| Most first-time visitors will see no immediate charm | | | | canvas that he loved what he did. The address is |
| when visiting Madrid - the capital of Spain. Madrid does | | | | Calle General Martínez Campos 37. |
| not meet the notions of either medieval stone cities or | | | | Museo de America is housed in a massive building |
| of mild summer night's passion. Madrid has sometimes | | | | from nineteen fifty four, which retro style is supposed |
| been describes as being like Chicago, with Barcelona | | | | to resemble an old mission monastery, and is one of |
| being more like San Francisco. This comparison is by | | | | Madrid's more interesting but overlooked museums. |
| no means taken out of thin air. | | | | Found here is a huge collection of objects from the |
| Madrid's second largest tourist attraction is its night life. | | | | Americas before Columbus, with everything from |
| This means the eating and drinking as well as dancing | | | | battle axes and shrunk heads to the beautiful art |
| all night long. There are American tourists everywhere | | | | objects and precious illustrated manuscript depicting |
| as they are a lot of them in Madrid. Madrid is quite an | | | | the Spanish conquest from the conquered side. On |
| easy sell for American exchange students looking for | | | | display are objects from South and Central America - |
| a year abroad mostly due to the city's nightlife. In | | | | lootings from the Spanish colonization and later |
| comparison, Barcelona becomes a chauvinistic mecca | | | | donations from the new independent countries. The |
| for Catalan culture. The smooth and happy Madrid | | | | collection is presented thematically (the knowledge of |
| surface hides - although you are able to see through it | | | | America, reality, society, religion, etc.) which without |
| more and more - the old divides and deep unhealed | | | | prior knowledge makes it difficult to keep the different |
| wounds. It will soon be seventy years since the civil | | | | cultures and eras apart. The address is Avenida de los |
| war ended, thirty years since Franco's death and the | | | | Reyes Católicos 6. |
| agreement to try to forget the past. | | | | Museo del Traje - the clothing museum - opened in |
| There are, however, plenty of interesting museums in | | | | 2004 in the former Museo Espanol de Arte |
| Madrid for the culturally inclined to delve into. Here I will | | | | Contemporáneo, an architecturally interesting building |
| present three of the more interesting ones to visit. | | | | from 1973, to host huge collections of Spanish fashion |
| Museo Sorolla - which is the home and studio of the | | | | from the fifteenth century onwards. If you want you |
| nineteenth-century Spanish painter Joaquin Sorolla | | | | can skip the history part and go directly to the haute |
| (born in Valencia, 1863) - is one of the most pleasant | | | | couture-room, but for those who want to get some |
| museums. It is large and comfortable with a beautiful | | | | background info there is lots to take in. There is also a |
| garden. His paintings are mostly pleasant - not very | | | | reading room, a bookshop and a new-Spanish |
| capturing or deeply engaging, but not banal, or insipid. | | | | restaurant as well as areas for temporary exhibitions, |
| He represents in a way, the bourgeois exterior | | | | where fashion photography is often on display. The |
| painting's height, and it is evident in almost every | | | | address is Avenida de Juan de Herrera 2. |