On Sunday, I visited Madrid for the first time and went to the Museo del Prado to see some paintings I have long admired from afar, especially Hieronymus Bosch's "The Garden of Earthly Delights" (ca. 1490-1510) and Diego Velázquez's "Las Meninas" (1656). Both paintings had large crowds in front of them, but nothing like the one I experienced with the "Mona Lisa" at the Louvre last month. It was enough to be patient for a few minutes until I was able to make my way to the front to take the paintings in. "Las Meninas", especially, surprised and overwhelmed me, in part with its tremendous size (318 cm × 276 cm). (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 12 August 2026)