Hola!
As our last day in Madrid unfolds, we find that we are both rather exhausted after our long day in Toledo yesterday – added to that blogging into the night, and we are both about done with the chaos of Madrid and definitely looking forward to some peace and quiet in Avila!
Up this morning around 8-ish and have started doing some assembling for our trip to the airport tomorrow to pick up the car, and then out into the countryside once again. I’m thinking we’ll probably Uber right to the long-term lot and go from there, as it will be easier getting everything down to the door of our apartment building than trying to do anything with public transportation. And, while it’s not like we have done a lot of shopping, but we do have some things from this apartment that we’d like to take with us – liquid laundry detergent, for example. I’ve got a smaller bottle to put some in to take with us, but again, it’s always just a little bit more to carry.
We weren’t sure what we would do today, but eventually decided that we would take the bus out to the Chamartin area and go to the Museo de America, which is out by Madrid University. I know it sounds odd going to see a museum about “America” – and it was really a surreal experience. The museum is housed in a lovely new building, but the collection itself and its organization – well, not sure the best way to describe it, but honestly, it’s really like all sorts of bits and pieces were thrown up in the air and wherever they landed, that was where they stayed. There was virtually no English signage anywhere (which is fine, of course!) but we had such a difficult time trying to find any cohesion with what artifacts they have.
Replica of an Aztec calendar 
Really lovely building!
 |
| Loved the rider and horse statue in front! |
 |
| Former communication tower now a viewpoint! |
We think the curators organized their collection by themes, so (for example) to examine marriage customs, examples from many cultures and many times were displayed together. Hence, pre-Columbian Mexican, 19th century Tlingit, even Hawaiian – all mixed in. The part about migration showed the probable routes of neolithic population of the western hemisphere, along with the slave trade from Africa and the importation of Chinese laborers in the 19th century. There were maps showing the routes of the various Spanish explorers but very little discussion of the process and consequences of colonization. And the items displayed did little to illustrate the themes.
 |
| They had a wonderful antique map section |
 |
| And I'd like to add this globe to ours! |
 |
| Blanket made up of feathers! |
 |
| Front side of Mayan Codex |
 |
| Back side of Codex pages |
I mean, they had Eskimo heritage artifacts mixing with Chilean, and somehow, their collection included both Japanese and Chinese artifacts – no idea where they go at all! I think I was interested in seeing what the rest of the world makes of Americans (north, south and central) but the museum kept including paintings from Europe in the middle of everything else. I think I got that all Americans embraced the concepts of kingship and Christianity wholeheartedly – which, we know, not everybody did. At any rate, the highlight of the collection was the Mayan Codex. As the Spanish made a determined effort to burn any and everything that the Mayans had ever done in the form of writing or communication, there are only four Codices left in the world – and we saw one today, so that was something.
Decided that we were by then exhausted and in need of naps – so caught the good old #1 bus back to the apartment. The load of clothes I washed this morning are about dry, and I do have a bit of ironing to do … so will do that, and then we’ll treat ourselves by going back to Mu! for dinner!
Lots of love!
m
xxx
No comments:
Post a Comment