite ornate and the space they enclose is immense. Notice how small the people are.
This is a view of the back side of the Cathedral, seems I didn’t take one of the front. If you want to know a bit more about the Cathedral check out this link. http://www.thousandwonders.net/Granada+Cathedral It also has some nice pictures.There is a suggested walk through the Albaicin, on the hillside opposite the Alhambra so we head out to explore it. The beginning of the walk was quite nice.I quite liked this ‘Granada’, or pomegranate, on the front of one of the buildings we passed on our walk.We do find this lovely little garden and one other garden attached to a little museum along the way. In the museum garden there are several orange trees loaded with ripe oranges, and we ‘borrow’ one to eat later.

We spent a fair amount of time checking our map and trying to figure out which way to go. The route was not well-marked and we had to backtrack more than once. It was a long walk up lots of steep roads and really for what we saw we weren’t sure it was worth the effort and time, but at least we got some exercise.

This is a view of the Alhambra from a viewpoint on a terrace by some restaurants near the end of our walk.

On the way back to the bus we pass this building with its ‘street art’ and bricked up windows. We saw so many apartments and buildings like this, empty and/or abandoned, right beside occupied buildings and shops. I sure wouldn’t want to be living in an apartment next to an abandoned empty building.

The Alhambra, Granada

Posted on December 6, 2015 by Trudy

Friday, November 20

We caught the local bus into Granada and walked down this wide pedestrian street on our way to the tourist information office. This pedestrian walkway is made with marble paving stones, certainly something we don’t see back home. Outside the tourist office is a unique Christmas tree made with begonias.

There is also a shrine for the victims of the terrorist attacks in Paris. The buildings in Granada are very beautiful, imagine living in an apartment in this magnificent building.

Soon we are on the way to the Alhambra. This was a palace, fortress and medina all rolled into one. We decide to take a bus rather than walk up the hill to its location. This turned out to be a very good decision, as it is a long winding road up to the entrance.

We have a timed entrance ticket into the Nazaries Palaces so we make our way there first. We pass through the modern day medina (shops) and peek into a few on our way. This fellow is making the inlaid wood boxes, table tops and other items that are for sale in his shop. It is very exacting work.

We just have time to visit one of the towers before our visit. This area below the tower has the remains of houses and shops.

The view is spectacular from the top of the tower, but we are surprised at all the smog. We are once more reminded of Paris as the flags here are at half mast.The Alhambra has a lengthy history and it was first built as a fortress in 889. There is more information here if you are interested. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhambra

The entrance to the palace begins in this room with beautiful coloured tile walls.

And then we walk through this little keyhole shaped door, and we are in the incredible courtyard. From here we see one amazing sight after another. I have seen lots of people taking selfies, but this one is definitely the cutest.

The Court of the Lions has the magnificent Fountain of Lions in its center. This is an alabaster basin supported by twelve lions in white marble, which symbolize power, strength and sovereignty.All the buildings are decorated with intricate carvings that were once painted. In some places the paint is still visible.

Water fountains and pools abound in the Alhambra. We also visit the Generalife which is a villa with beautiful gardens that was a retreat away from the rest of the palace.

Next stop is the Palace of Charles V. The palace was built around this round center court and there is an art gallery in part of the building. There is a small charge fee to go in and we are impressed by the quality of the exhibits and how well organized the gallery is.

These sculptures were from the 14th century I think. They were larger than life sized and stunningly beautiful.

There were also some very old books on display.Not sure why they were on the walls on the outside of the Palace of Charles V, but I sure liked these.

We spent the whole day at Alhambra and catch the bus back down into town, walking along the ‘river’ as the sun starts to set. Bob is happy we will be taking another bus back to our apartment so he doesn’t have to drive and I don’t have to navigate!

