Prepping for Madrid

I’ll be landing at Barajas  airport in 87 days.

I’ve fired up the app https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dreamdays-countdown-to-days/id585947384?mt=8 that does a automatic countdown.  When I peek at it, I get a little frisson of anticipatory pleasure. The Mary Cassatt painting of a matador in his suit of lights is my Dreamdays trip image. Is he lighting up in the spirit of a final smoke before the firing squad, or in a post-coital mood, spent with relief at surviving his bullfight? Now that the holidays are over, I’m buckling down to research,  accumulating possibilities for my day by day planner, and pre-booking tickets and museum passes.

Most of the museums I plan to see have pages on Facebook and I spent a happy couple of hours making a new Madrid/Lisbon interest list for my newsfeed. I’m now getting updates that give me glimpses of the paintings and treasures I’ll be seeing in person. And hooray for that handy ‘translate’ tab at the bottom of foreign language posts. It’s not perfect, but I get the gist.

Filled in the April day-by-day calendar with preliminary excursions and quickly realized there won’t be enough hours in the days or days in the month to fit in everything I’d like to see. Decisions must be made – El Escorial or the Royal Palace? I’ll take those kinds of inquiries to www.TripAdvisor.com which has never failed to give me cogent advice.

Figuring out which days museums are closed, what holiday to be aware of, the best days and times to visit is a lovely puzzle. I like having rain vs shine options too. Getting those all-important museum passes that permit me to bypass lines will gain me time that otherwise I might have squandered. I’ve booked one tour, with Context Travel. I’ve had excellent experiences with them in the Vatican Museum and Rembrandt’s House in Amsterdam.

I yearned to stay at the Hotel Orfila for my last five days in Madrid, but it’s really pricey, and I worried it couldn’t possibly be as lovely as I imagined. Then I came across this on the Wendy Perrin travel site: “Best bang-for-your-buck hotel -Orfila, a 32-room hotel housed in a nineteenth-century palace that feels more like a family home than a five-star Relais & Chateaux property. It is located only 15 minutes by foot from the Prado Museum in a quiet, mostly residential neighborhood. Rooms are furnished in top-quality antiques that the owner has been collecting for years, and there is a beautiful garden for guests to enjoy. It’s the kind of place where you get much more than you pay for.” That last sentence pushed me over the edge, and I found a ‘four days for the price of one’ deal, and booked it. Okay it didn’t push, I gladly jumped. Wouldn’t you? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPZw-sbU1SA

Practiced my Spanish on Duolingo, something I’ve promised myself to do five days a week until I leave. It’s day 2.

 

 

 

 

Chicago Museums x 2

Back from Chicago with two museum visits. First, a Sunday trip to the Museum of Science + Industry. I didn’t pre-book my tickets online, my usual MO, and the line to buy tickets from personnel at counters was jammed with a wait of 45-60 minutes, winding through the ubiquitous post stanchions and retractable belt barriers. I noticed a bank of automatic ticket dispensers directly across the main hall. Despite museum aides beckoning to visitors, that line held fewer than a dozen people and I had my tickets in hand in five minutes. The ticket machines were touchscreen, simple to operate, easy to understand and, dare I say it, foolproof. I’ll keep an eye out for that alternative in other museums.

Christmas holiday plus kid-centric museum equals massive squealing crowds, but they go where they are pointed. I used one of my favorite strategies, starting on the third floor and working my way down. Bypassing the obvious entry point bought us a good two hours of relatively uncrowded museum-going pleasure. Suspended at the third floor eye level, aircraft – from the Wright Flyer, to a German Stuka, to a United 727 – celebrated the audacity of humans taking to the air. Displays of vintage scientific instruments were captivating; gleaming, elegant, and sleek.

My favorite exhibition was 80 at 80. http://www.msichicago.org/whats-here/exhibits/80-at-80/ I was mesmerized by the quirky video installation: Maarten Baas’ “Sweepers Clock” that shows men keeping time by sweeping garbage laid out in the shape of clock hands. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXNT4T56EmM

The best (cleanest, functioning, and no lines) women’s restroom was just off the submarine exhibit. The worst (crowded, dirty, many out-of-order stalls) was on the main floor off the food court. Avoiding the Disney ‘exhibit’ and touring the submarine U-boat was another useful strategy. The U-boat, also a designated war memorial, was well presented with sound/light enhancements and an excellent guide. Fascinating.

