Madrid day 3

One of the advantages of staying where I am in Madrid is that the quickest way to a lot of places is through the Retiro gardens, where one sees some slightly surprising things (and there are a lot of solo saxophonists).

I felt truly sorry not to be at a No Kings gathering (the nearest was a No Dictators rally in Barcelona), but much appreciated coming upon a - a what? A fiesta? A gathering of regional forms of costumes and dance and music? by the Prado - it seemed like a suitable manifestation of some of what Latino cultures can offer.

Then followed six hours in the Prado -which was nothing like enough time.  They don't allow one to take photos there - which meant that I went back to my old habits, writing notes and making little drawings, largely of dandelions in early Renaissance paintings.  There is a remarkably high proportion of violent and disturbing material - I guess that's inevitable if there are large collections of Bosch and of Goya ... There was also a substantial amount of C19th Spanish art, including an impressive amount of socialist realism from the 1890s, and yes, indeed, the catalogue from last year's show was in the bookshop.  If I tell you that even I couldn't face lugging it on and off trains for the next couple of weeks, you'll understand how heavy it is, but I'll investigate other means ...

I retreated to the Botanical Gardens, which were stunning (though probably best visited in early May, or in the fall) ... they are very proud of their bees, who were very much in evidence.

They were misting their ferns outside,

and their tropical plants in their magnificent greenhouses,

and there was an excellent installation in a chapel-like room by Toya Legido, showing the huge decline in butterfly species on the Iberian peninsular: all this extinct lepidoptera was replicated in paper form (and this provides me with a missing part of an as yet unwritten paper formulating in my head ..., so I was super grateful).

It was still very hot coming back to the hotel ... I felt envious of these statuesque figures ...