Tag Archives: museums

Final Full Day in Boston (9/24/25)

Posted on by
Reply

So here we are — our last full day. What to do …?? Well, first of all, COFFEE!

We went to the same place as yesterday, The Thinking Cup. Heh … oh, now I get it! Took me a while. This time we both opted for lox and bagels with out typical coffees, espresso macchiato for Dan and cappuccino for me. All was quite yummy. Because it had started to sprinkle nearly everyone was eating inside, so the noise was a bit much for my ears — especially one woman sitting very nearby. She had the type of voice that just penetrates, if you know what I mean. (If you don’t maybe you should call me and I’ll demonstrate. Or not.)

We decided we’d head toward two museums, so we walked that direction. We didn’t realize we would be walking by Berklee College of Music until we were at the corner and I spotted it. (And yes, I definitely didn’t do a lot of research before heading to Boston!)

The walk was pleasant. I had no idea what direction we were talking (it was cloudy so I couldn’t see where the sun was), but our map guided us. Mostly.

First up was the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, at a sort of okay price of $20 per senior. What a hodgepodge of things she collected. It truly ran the gamut. And her “palace” also ran the gamut, as a combo of Moorish and sort of what looked like craftsman perhaps, among other things. It rather fit her crazy collection, to be honest.

Partway through we had our lunches at museum prices. So it goes! We are supporting the arts, I suppose.

Then upstairs we went. Floors two and three with a lot more hodge-podge.

And it’s always good to get advice when in the bathroom, yes?

When we got out of the museum we had to use our umbrellas for the first time. But hooray … I could then say I’d used everything I’d brought aside from one pair of socks and a pair of tights. Not bad!

We made our way (a less than five minute walk) to the MFABoston (Museum of Fine Arts Boston in case you don’t want to puzzle over what I typed first). By the time we arrived it was already 3:30 and it closed at 5:00. I have a suggestion for museums: lower your price if someone can only be there for an hour and a half! Not only is that not a thing, but they don’t have senior prices. So $27 per person it was. (And they are going up to $30 soon).

I did enjoy the museum. First up was a search for the photography exhibit. Hmm. Where was it?! Oh. It’s just a small, five photo or so, thing in a room one might pass through to get elsewhere. And it wasn’t all that exciting.

Then off to their special exhibit to check that out. Rachel Ruysch painted incredible works of flowers and bugs. (A sign outside the room warned people that there may be disturbing things due to the small animal specimens — various insects pinned in collection boxes and various small critters in jars. Those don’t bother me, but they also don’t really matter to me.) I’d seen some of her work before — I believe it was in Berlin. The exhibit of paintings (by not only the star of the show but her teacher and her younger sister) were great, but after seeing a number of them I’d seen enough and didn’t think I needed to see even more. It’s very difficult to get decent photographs due to the lighting. Oh well.

So we headed upstairs to see a variety works. We wandered and enjoyed a lot of wonderful work (Monet, Van Gogh, Millet, and many more but I’m lazy and don’t want to keep typing names!) until someone came by to tell us it was time to be leaving.

It was still sprinkling outside (thankfully it hadn’t been sprinkling inside … that would be a problem!) and Dan decided to grab a Lyft. But we didn’t grab it quickly enough: it appeared that most people had opted for the same thing and we were the last to get a car, which took 25 minutes to arrive. (Actually, he was assigned one car and shortly after that one must have canceled, he was assigned another and ditto there, so we were getting car #3.) All for a one mile drive to our hotel, except in a car it’s more than a mile of course.

Traffic in Boston isn’t great. I don’t think I’d ever want to drive here. Our driver said it’s always this way. So no thanks!

We went back to our hotel and first went to the “kitchen” to see if they had utensils since we have some chocolate cake in the fridge. And yes, they did! Then I got myself a cup of coffee because, well, it’s free at the hotel and I have a difficult time resisting free things. It was decent for hotel coffee, so I brought it up to our room where I typed much of this blog entry and we relaxed for a while.

