Our touring van outside the Albuquerque Hotel.
Something we learned is that the film and television industries love ABQ, mostly because of the 300+ days-a-year of sunshine. This is the home of the main character from Breaking Bad, a TV series we have never seen, but there were people on our van that were big fans.
After the 90-minute tour we returned to a number of places that were featured. About three blocks from the hotel is the entrance to Old Town, a locale that doesn't look much different from its founding 3 centuries ago. This is a statue of Don Francisco Fernandez de la Cueva, the Founder.
Like many traditional villages, the focal point is a tree-shaded plaza with a gazebo.
On the plaza's north side is the San Felipe de Neri Church founded in 1706. The original adobe church building collapsed during the very rainy summer of 1792; the present adobe structure, in the shape of a cross with walls 5-feet thick, dates from 1793.
Inside of the church reflecting the Lenten season.
Surrounding the plaza is a pedestrian-friendly district with plenty of local artists displaying their wares on blankets under the buildings portal (porch).
There are also numerous hidden side streets and...
patios.
Following our exploration of Old Town we headed over to Museum Row and the Albuquerque Museum. Following are some of the pieces that were in Gallery 3 - Taos Moderns.
The wolf is a popular symbol of New Mexico.
Close-up of this handsome fellow. Do yourself a favor and click on the picture to enlarge it.
Another wolf.
Inspired by Carlsbad Caverns.
What I remember is that the artist called this a picture from his "Revlon" period.
"Karl" by Andrew Wyeth. He painted this the same year as "Christina's World."
Textile
"Woe Man I" by Judy Chicago
"Acoma Legend" by Mary Greene Blumenschein
"Hot Country"by Elmer Schooley. From a distance his paintings look abstract but are filled with details which depict the colors and textures of southern New Mexico. In Hot Country, the artist exaggerates the heat of the dry earth and contrasts the bright salmon warmth of the soil with the cool green and sage colors of the mounded shrubs. It would often take years to develop his surfaces, methodically adding one color at a time.
Late Afternoon at La Cueva by Wilson Hurley. This was one of my favorites because it is of the Sandia Mountains where we hiked yesterday.
From Gallery 4, a life-sized diorama of early encounters with Europeans.
As we were leaving this duo was beginning the afternoon's concert.
The Museum also had a fabulous sculpture garden. This work, and the one below...
depict the history of ABQ.
We next visited the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, know locally as the Dinosaur Museum - for obvious reasons.
The origins and geological history of the Southwest are explored through full-scale dinosaur models.
This is a Coelophysis, the state dinosaur.
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