Parque del Buen Retiro & Palacio de Cristal

March 2012 trip to Madrid, Venice, Verona, Milan and Paris.
Madrid: Parque del Retiro, Crystal Palace, Prado, Royal Palace, Tapas
 

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Eurasian Magpie in Parque del Buen Retiro, Madrid
Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica)
Parque del Buen Retiro water garden
Parque del Buen Retiro

Sunday (continued)

We walked on to the the Palacio de Cristal in the center of Parque del Buen Retiro, photographing more birds, plants and monuments along the way. The 1887 Crystal Palace is no longer a greenhouse used to exhibit flora and fauna, but is now used to display art. The last exhibit officially ended four days before today, but was still in place.

Written on the Celestial Bodies is an installation created specifically for Palacio de Cristal. The temporary installation by Soledad Sevilla explores the relationship between light, matter and space, combining analytical rigor and geometric order with a search for a sensorial and organic experience. It really didn't do much for me. I would rather have seen an exhibit of flora and fauna.

Keith Stokes in Parque del Buen Retiro
Linda took this picture of me photographing the Eurasian Magpie in the photo at the top of this page

Red-billed Chough
Red-billed Chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax)

Palacio de Cristal - Madrid, Spain
Palacio de Cristal, the Crystal Palace

waterfall - Madrid, Spain
Palacio de Cristal waterfall - you can look out from behind it

Black Swan
Black Swans (Cygnus atratus) have been introduced to Europe from Australia


These are probably an invasive species from the US - the painted turtle (Chrysemys picta) - (prints of this photo are available at Finearts America)

Crystal Palace - Madrid, Spain
The Crystal Palace had a temporary installation, Written on the Celestial Bodies

Written on the Celestial Bodies - Madrid, Spain
Written on the Celestial Bodies by Soledad Sevilla explores the relationship between light, matter and space

Written on the Celestial Bodies by Soledad Sevilla
Close up detail of Written on the Celestial Bodies


The Palacio de Cristal has beautiful exterior features

As we walked out of the Parque del Buen Retiro, we stopped to spend some time in the adjacent Real Jardín Botanico de Madrid. The Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid is a 20 acre botanical garden next to the Prado Museum. The garden was founded on October 17, 1755, by King Ferdinand VI, and installed in the Orchard of Migas Calientes. In 1774, King Charles III ordered the garden moved to its current location on the Paseo del Prado.

We were just a couple of weeks too early to really appreciate this garden and the greenhouses were not open.

Real Jardín Botanico de Madrid, Spain
This portion of the Royal Botanical Garden is devoted to vegetable plants

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copyright 2012 by Keith Stokes.