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l and his contemporaries paved the way for michelangelo s final leap forward in realistic representation and artistic interpretation i actually preferred many of raphael s paintings because of their colorful vibrance and the way he captured the moment of action in his scenes often times the characters in the paintings are caught in between steps as their robes flow around their bodies it s easy to appreciate these works for their artistic qualities i then descended a flight of stairs and continued down a non descript narrow hallway a simple plaque was all that identified the most famous chapel in the world stepping through the threshold near the front of the church i almost collided with several tourists wandering about looking straight up at the ceiling it took a moment for me to get my bearings within the empty space i was hardly impressed until i too looked up there were all the famous scenes of the bible most famously portrayed by michelangelo i had not realized however that the entire ceiling was covered in patchwork of murals the frescoes continued half way down the side walls as well and behind the alter michelangelo s final judgement covered the entire wall it was a visual overload the chapel was not the cohesive work of beauty that i had expected instead it appeared more like an obsessive attempt to represent every significant event from holy tradition in one small chapel some individual works like the depiction of god granting life to adam by touch was an impressive singular work but i was otherwise too overloaded to leave with much of an appreciation for the work before leaving the museum for good i returned to the chapel and spent a good ten minutes sitting and reflecting on all the images photos of the chapel are forbidden that doesn t really stop anyone several guards walk around the room all day just yelling at people not to take photos seems like a lot of hassle and disappointment for visitors just because a few dummies can t figure out how to turn the flash off on their camera the extreme light of some flashbulbs are known to damage sensitive paintings i discretely snapped a few photos with my camera at chest level they turned out pretty well after years of restoration work the chapel now looks almost as good as it ever has centuries worth of soot were washed from the frescoes revealing much more vibrant colors that art history scholars expected these efforts also revealed more information about the modifications made to the paintings in renaissance times most notably censoring the nude depictions shortly after michelangelo completed his masterpiece a new prudish pope unapologetically went about destroying countless works of art so he wouldn t have to look at the penises a real conservative christian hero i ended up spending the entire afternoon in the vatican museum my journey in art history spanned from 3000 b c to present day the renaissance works are the most famous but i also learned a lot about other styles one of my favorite sections dealt with early christian art circa 100 a d these early christians adopted a lot of customs from other ancient cultures but added a whole new vocabulary of imagery especially shepherds and fishermen at the 5 hour mark however i couldn t stuff anything else into my mind posted by ken at 2 43 pm 0 comments labels michelangelo raphael sistine chapel st peter s basilica vatican city wednesday december 23 2009 bad time for a snow day oh no mary ann woke me up shouting her response to the weather conditions as forecast it had indeed snowed over night in madrid this is not a common occurrence in the warm weather capital we knew that the locals would probably be freaking out it would probably also cause problems for our eminent departure to miami the snow had turned to freezing rain by the time we loaded up the car instead of taking roxy on a long morning walk we decided to get an early jump on the trip to the airport immediately upon making the turn around the hotel we were confronted with gridlock the other drivers had no idea what to do in inclement weather they also lacked common courtesy cars packed into the intersection rendering the lights useless stopped at one light for about 10 minutes i was forced to take evasive maneuvers this earned some well deserved honks and screams from an angry spaniard but i had no guilt i had a flight to catch on the way we skidded into a gas station to fill up and get a breakfast brioche this was drastically complicated by a language barrier and resulted in a fruit cake after that point the traffic opened up and we made good time to the airport i dropped mary ann and roxy off at the terminal and then returned the car it turns out that we could have all stayed together but our method worked fine anyway we were now officially in hurry up and wait and wait and wait mode all of the flights were well delayed even the arrivals it made me wonder if they had plowed the tarmac or just waited for the snow to melt i imagined a deep queue of planes circling above at least we were able to wait with roxy we sat for about two hours before they even announced the check in kiosk i read a little and mary ann listened to music but roxy had the most fun pining for all the dog lovers in the airport one spanish lady who happened to speak french described roxy as an angel of humanity needless to say she was enjoying all the attention finally the check in location was announced and we rushed into line at the counter we were informed that the flight was now only running an hour late we had no time to spare but to begin the process of checking in roxy we would have to stand in another line to pay for the service that ticket counter had it s own hours long line we started to get a little desperate finally we were able to plead with another american at the front of the line to let us cut after all that the teller had the gaul to ask for the payment in cash 300 euros in cash mary ann was incredulous the guy gave in and got his manual 1980s credit card swipe from the back room attention pickpockets go to barajas airport they expect customers to make international ticket purchases in cash step 2 of 3 complete we cut back in line at the service counter and presented our paid dog travel receipt we expressed our hurry but the teller remained calm explaining that the time of departure would now be 3 30 we had time shortly thereafter a lady arrived to escort us and roxy through the special security check she took us to one of the service elevators and we dutifully followed even though we couldn t understand anything she said communication would be important as we were ushered through the security checkpoint i had no idea what was happening but gathered from hand gestures to leave all of my items and walk roxy through the metal detector as we emerged on the other side a gaggle of airport staff were passing through the other way i tried to get out of the way by moving into the hallway but was quickly admonished then i was questioned on the contents of roxy s water bottle they made me open it up which broke the pressure seal i could only hope that it stopped leaking at some point during roxy s adventure without us after that we asked roxy to jump into the crate she obliged without complaint probably getting tired from 8 straight hours without a nap then she was spirited away in one direction and we were ushered back through conventional security our first look at the departures board had