Today was our last day in Spain (boo hoo!). To start, we spent the morning on a four hour train ride from Granada to Madrid. After arriving at Atocha Station we walked to Sleep’N Atocha to store our luggage until we could check in. This was a convenient place to stay as we were leaving by train the next morning to go to the airport and it was also close to the spots we wanted to visit for the day. First though we wanted to grab some lunch and had a nice meal at the cute cafe Matilda in Barrio de las Letras (the Literary Quarter). We couldn’t resist a stop at Motteau Pasteleria and the reviews were right - the strawberry-pistachio-almond cake was delicious. It even had me wondering how well cake would travel on the airplane.

The third and final art museum we visited in Madrid was the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum (often just referred to as the Thyssen), originally a private art collection. August Thyssen founded a family-run business empire based on the iron and steel industry in 1871. His success allowed him to commission work by Auguste Rodin, the beginnings of a family collection. The family collection really took off when his third son, Heinrich, started making major acquisitions in the 1920s. Heinrich married a Hungarian baron’s daughter and adopted his surname, which is where the name Thyssen-Bornemisza comes from. As the collection grew, Heinrich built a private art gallery for his collection in Villa Favorita in Switzerland. His youngest son, Han Heinrich, inherited most of his art collection and fortune upon his death. He continued to expand the collection and also opened up the Villa Favorita gallery to the public, staging shows and traveling exhibits.

In the 1980s Hans Heinrich was looking for ways to ensure his collection would remain intact. He lacked the financial support to extend the gallery at Villa Favorita and started looking for other options outside of Switzerland. He decided to bring his collection to Spain, no doubt influenced by his Spanish wife, Carmen Cervera. In 1988 he made a pledge to lend 775 works to the Spanish state, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum opened in the refurbished Palacio de Villahermosa in 1992, and the collection was sold to the Spanish state for 350 million dollars in 1993.

Along with the Prado and Reina Sofia, the Thyssen comprises the Golden Triangle of Art on the Paseo del Prado. While the Prado is definitely a grade A museum experience (we likened this to visiting the Louvre) and the Reina Sofía has Picasso’s Guernica, we liked the art at the Thyssen the best. The Thyssen’s collection covers a broad range of Western painting from the 14th to the 20th century, covering the gaps left between the Prado and the Reina Sofía. The collection isn’t comprehensive for any one period, but rather is a series of highlights of the different art periods through the centuries. Rick Steves describes the collection as basically minor works by major artists and major works by minor artists.

The Thyssen’s galleries are arranged in chronological order, which makes it easy to spend time with your favorite periods. For us, that means more modern art with an emphasis on the Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, and Surrealists (which is why we preferred The Thyssen to the other museums we visited). There were many beautiful paintings and we really enjoyed the permanent collection. We also had a chance to visit the special exhibit of Isabel Quintanilla’s work. Quintanilla was a Spanish realist with many paintings portraying still life and everyday objects and scenes; not the types of paintings I normally gravitate towards, but I did find myself drawn to her paintings and their “intimate realism”. This was a great exhibit and I enjoyed learning about a new-to-me artist. The Thyssen was a nice way to spend the afternoon and I’m glad we were able to fit in a visit here.

The last spot we visited in Madrid was El Retiro Park, which was easy to combine with a visit to the Thyssen (or any of the art museums in this area). The park’s official name is Parque del Buen Retiro and it is one of the largest parks in Madrid (for comparison it is about 40% the size of Central Park in NYC). Built in the 1630s, El Retiro Park was once the royal garden of the old Buen Retiro Palace. The gardens opened to the public when Queen Isabella was overthrown in the Glorious Revolution. The park has undergone many changes since its inception and today contains various gardens, fountains, monuments, and buildings. Two of the main points of interest we saw were the Palacio de Cristal (Crystal Palace) and the Monument to King Alfonso XII. The Crystal Palace is made entirely of glass set in an iron framework. It was built in 1887 as a greenhouse to house exotic plants for the Philippines Exhibition. More recently it has been used as an exhibition hall for the Reina Sofia Museum, although it was closed when we visited. The Monument to King Alfonso XII is a large monument at the edge of the artificial pond Estanque Grande de El Retiro. While the monument was inaugurated in 1922 the pond was built in the 1630s. Today it’s a popular spot in the park with rowboat rentals, vendors, and street performers.

We had one last tapas dinner in the Lavapiés neighborhood at Taberna Más Al Sur and that was a wrap on our time in Spain. We absolutely loved our visit!