What do I want to do before I die? There are a few places I'd like to travel to. For some reason I want to visit Greenland someday. And I want to visit Disney land!
Also, I want to visit Spain just to see the Prado art gallery. It has a lot of famous paintings by artists like Velazquez and Goya. One of them is Goya's painting of Spain's Royal Family toward the end of the 18th century, before the French Revolution turned all Europe upside down.
One French critic said that the painting looks like the corner baker and his family after they won the lottery! When you look at it, you get the impression that the Queen was the one really in charge of the place. Not because she was any smarter than the King, but just because she had a stronger will. (Some husbands depend on that.) But something about the way she holds her children humanizes her in an un-royal sort of way. Familiarity breeds contempt, and there's something unsparingly familiar about the painting.
It's even more fascinating when you know the back story. The Queen got her husband to appoint a scoundrelly young favourite of hers Prime Minister (they were rumoured to be lovers!), contributing to the nation's decline. Napoleon would later oust the King and put his own brother on the Spanish throne, leading to years of occupation and guerrilla warfare. The two sons in the painting would ultimately plunge Spain into several destructive wars! (The older son changed the rules of succession just a few years before his death so that his daughter would inherit the throne instead of his brother, and the younger son didn't take it sitting down!)
I really want to see that painting in person.
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