October 21

I reserved for an afternoon slot at the Prado so I had the morning free. The hostel provided a breakfast at the nearby Café Central which at least gavee.the.chamce to try some churros.

I decided to take.a.walk through the Latina neighborhood which seemed to be devoted to antiques.

It was a very pretty walk but not much was going on.

Madrid is on a very Spanish schedule. I’m not sure when I’m supposed to eat churros or lunch or tapas or dinner.

Public transport is easy to work out. I caught a bus over to the Prado neighborhood to grab a note before the museum.

The place was called Tapas Tapas..the tortilla was unusually runny on the inside but absolute delicious.

No photos were allowed in the Prado so I can only describe my reactions

“Execution of the Torrijos on the Beach of Malaga” by Gisbert greatly moved me. What does it take out of an artist to imagine men in the last moments of their life with such specificity?

A lot. Goya treated the same subject in his “3rd of May” painting in a very different style that made even more of an emotional impact

His ability to convey character in his portraits seemed almost magical. How do painters do that?

The toll of contemplating horror and also perhaps gazing too deeply into the human soul was évident in his late self-portrait. It reminded me of a late Rembrandt. Eyes that have seen too much.

Not to mention his Black Paintings grouped in one room that was a real house of horror. I wanted to say “Dude! Chill! Take a walk. Maybe you should talk to someone!”. Yikes.

Masterpiece after masterpiece and then you come to Las Meninas and realize that the exalted level just went up a notch.

I got so lost in the puzzle of that painting. Who is looking at what or whom? What are they doing? Where am I the viewer? I felt like I went through the looking glass.

All that for only €7.50. And it was so comfortable with so any places to sit down.

Finished off the day with a delicious paella.