Museum Hopper

My mom and I arrived in Madrid on Tuesday evening and first thing on Wednesday, we headed to el Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza .  It was across the street! This museum reminded me quite a bit of the Musee d'Orsay (for Spain) meets the Frick (since it was/is a private collection).  The collection is very nicely curated and progresses chronologically through their collection.  They have seven paintings from the list .  I really enjoyed their late 1800/ early 1900 century art collection -- they had some really fantastic Edward Hopper paintings.   That being said, they have some fantastic renaissance art as well.  The El Greco painting, The Annunciation ,   was the beginning of our love fest with his art while in Madrid (see Prado , Church of Santo Tome , Museo del Greco ).   My mother was thrilled that they had a Wyeth exhibit.  It was a exhibit about both father and son, " Wyeth: Andrew and Jamie in the studio. "  My mother was surprised that they really did not feature the g

I have been somewhat dreading writing this blog post -- I am worried that I am not going to the Prado and Thyssen (the next post I have to do) justice!   I booked tickets for my mom and I in advance for Saturday, which I highly recommend.  We still have a line to get in, but it was nowhere near as bad as the other line.  Our line was mostly due to people arriving before the museum opened.  I also think we got a slight discount for booking online.  I also bought the museum guide with our ticket.  I was expecting some sort of small-ish book; the book was ~20 EUR bought separately in the bookshop.  It was only ~9 EUR with the ticket.  While heavy to carry through the galleries, it was a nice reference for some of the other masterpieces.   Also, worth noting, you can get your ticket stamped as you leave and you can come back.   Our line a few minutes before it opened Our hotel was basically across the street from the museum, which was also fantastic.  The Prado does have free entr

Jason and I dashed (literally ran) into the Bryggen Museum to avoid the downpour!  The Bryggen Museum is right next to the UNESCO Heritage Site row houses.  It is about the history of the row houses and the Bergen area. The bottom floor is the permanent exhibit.  Like most major towns, Bergen had a number of major fires.  Each time, the town rebuilt on top of the remains of the previous one, so Bergen today is ~6 feet higher than the earlier settlements.  Given this, the Bergen museum, encloses some of the earlier foundations which the rebuilds had covered.  They also had a number of artifacts that had been discovered like shoes and tools.   The upper floor was an exhibit focused on "Great Fire of 1916."  It started as when a few storage workers lit a candle to see in the dark, but unfortunately, it caught spark on the goods in the warehouse.  The Bergen city government took advantage of this horrible misfortune to redesign Bergen into the modern city it is today.  At th

Jason and I visited this tower while we were in Bergen over our Norwegian cruise.  I have to say I was extremely disappointed.  This is the first "C" I have given out in a while!   First of all, it was not cheap to get in (then again what in Norway is cheap?), so we figured why not?  The description stated there was a look out, so we thought we could see the building and get a view of the city at the same time.   The rooms in the tower were close to empty, but did have descriptions on the wall as to what each room's purpose was.  The rooms were quite stark (since this was from the 1500s) with plain walls and wooden floors.  We did not even take any pictures! Much to our surprise, we did not have a viewing platform!  All of the windows were closed; most of which were leaded glass and obscured anything outside. Overall, it was just a pretty big disappointment.    Time in tower: 40 minutes Times visited: 1 Overall: C

I decided to run over to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reine Sofia Saturday afternoon while I was in Madrid.  It is very close to the hotel we stayed in and I really did want to see Picasso's Guernica , which is the highlight of their collection. The art museum has a number of temporary exhibits, but the main permanent collection is on the 2nd floor.  The museum is focused on themes like "From Revolt to Postmodernity" and "The Interruption of the 20th Century: Utopias and Conflicts."  I am not sure I completely understood the themes.  They seemed rather arbitrary given the chronological aspects as well.   The collection has some strong, stand-out masterpieces, of which Guernica is the star.  I had no idea it was so large (11 x ~26 ft).  The museum dedicated ample space to it, which was fantastic.  Given the size of the painting and the crowd looking at it, Guernica has a room to itself.  The materials to learn about the painting were helpful too.  They

On the way back from the Kronberg bike ride, I knew we had to go to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art .  They are open late and serve dinner with a view overlooking the Baltic Sea.   The museum is under construction, but it is still pretty easy to get around.  We had a few times where we thought we would miss something, but lo and behold, we ended up seeing it everything.   My favorite part of this museum was the integration of inside and outside.  We seamlessly moved from the landscape to the galleries.  All of the glass keeps the museum feeling light and impacts how the art is viewed. Calder mobile The Picasso before Picasso exhibit was really interesting.  I had always heard that Picasso was an extremely talented realist painter, and that is what allowed him to break all the rules.  It also allowed him to evolve as a painter (e.g. his Blue period to the rose period to cubism.  If you were looking at these sketches without knowing the artist, I would have never known