Dinner. Ahhhh, dinner! We puzzle over this nearly every day. We say we are going to do simpler things so frequently. We’ll keep it cheaper. But, well, it was our last night, and we wanted seafood but we didn’t want to go very far. The place the hotel had recommended was more than we wanted to spend and didn’t have any openings until 8:30. I found a place (Banks Seafood and Steak) that looked less expensive and had a 7:00 opening. Plus it was only a six minute walk. Sort of. We took the Apple Maps directions and they were a bit silly and six turned in to about twelve. But we arrived, eventually got seated, and looked at the menus. Truth is, it was about as expensive as the hotel recommended spot. But I justified it all by saying it was our last night and very likely our last visit (first and last, really) to Boston. So there you go. The meal was absolutely delicious and the service was excellent. (I’m always happy when the servers don’t say, “take your fork and knife” if they are removing the appetizer plate, but instead clear it all and bring clean utensils. Call me crazy, but I prefer good service like that. (Hm. I guess I should do that at home, eh?!)

We spent a good long time at the restaurant, and then walked back to our hotel, umbrellas opened due to the sprinkles we felt. The walk back was shorter — our route was much smarter than Apple’s!

And here we are. The final night. We checked in for our flight earlier today, and tomorrow will most likely be a “get coffee, get back to the hotel and pack” sort of day.

I really like Boston. It’s was impressed by the friendly people, the cleanliness of the city, and the history is just so amazing. It makes history more real when one is in the places where things actually happened! I could write more — especially about the mess our country is in now do to the person who is ruling over us, but I’ll try to keep my mouth shut (and my typing fingers still). For now.

Final Full Day in Bilbao

Posted on by
2

We woke at our rather typical late time. It’s so funny, because Dan simply can’t sleep in at home (I can) but here? No problem! He did a bit of laundry and I contemplated my luggage: aside from two very small items I purchased there is nothing new, yet the bag is more packed than ever. I think I need to take everything out and redo it all before our flight tomorrow.

Yes. Flight. Stay tuned for our next, and final, European destination!

Once Dan was done with laundry and all we went out to get breakfast. (I wonder if I’ll feel the need for breakfast when we get back home: I really prefer to wait and eat after my walk, but is this becoming a habit?)

Breakfast was in the same place as yesterday. We found it, but only after Dan got 45 degrees off and I came to the rescue. I get a bit gleeful when Mr. Direction gets off and I figure things out! No chocolate croissant this time, but this other delight, full of butter. Not just plain old butter, as it turned out, but very, very sweet butter. Oh … and this little bird was there, as it was yesterday. Maybe a resident? (Sure, might be a different bird, but I prefer to think this is its home.)

Back to our hotel, we then packed up our cameras and readied ourselves to walk to the not-the-Getty, or “Gettyheim”, or maybe (could it be?!), the Guggenheim. (And don’t laugh, but I wanted to type Gettysburg at first. Okay. Go ahead. Laugh!)

We had an hour before out 11:30 entrance, so we didn’t exactly hurry over, and we did take some photos. The first thing we encountered were these bikes and I just think this is lovely. (Well, except some goof got her finger in the first photo!)

And the more photos … that tube like think takes you down to the Metro, I think. (We’ve not used it, but what else would it be?)

This building intrigued us and I would love to know more about it:

And more walking which did take us to the Guggenheim.

The above is for you, Lisa! 🤣

Mostly, for the interior, I’ll let photos tell the story. In the past I’ve not shared photos of artwork, as it never does it justice, but since many might not get to Bilbao, I will do so this time. I did limit myself, though, so there aren’t a zillion photos.

I really am now a fan of Helen Frankenthaler and I’m embarrassed to admit I’d not heard of her before.

Next up was the Richard Serra The Matter Of Time installation. The first one you go through is a rather lengthy bit of traveling yet when you reach the center it’s a large space. Nearly everyone I saw enter after I reached the center had a smile of surprise — it was fun to see. Others were tighter spaces all the way through, and I thought it was not only about the structures, but about the comfort or discomfort of passing by other people. Light and shadow were also fascinating.

Maybe all of that isn’t as interesting if you haven’t experienced them live and in person … I wonder! There was also a room with photos of other installations and … wait!? … on in the Bronx? It just looked like something in the street, but now I’m curious.

Okay, I’ll stop with those now (although there was another image and the info said that it was destroyed by the US government which I wondered about.)

Then we moved on to another installation. I sat down and watched. Eventually Dan went behind it and, as it turned out, he started a new trend. No one knew you could do that! (Later, when we saw it again, no one was behind it any longer. I don’t think people realize you can do that. They need a Dan to help them out!)