I sadly underestimated how long I’d want to gaze at the treasure trove that is the Art Institute of Chicago. Five hours went by in a blink. A single exhibit of Italian drawings kept me enthralled for the first two hours. http://www.artic.edu/exhibition/strokes-genius-italian-drawings-goldman-collection

Met Robert for our traditional Terzo Piano lunch, then sprinted back, aware of time running out. I dashed through European paintings and sculpture, keeping an eye out for boxes, reliquaries, and anything made of terracotta  and porcelain, in every room I ventured through.

If I am honest, I was offended by the artist using stock news photos of people falling to their death, indifferent to the focus: Lucy McKenzie, and wished there was more to the Ethel Stein, Master Weaver exhibit.

I lost track of time in the glory that is Roman and Greek statuary.

Back to the drawings, where I spent my remaining time sketching a kneeling slave, a bearded saint, and this enchanting boy, the son of the artist.

All this is good practice for the upcoming Madrid/Lisbon trip.  Start at the top, work your way down, take all the time you possibly can. It won’t be enough.

 

Chi-town at Christmas

The day after Christmas we depart for Glen Ellyn, a charming suburb just outside of Chicago. I go to visit my bio-dad, a man of great aplomb and consequence. This is my fifth consecutive year for this trip, so it didn’t occur to me to write it up in Chasing Paint until the other day, but my special treat is a day in the Chicago Institute of Art. Robert drops me off at the entrance and we meet for lunch at the  museum’s restaurant, Terzo Piano. Last year, I scored with Lobster Nachos (lobster in hollandaise over fries). Divine!

Not much prep required since I always go just around Christmas. The suitcase contents stay the same, and I can confidently predict the Lions outside the Chicago Institute of Art will be wearing wreaths and standing on Christmas present wrapped plinths. Today I’ll look up the special exhibitions at the CIA, and consider where I’d like to focus. It will be hard to top last year’s show ‘Art & Appetite’ – a still life artist’s dream exhibit.  One twist is my curiosity about small scale sculpture. More on than anon.

Back to baking, decorating, wrapping and otherwise making spirits bright.

LA: June 5 - The Getty Villa

Gorgeous breakfast brought to our cottage dining room table by the couple who run the B&B. They’re a study in contrasts. Ahuva is an exuberant Israeli – part international sophisticate, part California earth mother, all bubbe. Bob is a goofy, laid back California surfer dude in his 60s , always ready with a quip. Their partnership gives the B&B its idiosyncratic vibe.

After inching our way through the dusty, drought-stricken; palm tree-lined streets of LA, and along the car-clogged Pacific Coast Highway, Robert drops me off at the Getty Villa. http://www.getty.edu/visit/villa/ 

The modern California world falls away.

I walk along the winding path through the gardens to the hilltop museum. The architecture is based on a Herculaneum villa. I pass by four gardeners kneeling alongside the walkway, in obeisance to Demeter, clipping stray twigs off the espaliered foliage, while a fifth sweeps up the trimming.

Entering the museum, I immediately notice the absence of water. Due to the drought, all of the water features are empty. The empty basins, the lack of sparkle from light reflected off the water, the absence of the gurgle and plash of fountains, has a big impact – more than I would have expected. It’s like a well-preserved body without a pulse. Throughout the museum, pools and fountains link one courtyard to the next, and the villa to the gardens. The lack of water gives it all a deserted, abandoned air.For a museum dedicated to a vanished culture from another age, this isn’t altogether wrong. I walk through the rooms on the ground floor, paying my respects to the gods, goddesses and heroes who are up to their fabled hijinks.  http://www.online-literature.com/donne/865/