On our first day in Madrid, my mom and I went to the Palacio Real.  We decided to go into the Palace, at first, mostly to get into the huge courtyard.   The Palace is at the far west end of the city with a panoramic  vantage point out west.  It was a very popular stopping point before going into the palace.   The Palace was beautiful!  It was a bit hot and crowded in some places, but generally, the Palace was easy to navigate and identify the key elements of each room.  We were able to take a few pictures before getting into the Palace.      The rooms were fantastically baroque.  I particularly liked the dining room, which sat 150+ (?)!  The chandeliers were so ornate.  I also liked how we could see the main symbols of the crown: crown, scepter, and throne.  It also has the proclamation speech.  The musical instruments were also so unique.  The floors were beautiful.  I also loved the brocade curtains.   Unfortunately, we did not notice the Royal Armory and m

After my second day of work, we headed to the Museo Arqueologico Nacional.  This museum recently reopened after a complete renovation.  I am not sure what is was like before, but the renovation is fantastic.   The museum is close to the many other museums we visited throughout the trip.  This museum as well was very inexpensive for the value -- only 2.50 EUR! It was also not crowded at all. The museum is laid out chronologically and was easy to follow.  The map of the museum also highlighted the key items in the collection.  Mom and I used those as a road map for what to focus on within the museum.   The collection is outstanding.  We did move quite quickly through some of the very early artifacts as they were similar to what we could find in another museum.  We moved so quickly through the collection even though it was highly edited.   For example, I cannot believe this statue has existed for 17 centuries!   I loved that they were able to fully take advantage of the scale

After my first day of work in Madrid, my mom and I went to El Museo Naval !   (For the record, I LOVE that the museums in Madrid are typically open to 7 or 8.  It gave us so much more flexibility)!   My mom found this museum and put it on our radar given the history and influence of the Spanish armada.  It turns out it was across the street from the hotel.  AND it was relative inexpensive (2.5 EUR)!   The museum was much more expansive than I realized.  The rooms were numbered and easy to follow.  There was limited English translation, but for the price, it was expected.   The collection is quite large.  Some of the items are unbelievable.  1.  An original map of the Americas.  It is the oldest existing map  It is about 4x6 feet and the level of detail is amazing.   2.  A massive painting of Christopher Columbus -- it was larger than life.  The painting is probably 20 feet by 12 feet.   3.  A number of model ships!  So many to choose from! 4.  Recreated rooms from k

My mom and I also headed over to the El Greco Museum.  It was purportedly his house, but that has been de-bunked in recent years.  That being said, it is still in a house that would be similar to what he would have lived in and how it would have been furnished. The house is just around the corner from the Church.  It was actually free to go into on Sundays, so my mom and I took advantage of that. The house is a good sized.  To start with, take advantage of looking at the cellars.  It has some old views of the ruins below the city.   My favorite part of the museum was actually a part about El Greco's apprentices.  They discussed his workshop and a number of his apprentice's art.  The descriptions of the apprentice work was astounding (and quite painful to read).  To paraphrase one: I cannot believe we ever though this was El Greco's work -- the lines are so unsure and tentative and seeped in mediocrity.   The gardens are also spectacular.  I loved the multi-terra

For another day trip, my mom and I headed to Toledo, which was a short 30 minute train from downtown Madrid.   We hopped on the express train first thing in the morning and arrived in Toledo.  We hightailed it over to Toledo.  Secret: there are escalators up to the town on the right hand side as you approach it.  They are within a parking garage!   I knew that the Church of Santo Tome had to be on the list.  One of El Greco's paintings, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz , (the link has a picture of the painting) is directly on the wall of the Church.  It is one of the two paintings that he has on the " 1001 paintings to see before you die " list.  And it is the main (read: only) attraction in this Church.   We quickly got into the Church as I could see a few tour groups getting the summary outside.  Boy, I was grateful we did -- the side Chapel is quite small.  We could not even go into the other part of the Church.  When we came outside, there was a queue of proba

While I was in Frankfurt recently for business, my mother and I headed to Heidelberg for a day trip.  We really wanted to see the Heidelberg castle and ruins, which are at the top of the historic town.   We got in and quickly bought the Heidelberg card for the day -- in actuality, we should have just paid for everything a la carte, as it was a Sunday and most sights had very limited hours.   We took the bus to the funicular, which took us to the castle entrance.  We rode the funicular up to the viewing area too.  We were supposed to have access to one more level, but unfortunately, it turns out that funicular was closed.  It was just starting to rain when we arrived, but I did get some nice pictures! Once the rain let up ever so slightly, we made a run for the pharmacy museum .  The Heidelberg Museum was gifted with a rather large collection.  It is a bit random, but it was well done.  I think it was ALSO probably the most visitors it had received in a while -- all hiding ou