From there it was time for lunch. Museum lunch. That means it’s not cheap, but we did manage to avoid the more costly restaurant there and instead did the bistro. (They have a very expensive restaurant on the outside of the museum as well. Think we’ll skip that, too!)

Back out for more …

Rooms with art by Tarsila Do Amaral:

Then a Sol Lewitt which always makes me think of our daughter-in-law Lia Lowenthal, a fine artist herself, and do check out her jewelry.

Now not all art appeals to everyone, and we did enter a pop art room that just wasn’t something that grabbed me. But hey, I don’t like the Franck d minor either, so whatever. Maybe I’m clueless!

The next exhibit was a 1 minute light show in a small room.

But now I’ll just post the small remainder of what I shot inside.

Yep, that was it. We also went outside at just the moment some fog or some such thing was billowing out from underneath the sidewalk. Shortly after it stopped. I didn’t see any write-up about it, though, so I’m not sure what it was about and I’m too lazy to google it at the moment.

Side note: google … what a funny thing that it has become a verb. I just think of, “Barney Google, with his goo goo googly eyes.” I suppose I’m showing my age to some but, trust me, that song is much older than old me!

After 5 1/2 hours at the not-the-Getty, aka the Guggenheim, we then walked back to our hotel.

And a fun thing to see —

When we got back to our hotel we didn’t nap, but we relaxed and started our writing. Meanwhile, beneath us, it sounds like a saxophonist is practicing. Poorly. Some buskers are pretty good. This one? Nope. Nope. Nope. It’s rather painful, to be honest. But at least I can recognize most of the tunes. Sort of. Maybe. And to think they made the bassoonist leave. It’s not fair!

Finally … dinner! We went first to the breakfast spot and had some pintxos there. A nice place, friendly people who put up with our attempts at Spanish, and good food.

Then, to do things the proper Spanish pintxos way, we went to another place to finish up. Another big yum! Dan has been so cooperative with my photo taking and I’m grateful. Notice his exciting 0.0% beer. Again. He’s being a very good boy.

Then back to our hotel we went. (Okay, truth be told another gelato was enjoyed, but I’m not going to tell you that. Got it?)

I leave you with a goodnight photo from our little balcony.

Or make that two:

Adios!

Saturday, December 21

Posted on by
Reply

We got started very late today. But hey, we aren’t on any sort of schedule so that’s just fine. First we had our terrifically exciting powdered coffee, but to add to the fun we opened one of the small panettone boxes we received on our IRYO train ride. (And we have one more so maybe it gets eaten tomorrow.)

We both knew it was a shower day, so I decided to wash my pjs as well as myself. Doing the small amounts of laundry I do is even easier if I do that in the shower.

We decided a visit to the Prado Museum would be a good thing to do, so I purchased tickets and we readied ourselves for a 25 minute walk.

Up to Gran Via we went. But wait, what is that horrible noise? And what is with all the Santa suits? Turns out it was some sort of motorcycle thing and you wouldn’t believe how many there were (with police escorts). Sadly I wasn’t able to get a good video, but I got what I could. (I tried editing it, but I guess that didn’t quite work for this. Sorry!)

These motorcycles, though, were painful on the ears. It was so very loud we opted to get off that street and go back down to Plaza del Sol to get to the museum. The crowds were easier to manage than the noise.



We went into a little place for some lunch. Typical of me, I ordered too much. I really should just get an appetizer. This is before our food came: just something they put out to eat and our “sin alcool” (without alcohol) beers.



Then on to the museum we went. We’d purchased the audio guide as well, and could choose which one we wanted they had one for a short hour tour all the way up to nine hours. We opted for the three hour one.

I’m not sure what they were thinking when they put it together: rather than moving logically from room to room we sometimes had to go nearly the full length of the building for the next painting or sculpture. We stuck it out for a good amount of time, but eventually we both hit the wall. So we purchased cookies and water for those awful museum prices, and agreed after that that we were through.



Walking back to the hotel the masses of people were again insane. I simply had no idea how crowded it gets here. The police presence is obvious, but I think about the recent Germany tragedy and think it only takes one person to go off on a rampage. I’m really not sure it’s safe to be out in these crowds. We all felt that way in Munich as well.

Back to our hotel it was, as usual, rest time. One reason we wanted to get back and be well rested is because tonight is our Flamenco and Dinner event. We have great memories of the show we saw in Seville, and I’m hopeful this will be equally enjoyable.