Granada

Posted on December 4, 2015 by Trudy

Wednesday November 18

Our apartment is near the small village of Alhendin about a half hour from Granada. It is a bit more remote than we had anticipated but it is a very nice, quiet apartment in the walk out basement of a new house. We spend a quiet day, only going into town to get groceries in the afternoon and to book our tickets for the Alhambra in Granada. We got these at a bank machine but it did take us a while to figure it all out. Things are not always as easy or simple as we think they are going to be. On our walk to the bank we see these granadas (pomegranates) growing on a tree. I didn’t know that when they get very ripe they just split open.

Thursday November 19

I had a quiet day and Bob took the bus into Granada and went to the Science Center. He spent 4 hours exploring the various exhibits on anthropology, medicine, transportation and inventions. Below is a model of the blood vessels in a human arm.

The tower has a great view of Granada, but watch out for the giant bugs!

This is a mummy from the Sixth Century found in Peru. The cold, arid climate in the Andies helped preserve the remains. Legend says that he was travelling with his wife for three months and she was the navigator. His last screams are captured just as he froze to death after getting lost again. (Can you tell who wrote this part?)

Lisbon

Posted on October 31, 2015 by Trudy

Wednesday, October 22

Lisbon is the capital of Portugal, with a population of three million people. It is one of the oldest cities in Western Europe, predating Paris, London and Rome by centuries. I didn’t know any of that before our visit. Although we spend the better part of the day in Lisbon, we barely scratched the surface of the area we visited.

A twenty minute train ride into Lisbon places leaves us a short walk from the plaza in front of the Arco da Rua Augusta. This arch symbolizes Lisbon reborn from the ashes of the devastating 1775 earthquake.

Lisbon is known for its cobblestone paving with black and white patterns. The origins of these cobblestone pavements date back to that 1755 earthquake. During Lisbon’s reconstruction, the earthquake’s debris was used to make these cobblestone streets and sidewalks. They are beautiful legacy from a terrible event.

We were lucky enough to see some men working on a sidewalk. They were able to chip a stone in their hand to exactly the right size and shape that was needed. The man in the first photo was whistling happily as he worked, although i think it must be very hard on the body.

The first thing on our agenda was to get a Sim card for our iPad. The Information lady said we could find a shop a few blocks up the hill, right behind the new elevator building. We never did find that, but we found a big mall and got a SIM card there. By this time we needed lunch, so we check out the mall’s food court. Bob got a huge plate with five kinds of meat, fried beans, rice, french fries, salad and a deep fried banana all for 4.65€, about $6.70 Canadian, and I eat my packed lunch. It is just too difficult finding food that I can eat, especially when I understand so little Portuguese or Spanish. It is easier and less stressful to pack my own meals.

Next on the agenda was finding an art store to see if they could help me locate some life drawing venues. No luck there, but I did buy a few new drawing pencils. They sent me to the nearby Fine Art College, and after waiting some time, a lady there informed me that they did not have any drawing sessions for non students. If I had wanted to rent a studio to do printmaking it would have been fine, but nothing for drawing and they did not know of any life drawing places in the city. Remember this is a city of three million people! I couldn’t find anything on the intenet either, so I decided to quit trying.

We did walk by the Santa Justa Lift, also called Carmo Lift, which is an elevator in the historical city of Lisbon, that connects the lower streets of the Baixa neighbourhood with the higher neighbourhood beside it.
It is 45 meters high, and after a short wait we ride to the top for great panoramic views of the city. The panoramic views from the platform at the top of the elevator were spectacular. This one is for Pat, looking down from the the top platform, only 150 feet or so…but the crazy thing is that Lisbon is so incredibly hilly that on the other side of the viewing platform we are almost at ground level! If you look closely you can see people sitting on the patio just below where we are standing.

I thought this was interesting. If you need to add toilets just run the pipes on the outside of the building. This sure wouldn’t work back home when it reaches -30°C!

