Page 9 of 9
Madrid, Spain
And it comes in black and it comes in white and I'm frightened by those who don't see it
An admission: this slideshow has been somewhat dishonest in terms of chronological order. My trip actually went Madrid-Ronda-Cordoba-Seville-Madrid-Valencia-Barcelona-Madrid-Toledo-Madrid. As you can see, that's a lot of Madrid. Even though I was there a lot (and twice was there overnight at separate hotels), I never really had all that much time. I was (literally) always in a rush, needing to catch a train or plane, always with just enough time to see something but never enough time to see everything. This last night of the slideshow somewhat dishonestly combines two of the three or four Madrid visits, starting with quite possibly the world's greatest and most talented soccer team (take that, Manchester United).
I was lucky enough that Real Madrid (Real is pronounced ree-ahl and means royal) was playing a home game (I probably mean to say match) at Bernabéu against Villareal, a small intimate affair with just me and 85,000 people who really hate Barca. Of course Villareal was dead on the field (I probably mean to say pitch) before they even started, Real Madrid easily won 3-0 but could have won 10-0 in all honesty if they tried at all in the second half. I ended up with good seats despite their potentially nose bleeding height, tickets that I bought just a few days before on my phone through a broker. I would have bought them before I left (normally I'm all about being over prepared) but the Spanish League (I probably mean to say La Liga) doesn't actually decide when the actual soccer game (I probably mean to say football match) will be until just a few days before the actual game, making it hard to tell if the game would really be on my last night in Madrid (which it was) or sometime the next night when I was already scheduled to be flying back home.
The Reina Sofia Museum is easily still one of my very favorite museums and not just because it holds one of the great works of humanity (the only Pablo Picasso painting that I really love, the epic and unphotographable "Guernica"), but because its collection and even its temporary exhibits are always worth seeing. When I was last there eight years ago one of the exhibits was about French architect Jean Nouvel and featured models and renderings of a large expansion to the Reina Sofia, one that- all these years later- now stands next to the original building just as if it had somehow always been there.
The addition features two buildings (organized like a "V" in plan) and a large outdoor court. Floating above it all is a large reflective ceiling that is big, big, big and red, red, red. Atop the buildings there are sculpture gardens (sculpture terraces is probably a better description) that step down as you go, always under that big red top.
This is the second building by Jean Nouvel in this slideshow (you have to go back to Page 6 to see the other one), an architect who never seems afraid to use a little color. What was most impressive about the building wasn't its color but rather the reflective part of that big red reflective ceiling. The red not only picked up the sculptures in front of you and the building you are in but also the neighborhood and city beyond. A great visual trick and one that made the sculpture terraces feel like a big red funhouse.
Whoa. My last night in Madrid and my last night in Spain was spent here, at Space Club.
The Hotel Puerta America is inconveniently located (it was actually easier and faster to walk back the two miles in the rain from Bernabéu than to connect with Madrid's awful Metro back to Cartegna) but luckily the hotel is a destination in and of itself. The hotel hired different architects to design different floors and each of them really went all out. I chose the "Space Club" floor designed by Zaha Hadid, an all white (or supposedly a non New Zealand all black) experience in walls that morph into ceilings and beds and showers. The entire room was made from white Corian and (in all honesty) was insanely uncomfortable. Shockingly the really cool looking desk chair made entirely of hard as hell Corian was less comfortable than anything I have ever tried to sit on. Still at least the room and entire floor was spectacular enough that it somehow all still felt worth it. Who needs basic comfort when you can have a crazy looking room made out of white Corian, that's what I like to say.
A few last images to end this slideshow, two quick iPhone pictures of the color shifting light at the Space Club elevator lobby, as unreal an image if ever there was one (or two).
