El Oso y El Madroño

The bear and the Madroño tree is the symbol of the city of Madrid and the Plaza is the point from which all distances (histroically) have been measured from in Spain.

We arrived in time for some kind of military ceremony... not sure what, and the troops seemed to kind of slack.

A section of the palace was built with empty rooms... then one by one they were decorated when the "fashion" changed... giving a kind of unique walk through eras of interior design... at least from the perspective of the Spanish royalty.

Seriously, don't do this... it was a tourist trap, and we were caught!

The Holy Trinity

by El Greco (1577)

note the Mannerist elongated/distorted limbs and relatively stark palette

Athena, Diana and Aphrodite all try and temp Paris into choosing them as "Kallisti" (the most beautiful)... he chooses Aphrodite, and in doing so, chooses Helen, and in doing so, causes the Trojan war and the eventual destruction of Troy.

For an alternative take on Kallisti see The Illuminates Trilogy

It is a bit hard to tell from this picture, but the painting is amazingly 3d and for the life of me I could not tell how the effect was achieved.

We later visited the Royal Chapel in Granada where this painting originally hung... paintings can be hung... people can only be hanged... well then again.

the wine was cheaper than the water, so we had that.

a bathroom at the Ritz

Note: We also went to the Reina-Sophia Museum, esp. to see Guernica by Picasso, but the floor it was on was closed for work :( and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum which was deceptively large (very good) but didn't allow pictures.