We take a quick free tour through a military museum about the Revolution in 1974 that put an end to the dictatorship that ruled Portugal for 48 years, then walked back down towards the old Jewish part of the town. We visit the Sé Cathedral, which is the oldest Cathedral in Lisbon, its construction began in 1147, and it has survived many earthquakes. These vestments are from the 18th Century. I thought they were particularly beautiful.I have such a difficult time with people begging. Some of them appear to be in such desperate condition that it is hard not to give them some money, yet we are told not to do this as it only encourages more begging… This woman on the steps of the Cathedral wasn’t having much luck when we went into the church but when we came out she had changed into this posture and more people were stopping to put money in her container. Is it easier to give to someone who doesn’t make eye contact with you?

In the old Jewish part of town we walk down a street of tiny stores that sell buttons, and a bit of ribbon. I wonder how so many stores selling only buttons can survive?

Many of the houses here are completely tiled. We decide not to walk any further as it is very hilly and we are should think about catching the train home.

Walking home from the train I stop to take this picture and a lady on a motorcycle stops to tell me that she keeps forgetting to bring her camera to take a picture of these white birds, first in Portuguese and then in quite good English. Bob counted almost thirty birds in this tree.

Iugula! Verbera! Missus!

Posted on October 25, 2015 by Trudy

Monday, October 19

We are still in Merda and we are going to visit ten Roman Ruins today if we follow Bob’s schedule!

Today’s title is from one of the plaques from the Amphitheatre yesterday. Bob wanted me to use it for the title yesterday but I forgot so here it is today. It is what the crowds would shout at the Amphitheatre when the gladiators were fighting. Kill him! Beat him! Pardon him! These were not easy times…

#1 The Mithreó House, a rather grand Roman residence that has mosaics, wall paintings, three patios, garden rooms, family rooms, commercial and industrial rooms and hot baths. It is located outside under a protective roof.

#2 The Aquaduct of San Lázaro #3 The Aquaduct of Los Milagros ( I think). There is some confusion over the name of this one. Bob thinks he can hold it all up!

#4 The Circus, or Racecourse, which was a kilometer around the track, and they ran around this seven times during the course of a race! We walked the track and out through the gates that the charioteers would have entered. The Circus held 30,000 spectators who would often spend the entire day from morning to dusk watching the races.

#5 Excavations at Santa Eulalia Church. These excavations are beneath the church and have the remains of four different times: Roman Houses, 3rd century, a Christian necropolis, 4th century, which contains a mausoleum for Saint Eulalia, a martyred child saint, a basilica dedicated to Saint Eulalia, 5th to 9th centuries, and the present day church from 1230 until now. #6 As we are walking we come across the ruins of a Roman hospital and pilgrim’s hostel, built on the remains of the site of an earlier necropolis. There are ruins everywhere in this city!#7 Next stop is the Temple of Diana, which was built in 1 BC, and later had a palace built inside of it, which can be seen at the back of the temple. #8 Plaza de Espana is next, and time for a much deserved rest and some tea and cookies.

#9 Trajano’s Arch which is 15 meters high and was once covered in marble. Part of it is now lower than the road that runs through it. The right hand pillar has an area around the column that goes down to the original base of the arch.
#10 The Citadel and Conventual, which is a Moorish fortress in 835 and later a convent in 1229.It has a really neat underground cistern that we walk down this tunnel to visit, complete with goldfish.

Bob is sure he can pick up one of these cannonballs. What do you think?
#11 The Roman bridge over the Guadiana River which was built 2,000 years ago was still in use in the 19th century and became a pedestrian only bridge in 1993.

#12 The Morería Archaelogical Area is 12,000 square meters of ruins that had several modern building constructed over them in1980 in a way that allows visitors to still walk around the ruins. It is quite something to see. Look closely, one of the pictures has me somewhere in it.

Whew!! I can’t believe we managed to see all this, and it didn’t even rain on us. Somehow we saw twelve different places, not the original ten Bob had planned for us! It was a busy day but a very interesting one.