When it was time to leave we made our way to the location for Tablao Las Carboneras. As is so often the case I managed to go the wrong direction a few times, but we had left ourselves plenty of time so it was no biggie. Plus we saw this projection thing again. We now know (from our tapas tour guide yesterday), that this is a convent. Makes sense that they’d be playing sacred music and projecting these images.

Arriving at our destination we were checked in and seated. There was a bit of a mixup — at first they didn’t think I’d paid for a full dinner — but that was eventually cleared up. I think there must have been two Patricias or something. Truth be told we would have been fine with the first course that they initially thought was what we were to get. I’m rather sorry, in fact, that I bothered to eat any of the second course!

The show was fantastic. I’m so glad we went! One “oops!” from me: they said photos and videos were allowed as long as the videos weren’t long and we didn’t use flash. So I started a video … who knew that the light comes on for those automatically? I sure didn’t! I quickly put my hand in front of the bright light and then turned that off. Eek! I only shot a few things. We were there to watch and listen, after all, not use cameras! (The internet at our hotel is awful, and I’m not sure if the videos will even work.)

Then back home we went. Something was definitely happening on the side of the opera house: we saw people lined up down the building, some in funny outfits. I think Madrid is a wacky place this time of year!

Tomorrow is our final full day in Madrid. It is, in fact, our final full day in Europe. So far we have no plans for the day, so who knows what it will bring. It will be Sunday, so I’m assuming much will be quieter and closed down, but at this point, in this particular city, who knows?

Adios!

A Museum Day … About Time, Right?

Posted on by
Reply

Today we again had our small breakfast downstairs. Then back upstairs we went to dress for our excursion.

About 25 minutes later we were at the Louvre, where we had made reservations to enter at 11:00.

Now museums and I don’t always get along: my back can hurt, and my eyes finally have had enough. But today was not that way. We were there for nearly five hours, I think. I didn’t take a lot of photos, as a photo never does them justice and I’d rather look at them than look through a phone at them. But here are a few I shot just to show we really were there. And yes, we saw good old Mona, and no, no photo of her. But a photo of the crowd peering at her.

The walk home took us past a lot of stores again.

At one store I pondered … just which thing will Dan be buying me? Hmmm.

We saw a carousel and went to watch and take photos. The majority of people on it were adults. Some were perhaps a bit too large for the seat, but whatever. I saw no place to purchase tickets, so I think it was actually free but no, I didn’t ride it. Maybe next time. Or not.

I love that some street decorations spell “MOM”. How kind of them to honor all of us, don’t you think? ( You might have to look carefully.)

Back in our room we researched dinner spots. We settled on Les Clos Bourguignon, a mere minute from our hotel. The one and only server spoke no English. We speak no French. But it’s amazing how all of us can manage somehow.

Tomorrow morning we say our goodbyes to Paris. We’ve enjoyed our experiences here very much, but time marches on.

Happy Friday in London

Posted on by
Reply

Not a lot to write about or post today, really.

Breakfast. Check.

Tube to Embankment. Check.

Walk to the British National Museum. Check.

Meet up with Brandon again. Check.

Stand in line for eons. Check.

Go through security where they didn’t confiscate my cookies (whew!). Check.

But these days I don’t really take photos at museums, so we wandered, we ate lunch (where I did take this one photo)

… and we wandered more. The museum is so much about antiquities (obtained, I am guessing, in less that admirable ways sometimes). I confess I’m more of a painting person, but there really is something about seeing things that are so amazingly ancient.

From there we walked to a close, very old, pub. Also turned out to be incredibly noisy due to one group of guys. Go figure. I must say I’m enjoying the 1/2 pints I get, and all with lower alcohol content. The smaller beer works for me: I so frequently can’t even finish the pints!


We decided to head back to our hotel for a bit of a late night, nearly 5:00 siesta.

Brandon contacted us some time later, saying he was just across Blackfriars bridge so we walked back over to meet up and have dinner at the pub. We had a great time. It’s our last meet up with him and I’ll miss him a ton.

After dinner it was back to our place — and hey, the elevator was working! Earlier today it said it was out of order … I’m glad it’s fixed because I’d have hated to lug our stuff down stairs on Monday when we head home.

Tomorrow we are taking a short train ride to another town. We have to set our alarms, in fact, because we are going to have to get things done earlier to make the train.

Night!