A dear friend of ours, Lord Farquhar of the Hinterland, shares with me a love of Miguel Cervantes. Cervantes was a native of Madrid and is by far the most loved and most influential of all Spanish authors. His parallels with Shakespeare are many, they even died on the same date of the same year (April 23rd, 1616, but 10 days apart because of different calendars). However it is very unlikely they would have even heard of each other. Their respective effect on their own language was enormous, they have each affected the lingua franca of the other (‘When in Rome do as the Romans do,’ was the advice given to Sancho, and I have been known to tilt at windmills when attempting to teach Brian maths)

This apartment is in the same neighbourhood where Cervantes spent most of his life. There is a convent 30m away – he would often jump their fence to pinch oranges from the garden. Somewhere around here would have been the two prisons he spent time in for tax fraud. Nearby would have lived the family members who paid the ransom to buy him back from captivity as a Turkish galley slave. He also fought in one of the defining battles of that age, the Battle of Lepanto. And he wrote That Book.

Don Quixote is usually credited with being the first novel written and Cervantes with creating the genre. It starts out as a series of short stories and then, as if a light comes on, one chapter then leads on to the next. It starts out as a series of comic tales, but becomes an insightful commentary on Castilian Spain and the ruling classes – chivalry, entitlement, the effects that a crusading sense of purpose has on others. Miguel Cervantes is alive, well and still much loved in Madrid.

The other artists we experienced today were the painters. What started as ‘We need to visit the Prado’, ended as a whole day spent there. It is pointless to compare the great museums of the world and the Prado is one of the greats. I will confess to being a tad over the birth, death and resurrection of Christ as executed by European artists from the 14th Century onwards, but rooms filled with pieces by Goya, Greco, Titian, Veracruz, Rubens, Rembrandt, etc, etc, can do that to a Rosewood boy. The pieces in one room, if sold, would pay off Australia’s foreign debt, and there are more than 160 rooms filled with treasures.

Whilst I would have been happy to just wander the streets of Madrid, wandering Cervante’s streets is even more special. Wandering around a significant part of Europe’s art history is very special indeed. Miss Moneypenny, my art teacher in Yr 8, might have been more than a little surprised by the enjoyment in the Arts one of her ex-students experienced today. Enjoyment is much too bland a word. Thankyou Miss Moneypenny.

F C-S
On a personal note, today marks the 37th anniversary of our marriage! Wine, cheese and a toast to family and friends is entirely in order. (A friend of mine says he has had 22 years of happy marriage, but unfortunately he’s been married for 31.)