Merida, Spain

Posted on October 25, 2015 by Trudy

Sunday, October 18

Merida is about half an hour from the Portuguese border, in central Spain. It poured rain all night and most of this morning so we weren’t in a hurry to go exploring. We decided we would go to the Museo Nacional de Arte Romano, which we both really enjoyed. It is a beautiful building that was designed to house this collection, rather than being a converted monastery or palace, like so many museums in Europe .

Here is a close up of the sculptures and reliefs at the end of this big hall. I really loved this huge bull from the 1st Century AD.

The museum has several very large floor mosaics on display. I wonder how they are able to lift these off a floor and display them on a wall? Anyone know?Portrait sculpture was very important to the ancient Romans. I felt like I would know these people if I met them, their portraits were so expressive.

We stayed in the museum until it closed at 4:00 and then went to visit the Amphitheatre and the Roman Theatre. These were both amazing places. The sunken area of the amphitheatre was once covered by a wooden floor. I have no idea why, there are lots of things I wanted to know about, but didn’t find answers to. Guess I need to do some research.The view from inside a ‘room’ beside one of the entrances to the floor of the amphitheatre. Some pictures of the area on the way to the Roman Theatre.

Merida was founded in 25 BC and was the capital of Rome’s westernmost province which was why it has all these fantastic monuments. This Theatre wa built in 15-16 BC and is still used today in the summer for the city’s drama festival. It is hard to believe that these ruins are 2000 years old and still in such good condition. Yes, some of it has been reconstructed but it is all still pretty amazing.

The gardens behind the stage were used as a foyer during intermissions.We spent quite a bit of time walking around these splendid ruins but then it started to rain again so we headed home for another late supper. Our car was parked near this pretty little courtyard.

Toledo to Merida

Posted on October 22, 2015 by Trudy

Saturday, October 17

We are on our way to Toledo this morning, and then on to Merida where we have our next apartment. Yesterday we stayed home for a bit of rest and to pack and get ready for today. This view is from the cafeteria on the top floor of the public library in Toledo.We literally travelled in circles looking for a library of ancient manuscripts and books. The Information center sent us to the library, but it was the public library and they told us that what we wanted was likely closed but that we could go see, so we went there, but where they sent us wasn’t the right place. A second information lady gave us different information. We found out it was in the Alcázar museum, so we went there, only they told us we needed to go back to the library and that the collection was a special room there. The same library that sent us elsewhere! Only problem was that it closed at 2:00 and it is now ten to two! We give up, deciding that we just weren’t meant to see these manuscripts. Too bad, I would really have enjoyed the chance to at least have a look at them. One of the stops on our way to find the elusive manuscripts overlooks a winding road and the hills on the edge of town.We did find this statue of Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote’s La Mancha.The streets are very narrow and Toledo is a very hilly town. We seem to be either climbing up or down steps and streets. Once again, we are out and about when a lot of the shops and businesses are closed. This 2:00 to 5:00 lunch hour just doesn’t work for us. We are usually home by 8:00, and it seems everyone else is just starting to think about their evening’s meal and entertainment.We take a tea break and have this great view of the Toledo Cathedral, but neither of us really feel like going inside, instead we sit in the sun and watch the people in the square. Great people watching!

There are lots of knives and swords for sale here, apparently they are made locally. I have a friend who makes beautiful knives and thought he might like seeing these. There is lots more to see in Toledo but we are tired and need to get on the road to Merida to meet our next host at 8:00. We drive in pouring rain for the last couple of hours and it continues to come down in buckets when we arrive in Merida, but we meet Ana, our host, and we love our new apartment.

We have been very pleased with all of our Airbnb apartments so far. Let’s hope our luck lasts. I love seeing all the apartments and it is so nice having a kitchen. We are making most of our meals as that works so much better with my dietary restrictions.