I climb the marble stairs to view the visiting Byzantine art exhibition. Martyrs with dour, accusing looks, squinty-eyed Virgins with dolorous faces, dim lighting. I compare this with the last exhibit I saw here, one that celebrated Aphrodite.  It showcased  objects associated with the goddess; sated sleeping hermaphrodites, drinking cups helpfully illustrated with amorous positions, courtesans’ poetry, and general flaunting of naughty bits. When it comes to content, the goddess of amore (Passion! Beauty! Desire!) wins hands down over Byzantium Christianity (tortured martyrs, long-suffering virgins, avenging angels).Flocks of children in school uniforms swirl in and out of the rooms, following adults wearing Educator badges, old people blink in the shade cast by table umbrellas, young couples eat their brown bagged lunches on the amphitheater steps, touching shoulder to thigh. The museum grounds feel occupied and reasonably full, but not crowded. The wisdom of requiring timed tickets to park and enter is immediately apparent. The Louvre should try this. No joke. I forgo lunch in favor of a high tea in the Founders Room – a smallish venue with wonderful views and more than I can eat, nicely presented on tiered cake stands. Well-trained staff leaps to fill my teacup every time it falls below a third of the cup.

Back in the center courtyard of the villa, I see a  woman in a hadjib and jeans taking selfies, and a similarly slender, tatted-up man with a sleeveless hoodie do the same. It’s a California cultural mash-up of dueling silhouettes that works for me.

Strolling along the outer peristyle (covered walkway) gardens, I try my hand at taking my own selfie. Gah. The key is to persevere until one appears tolerable. Many, many pixels later –

A peristyle, or covered walkway,. The key is to persevere in various locales until one is tolerable.

Afterwards, I walk beside the long empty outdoor pool with statues stranded on dry outcroppings in positions that suggest aquatic cavorting.

he Outer Peristyle Garden

The walls, marble floors, and ceiling of the peristyle alongside the empty pool are  painted with trompe l’oeil swags of foliage and historically appropriate decorative flourishes.

I walk through the lower gardens, until I find a long, grapevine-covered arbor. The dappled shade is wonderful to look at, lively but restful to the eye. I sit and read a while. This day marks my sixty-fourth birthday. I think how supremely lucky I am.

After his morning of visiting old friends, and afternoon lunch on the pier, Robert picks me up at 3pm, his (successful) strategy to avoid the worst of LA traffic, and back to the cottage we go.

LA: June 4

I scampered through the airport TSA pre-check. It was green lights all the way until I was selected for additional screening. That included a pat down, running the beeping wand over my sillouette, swiping my palms with something on a paper strip, and doing the hokey poky in the infamous X-ray booth. On the upside, there was no body cavity search,  and the security lady said, “Happy Birthday, darlin’. You have a blessed day,” when she was done.

Discovered we lost our treasured economy comfort bulkhead seats for the return flight when I requested the wheelchair. Fair enough, since that plane’s bulkhead is also an exit row, an automatic out for the infirm. Dang. Flight to LA not bad at all for me. I read and napped, Robert read a newspaper, went through his vast backlog of emails (7000+!  Some going back to 2004!) and took half of a prescribed muscle relaxer. He seemed to do fine. In fact he did better than at home, because he was not as bored and frustrated with his temporary disability.

 On arrival, Robert declined assistance – no, no I’m fine – until he walked the length of the jetway from the plane to the concourse, whereupon he cried uncle. I snagged a guy passing by with a wheelchair, and he pushed Robert through the LAX labyrinth of handicap accessible elevators, and wide, empty underground halls. The attendant was a Russian military brat until he was 10 when his parents emigrated to LA. He became a US citizen and just passed a battery of security checks in order to qualify to translate for hospitals and corporations. It was a long walk. I was very glad Robert succumbed and agreed to be helped. “Pain taught me what pride would not let me learn.”

We took the shuttle to Budget Rentacar which was a zoo. Go figure! A line so long it was out of the building and down the sidewalk. Robert secured a car and I ate my first meal in LA – spit temperature water, crumbs in the bottom of a bag of Fritos, and a piece of Vermont chocolate my daughter gave me for my birthday. I was desperate. Car sorted, Robert drove while I navigated via my iPhone Google maps, impersonating a SatNav.

