Madrid’s Galería de las Colecciones Reales

Visitors don’t seem to know about this place yet, but it is one of the finest artistic venues in Spain.  Taken from the royal collections and opened only a few years ago, it has one of the best displays of 16th century Brussels tapestries you will find, perhaps the best, beautifully hung with plenty of space.  The paintings are from Goya, Velazquez, Melendez, Patinir, Mengs, Juan de Valdés, and others patronized by the Spanish rulers.  Few bad pieces in the lot.  There are also Goya tapestries, sometimes right next to associated Goya paintings.  A splendid royal carriage.

This is perhaps my sixth (?) visit to Madrid, and the place never has felt better.  Great for walking, and full of young people and small shops.  It has absolutely displaced Barcelona as the leading city in Spain.  A+ for both dining and art, and now it is the European capital of Latin America as well.  It is no longer crazy to put it in the same league as Paris or Berlin, and these days feels more like a work in progress — in the good sense of that term — than either of those other places.