The Prado

Posted on October 22, 2015 by Trudy

Thursday October 15

This Mad Hatter was outside the Prado with his little white mouse. They both looked very content and pleased with themselves!The Prado has 102 rooms and we managed to visit all but 17 of them. We spent about six hours exploring and soaking up the incredible art work but we simply ran out of time and energy. There are no photos in the Museum but I did take these two. I know, I am a bad girl! We saw many paintings that were familiar because of reading my art books. It was wonderful seeing these works in person. This is a very famous Goya work titled “The Family of Charles IV.” I just wanted one photo to say “Yes, I was there.” When I am home I will find a good book on the Prado as a reminder of everything we have seen today. Books are just too heavy to lug around in our suitcases!The Museum encourages artists to study and paint in the Museum, as this young lady was doing. We saw several artists at work today. Pictures were allowed in the Leoni Cloister and when we looked up we could see that there were workrooms above the cloister. I would love to be able to tour these rooms, but had to settle for zooming in for a closer look.We headed back to our Airbnb for some much needed rest. I love touring Museums and Art Galleries but it is quite exhausting, physically and mentally.This has been home for the last ten nights but we leave the day after tomorrow. We only planned on staying here for four nights but liked it so much, and Bob really liked taking the bus into Madrid instead of driving, so we changed our reservation to twelve nights.

Palacio Real and Templo De Debod

Posted on October 21, 2015 by Trudy

Wednesday, October 14

The Palacio Real is the official residence of Spanish Royalty and the building we tried to visit Monday that was closed for a State Function.Bob read somewhere that there are over 2000 rooms in the Palace but we are quite content to visit the twenty or so that were open to the public. This is half of the grand staircase at the entrance, there is also a set of stairs on either side of this one that continues to the second level. The red crest at the top of the stairs is the personal crest of King Felipe IV, who we almost saw on Monday!This is the view up above the staircase. It was very ornate but only a taste of what we saw inside the Palace rooms.i did take one picture of the Royal Chamber of Carlos (Charles) III also known as the Gasparini Room. We spent about an hour and a half touring these lavish rooms, each more ornate and incredible than the last. We even visit the Throne room and the Crown Room where the Royal Crown and Sceptre are kept along with other State treasures. There are the ordinary sort of Museum ‘guards’ but there doesn’t appear to be a lot of security inside the Palace. Mind you, there are lots of police everywhere outside the palace.Do I look royal walking down the Palace stairs? Just picture me in a beautiful ball gown, all decked out in jewels!We visit the Armoury through these old doors. Turns out it is one of the most important collections of parade and tournament armour in the world! Everything is beautifully displayed on two floors and there is even armour for children and ponies. No photos allowed, but here is a photo of a photo from a little calendar we bought.

After a tea break in the Palace Cafeteria I do go back and sketch this interesting old helmet from the 1400’s. It was one of the first exhibits we saw when we entered the armoury, and of course I love dragons. It was also small enough to sketch in a short time.

We walk through the Palace Gardens on our way to the Parque del Oeste which is on a hill high above the Palace.

There we visit the Egyptian Temple de Debod. The neat thing about seeing this temple is that we actually visited its original location, where the Aswan Dam flooded many temples, several years ago. Now here we are in Madrid, seeing this temple that was saved and given to the Spanish people in thanks for their help in saving the temples at Abu Simbel.

Two of the original entrance arches to the temple.A view of the back of this 2000 year old temple and some of Madrid’s newer buildings. I thought this dome was different all in coloured tiles. A view of the Palace. We can see for miles from the top of the park behind the Temple of Debod.On the way home we stop for tapas at the Mercado de San Miguel that we visited the other day. This is basically a glorified food court in a neat old iron and glass building. We find some tapas for Bob, and one for me. Bob has two delicious pastries and I have to be content with taking pictures of desserts. It is hard to find any for me when I don’t eat gluten, eggs or dairy. I do get a fruit cup…This picture is for L & M, yummy little hedgehogs and Marzipan fruit and veggies with faces.