The Little Cottage behind the Garden B&B is just as welcoming as we remembered.  Joan’s on 3rd made up for my nasty lunch with some sublime selections for takeaway, including a gorgeous salad made of grilled fresh corn, jicama, red onion, edamame, fresh apple soaked in something, and a touch of cilantro. So so delicious. Robert had egg salad on ciabatta and a cappuccino. I heroically eschewed the ham and brie on a croissant, and went for turkey meatloaf, grilled snow peas, and asparagus, butternut squash salad, grilled heirloom carrots, and that grilled corn salad. Divine. I snagged a tiramisu and a chocolate roulade for desert, which I will eat tonight along with seconds of everything I ate for lunch. I am not made of stone. Yet.

On the walk back I see my first piece of indigenous LA graffiti; ‘Figure With iPhone Posture.’

We are having a little lie down now. Will probably laze around the rest of the evening. Tomorrow Robert drives me to the Getty Villa for the day, and he’ll visit a friend in Malibu and sit on his deck. Good times.

 

LA, My Way

The original idea was Robert goes to a film equipment expo, and I tag along and visit the Getty museums. There were industry related events, and transplanted ATL friends to schedule in around the expo and art. We made the arrangements, booking the B&B and plane tickets before I went to Paris. It was to be a part biz/part art/mostly romantic getaway. Much holding of hands and general canoodling was anticipated.

All the plans flew into the air when Robert fell and pulled his hamstring a week ago. His agony precluded him thinking about it at all, but I realized immediately that the odds of him making the trip had plummeted.  I’d hoped the ticket could be reassigned to one of my daughters, but Delta nixed that – it’s a bonus companion ticket. You use it or lose it, unless we cancel both tickets. I did a little cost/benefit analysis, and decided to leave it up to Robert.

We were leaning toward canceling – and I was good with that – when he seemed to be making a truly awesome recovery. The trip was back on, with a few modifications to make it easier on Robert. Alas for him, Saturday he put in his usual effort and he paid the price. Last night and the night before were  painful as the first night. We decided he’ll stay here and be pampered by Emily, and I’ll go solo, in the spirit of ‘life is uncertain, view art first.’  I’ve only visited the Gettys once before and I know they will repay my time and attention. I loved the views from the Getty Center.
When I visited the Getty Villa, I saw an exhibit  on the ever popular Aphrodite. My favorite objects were the mirrors of retiring courtesans, dedicated to the goddess.
“You grant beauty, my Queen, but creeping time withers your gift. Now, since your gift has passed me by and flown away, receive, gracious Goddess, this mirror that bore witness to it.” How perfect is that sentiment for Tinsel Town?

I sat down and did my pre-pro for a solo trip. I made a day by day plan.  I downloaded four Apps – two for the Getty, one for LACMA and one for Italian Art in LA.  I’ll go to the Getty Villa only once and focus on LACMA and the Getty Center which are considerably closer to my West Hollywood B&B. I clocked the miles and predicted costs for UBER transport.  I’ll meet some old friends for coffee one morning before I head over the Getty, but no other industry stuff. I made my suitcase list for the balmy (60-low 80s, no rain in sight) weather – think Paris in short sleeves, with a hoodie for those frosty a/c interiors. And my Chucks, bien sur.

There is still a possibility, albeit a very, very slim one, that Robert will decide to come along at the last minute. He’s going to pack a bag so that if he has a couple of decent nights he can jump in the car Wednesday morning. if not, all he has to do is unpack.

I’ll turn 64 while there. I should really download that John Lennon song before I go.

April 29 & 30, Amsterdam Finale

Tuesday was the last day of my trip, the day before departure. Packing was first, so I could figure out if I needed an extra bag. Everything fit in, even the gift. The key was having some items that were used up and thus space created, and an expandable suitcase.  I walked to the Rijks to do a fond farewell. I had saved the Art is Therapy https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en tour for this special occasion. Showed up, and the no line that hasn’t been there the whole time went all the way to the street.And these were folks with a museumkaart. I was staggered. Where have these people been? Of course, I went at 10 instead of 9. Who knew the difference was that great? As I assumed, but had never tested,  the early bird finesses the line. It was starting to rain – and was forecast to increase as the day continued. Took me two seconds to decide to move on. Adios, excellent art at the Rijks.

