this is the first time that i get to visit this museum again after more than 30 years. we frequent this place when i was in grade school as part of our yearly educational trips. a lot of things have changed since then. for one, our national museum has expanded and housed a lot of other materials that were not present three decades prior. it has separate provisions now - one each for fine arts and for natural history. a full day is not enough to roam the place. for a minimal fee, one can enjoy a guided tour of the place. be sure your cameras have full batteries and enough memory storage.

There was so much more at the National Museum of Fine Arts than we could ever hope to conquer in a couple of hours, especially when that time is at the end of a day where sightseeing began at 8am! Loved the work of Vicente Silva Manansala and Carlos V. Francisco, particularly the latter’s gigantic ‘History of Manila’. Sat and drank that one in for ages from many angles. If we could’ve replanned our visit, it would not have been after a big day of sightseeing (although it is also a lovely place to escape the afternoon heat).

There are actually three national museums close to one another in the Rizal Park area ... the National Museum of Anthropology, the National Museum of Natural History, and the National Museum of Fine Arts. Each has its own particular collection. You can visit any of them depending on your personal interests ... History, Art, etc. Entrance is free. They are closed on Mondays. They do get a bit crowded on Sundays. Queues can also be quite long and slow as they manually register guests. Collections are well-arranged and properly labeled. Some galleries are closed. Lighting system can be improved. Perhaps they need to add more elevators to give visitors easy access to the upper floors. Parking is a bit of a problem as there are very limited slots. Lastly, they could put up souvenir shops and nice restaurants as well.

This was 3rd and last on our agenda. To get here from the National Museum of Anthropology, we crossed Finance Rd then turned right at Padre Burgos Ave, about a 5-min walk. We weren't expecting to see a queue up the steps leading to the entrance portico but there it was. It took our group of 6 about 10 mins to reach the walk-through metal detector and maybe 5 more mins to be done with registration (1 government-issued ID per group). Same as the other 2 national museums, admission is free and photography is allowed. My friend and I deposited our bulky belongings at the baggage counter before our 2 families entered the Spoliarium Hall just across the lobby. I admit my main reason for visiting the National Museum of Fine Arts was to see Juan Luna's Spoliarium. My husband used to tease me for having never stepped foot inside the National Museum when UP Manila, my alma mater, was just 1 km away. I actually have no excuse. Indeed, the Spoliarium was the highlight of our museum hopping. It was magnificent. There were unobtrusive metal barriers in front of the huge painting to keep viewers at a safe distance. However, taking souvenir photos here proved to be a challenge. There was no queue so people just rush to the front from different directions. Our group decided to explore the other galleries first then come back, hoping there would be less people to deal with half an hour later. I particularly enjoyed browsing the special exhibition of Fernando Amorsolo's works--those oil paintings featuring the Philippine countryside, photos of which I have seen in elementary school textbooks. We also explored the portrait gallery--very impressed with Amorsolo's lifelike portraits, really beautiful works of art. No wonder he was the first-ever National Artist of the Philippines. Unfortunately we didn't have time to explore the upper floors as we were hoping to avoid the afternoon rush hour. We returned to the Spoliarium Hall, still crowded by the way, and managed to take group photos with the Spoliarium by shamelessly asking people to move out of the frame. We brazened it out and did group photos per family. Got that done in 51 seconds. We also took photos with El Asesinato del Gobernador Bustamante painting by Felix Resurrección Hidalgo. This was easily accomplished as everyone else was focused on the Spoliarium across it, then we left.