our flight leaving at 4 00 not long after arriving at the gate it was pushed back to 4 20 we started boarding around 4 10 a lack of buses to take us to our plane out on the tarmac delayed us further as did the route that the buses had to take which required going through two roundabouts seriously there can t be that much traffic on the tarmac sometime before 5 00 we were all finally boarded and pulling away after asking the flight crew three times we also learned that roxy was safely on board finally we could relax during the 10 hour flight posted by ken at 12 20 pm 0 comments labels barajas airport madrid madrid sunday morning provided another opportunity to sleep in although we were still interested in exploring the city this day would be our chance to rest before the stressful day at the airport roxy also appreciated the rest two long days of driving had really tired her out after taking care of roxy we again proceeded downtown this time we started at the royal palace and opera getting something to eat was again first on our minds i spotted a turkish kabob place and craved one last shwarma meal it s so hard to find a good place in the states later we retraced our steps from the night before cutting through the indoor market plaza mayor and puerto del sol then we continued along a street chosen at random hoping to find someplace to check our email as luck would have it our search again brought us to starbucks 45 minutes was just enough time to notify our parents of our well being and get some additional information about our upcoming flight after backtracking to the main shopping district we strolled along the pedestrian streets popping in and out of colorful boutiques my favorite based on name and selection was called skunkfunk the carried lots of orange wares my favorite unfortunately all were well out of my price range well maybe until i start working again there were lots of cool stores one entire mall seemed to be devoted to hipster styles mary ann really like all of the retro accessories and sunglasses i tried to talk her into some goth gear at one store i even found a wristwatch i considered buying instead of actually displaying the time digitally it contained a series of 12 dots for the hours and a gradually increasing bar for minutes not exactly practical but i like the idea of rethinking how we might represent time i also liked the concept of a reverse evolution from digital to analog however i didn t like the idea on the price tag we continued on for a bit more eventually returning to the hotel before dinner roxy was up and waiting for her afternoon walk on the way we passed by a restaurant called vips not sure if that was meant to be vips from outward appearances it looked to be the spanish equivalent of denny s we couldn t pass up that opportunity the food was as expected but at least it was a comfortable setting and it had wifi after dinner we decided to celebrate our last night in spain with some personally sized champagne bottles serious they were like wine coolers but with bad sparkling wine instead i drank enough to thoroughly dehydrate myself in advance of the ten hour plane ride coming the next day it seemed like a fitting end to our high class low cost trip through iberia or maybe that was the other way around posted by ken at 12 19 pm 0 comments labels madrid shopping over the mountains to madrid we slept well in barcelona and even convinced roxy to let us sleep in a bit at 10 00 there was still a complimentary breakfast bar waiting in the lobby the andouille sausage and cold spanish omelets were a little unexpected but sufficient to get us going it turned out that the cab ride the night before wasn t without some benefit it gave me the chance to get my bearings we easily found the route back to the highway and started the long drive to madrid after leaving barcelona we climbed the foothills of the pyrennes the catalan countryside was more what i expected of spain than the modern metropolis of barcelona quaint villages were positioned on rocky hills fruit and nut trees and vineyards stretched out through the valleys quickly though the landscape became more arid and the population density dropped dramatically along desolate mountain ridges lonely modern windmills stood sentinel i imagined the old don quixote sage with the new modern power generators how might he have reacted to blades the size of a 747 and yet at such distance they were just tiny reminders that we hadn t completely left civilization for many hours there was almost no development to speak of we followed signs to zaragosa a town apparently large enough to host a top league soccer team without much warning the arid landscape gave way to cityscape all of the buildings seemed brand new i had to imagine that zaragosa was a planned city with incentives to bring residents into the uninhabited central region of the country that was after all the idea behind the settling of madrid the drive was easy enough good weather and light traffic conditions undulating hills and curious rock formations provided just enough interest to keep me alert mary ann noticed that many of the hills seemed to have lost their tops curious isn t it that some spaniard from this region might have been in the armies that first encountered the flat topped pyramids of the aztecs i surmised that many of these hills might have been worked over time for settlements or agriculture our approach into madrid was almost as sudden as driving through the other small cities in central spain i suppose that we skirted much of suburbia by taking the toll road bypass again our directions were golden until up to the last two miles a missed exit here and an unmarked street there and we were again orienteering on instinct this time the saving grace was the map mary ann printed with directions to the airport for the next day we eventually found the hotel and street parking to boot the travelodge wasn t quite as nice but it met our criteria clean quite cheap and they accepted pets roxy was happy to find a dog park near by and we again expected to be near the city metro system we only got slightly lost on our walk to the station hoping for a deal we opted for the one day tourist pass metro ticket assuming the followed the same 24 hour rule as chicago not so we learned the following day on the trip we were doing our part supporting public transportation by paying unnecessary fees beyond the unfair calendar day the subway was really nice to get to the center of town puerto del sol we had to make a few connections pretty easy to do following the color code and end station direction rules emerging from the underground station into the main square we were engulfed in a sea of people we could not believe how many people were out and about but the odd thing was that there didn t seem to be any focus of the madness there was no real event taking place that didn t stop the crowds from taking to the streets all around traffic was closed and people of all ages wandered around grabbing snacks at the cafeteria style restaurants and doing late evening shopping the only real pattern we could discern among the crowds was the habit of wearing crazy hats at first the rudolf caps seemed cute but then there were also giant afros wildly colored wigs and springy holiday top hats we even passed a stand selling christmas masks nothing says happy holidays like creepy barack and michelle obama masks if you re spanish and reading this blog please explain this tradition we eventua...