Madrid - random thoughts

I have been in Spain for 1 month and the last week was spent in Madrid (which was a bit of a rush, I think). 

In Madrid, I stayed with 3 Spanish, one of whom is Cristina. She is the first person to tell me that her first love is working with old buildings – medieval kind of old, not 1960s' kind of old. We discussed about architecture and art – she loves medieval buildings and old masters. I do not mind them but I like clean lines in buildings and modern art. (Having said the above, art techniques of the masters are more easily comprehensible. Sometimes I just do not know what people are drawing nowadays and would think to myself 'WTF is this? I can do better than that'. Haha!) Cristina showed me her books and dreamily describe the arches etc. Partly due to the fact that my home country is very young and partly because in my line of business, I have only come across modern architecture and likewise, architects from the same field, conservation and restoration of ancient buildings are of unfamiliar grounds. We talked about the job market for architects in Barcelona and Madrid and she told me how it is difficult to find decent architecture work and they pay too little whilst one has to put in too many hours. She is now working in insurance industry and waiting for her opportunity. We did not quite discuss this - given that there are so many old buildings being juxtaposed with new (such as Museo Reina Sofia's original 1770s building with new wing designed by Jean Nouvel), it must have hurt her personally and professionally. (Good luck Cris! I hope you will find your conservation/ restoration job soon.)

In any case, Cristina told me I could finish 4 art museums in 2 days but I ended up pretty much using 1 day for each gallery. Which then brings to me to the point that however much time I spend in art museums, I rarely find more than 2 art pieces (in any 1 museum) that I truly love (except maybe The Musée de l'Orangerie).

My favourite exhibits in Madrid are:

• Real Armería, Palacio Real de Madrid (Royal Armoury, The Royal Palace of Madrid). The Royal Armoury preserves weapons and armour belonging to and collected by the kings of Spain and other members of the Royal Family. The large collection dates from the medieval period and is very fascinating. Vain but fascinating. I love it.
• Model of Juan de Villanueva's second project for the Cabinet of Natural History, The Prado Museum
  I have seen my fair share of models and this is the first one that is made of wood blocks. The model was presented to King Carlos III in 1785 and was meant for the Cabinet of Natural History (current venue of The Prado Museum). I can only imagine the architect opening up the roof and blocks as he made his presentation. 

Random pictures of Madrid: