Spain Diary - Sam Kaplan
May 27, 2006
The Yale men's basketball team is taking a 10-day trip to Spain. Periodically during the trip, the players will file updates. On Friday, the team visited the Museo Nacional Del Prado, one of the most famous art museums in the world. Sam Kaplan provides details of the tour.
Spain is amazing! After seeing the old architecture in the city of Toledo yesterday, we had a little bit of a change in pace today. We went to the Prado museum and saw some of the most famous paintings in the world. Paintings by Diego Velaquez, Pablo Picasso, Peter Paul Rubens and Anton van Dyck, all of which was very intriguing to me because I have never seen artwork of such great caliber.
The Prado museum holds paintings and sculptures from the 15th to 17th centuries, and all of them have tremendous value. Our tour guide, Hernan, explained to us that some of the paintings have been estimated at 53 million dollars. After seeing the great attention to detail and hidden messages that these artists used, it is very clear to me why the paintings are worth so much.
Tonight we play our first game against an under-22-year-old team. These athletes are around our age, but probably have been playing professionally since the age of 15. Unfortunately I am unable to play because I am still recovering from recent wrist surgery, but I will still provide the team with leadership and motivation from the sidelines. I guess you could say that I will be the team's biggest fan and cheerleader during this trip, since we don't have any here. I'm excited to see what else the trip has in store for us.
Regards, Sam