 

And all your ships at sea.

I took the tram to the Royal Palace (plan B) and joined that line. It wasn’t too bad – maybe 15 minutes. Worse was the rule you had to leave you purse, no matter what size, in the coatroom. That line took half an hour. One old man in sunglasses and shoe polish black hair was the only person behind the desk. He moved with great deliberation, while the line increased exponentially. Free at last, with all my money stuffed in my pockets, I walked around the palace. Turns out there is marble in Amsterdam. It’s all here! Marble floors and pillars, marble statuary, even marble ceilings.

People often ask me, just what does a Key Grip do? I found a statue of one at work at the palace.

Lots of nice paintings, but difficult to see in the dark, formal, cold rooms that smelled like mildew and damp tourists. For once I felt sorry for royalty, stuck in these moldering, musty marble piles. Surely they have more comfortable, brighter rooms upstairs. I hope so.  I was done in less than an hour and went back to the same line to get my purse. Another 30 minutes elapsed because it was the same elderly retainer. About 25 minutes into this shuffling line, someone called in reinforcements on a walkie talkie. As I was leaving, they were closing down the entire palace because too many visitors had come and they didn’t have enough personnel.

Raining steady now. Pulled out my umbrella after a few streets and set my Google maps for Spui, the outdoor antique market. Got there, and it was closed, due to the rain. Headed back towards the B&B, thinking lunch would be nice. Down a side street, I stopped at a hole in the wall that served french fries. Perfect! Crispy, smoking hot, salty, mayo on the side in a paper cone. The whole day brightened. A little further on I stopped in a bakery and bought a square of apple pie and a mozzarella/tomato sandwich for my dinner.

Back at the B&B, I saw the check-in email for the flight home. Looked at the flight online and saw some open seats in first class. I’m hoping I can buy my way in. (didn’t happen) Noticed they have changed the departure time for the third time, but not that much different, and tried to check in online only to get some kind of Dutch error message. My intrepid hosts, whom I cannot praise highly enough, straightened it out with a phone call. Thanks Oki and Frank!

The next morning I was up and out the door before 8am, en route to Schiphol airport via Uber. The first line stalled out when the DIY luggage machines quit. They look like a line of igloos. You place your bag inside the machine, it spits out a sticky tag you loop around your handle and a claim ticket for your boarding pass. A plastic dome comes down and when it goes back up, like a magic trick, poof, your luggage has vanished, on its way to the cargo hold of your plane. Only problem: three of the four machines jammed and the clueless tourists who were hefting their bags in were stuck waiting on the automated luggage check machine repair man. Eventually, order was restored, my bag was checked, and I tried to retrieve my VAT tax money. Another line and I waited in this one to be told I could only send paperwork to Paris via envelope. Not what I was told in Paris, but we’ll see. Finally at the gate where the security/customs crew waited. That was painless.  Trans-Atlantic flight remains a grueling endurance feat for me, but my economy comfort bulkhead aisle seat, while not quite as comfy as business class, was tolerable.  I sat next to an interesting fellow from the bayous of Louisiana, headed home from a stint on oil rigs in the Black Sea. He slept nearly the entire nine plus hours, and I read on my Nook.

When we landed at Hartsfield, medics boarded the plane to assist a stricken passenger seated in the tail section. We retrieved our bags and waited as instructed. My roughneck seatmate assessed the situation, muttered ‘go go go’ and hustled us out the door of the plane onto the walkway (bulkhead seats, remember?). I guess you don’t get to be an oil rig worker without a healthy dose of initiative. Off to baggage claim where a drug sniffing beagle passed up my luggage.

Through the customs gateway and into the loving arms of Emily, who in an awesome welcome home Mom gesture, painted my Prius rims.

Yeah, that’s how I roll.

Next trip, LA. June 4-9.