Madrid

Lovely breakfast again, with violet preserve in the bottom of the yoghurt and also on toast, black coffee to waken me up. Then A found an FT so had a quiet read while I perused the Design Hotelsl book in which I found all the beautiful Hospes hotels as well as some stunning places elsewhere. The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum would be open at ten, so we soon were out on the move down Paseo del Prado. I get in free, but A had to pay six euros! We did get their audio guides as well, which are excellent, apart from one description of Marc Chagall's The Grey House that mentioned the synagogue in the background, which is in fact the Russian orthodox monastery. There are so many wonderful works of art in the collections that it is difficult to choose a favourite, whether you like Holbein, Henry VIII; El Greco or Velazquez; Rembrandt, Rubens or Raphael; Impressionists, cubists, Russians, French, Dutch, British or Americans; whatever - it's all here!

At last we needed to stop, and with a last look around, we made our way out to the Terrace Cafe and a small roll filled with cheese and roast veggies with a great cup of coffee. We wanted to buy some more PCs, and were told off by an attendant for looking in a drawer for the Degas, Swaying Dancers, as it had run out on the shelves! So now it was time to walk down the road to Centro de Arte Reina Sofia our next stop.

This turned out to be less exciting in some respects as it seemed a bit chaotic with several parts being closed, certain items not where they had been when the guide book was written, and having to wade through loads of stuff to get to the real treasures. Nevertheless, we did see Guernica, Picasso's masterpiece. Obviously it is a very important piece, especially for the Spanish nation, but there was so much about the war, it was a bit overwhelming. We did find Joan Miro, other Picasso's, Gris, Solana, several other famous Spanish artists and to our surprise some Salvador Dali early works, which you would never guess were his. A lovely painting of a girl looking out through a window at a harbour wall really caught our eye, such a natural flowing style. We needed a cup of tea, so found our way to the new wing where there is a cafe. Crossing the plaza, we saw Brushstroke, a Roy Lichtenstein sculpture on display, and then sat at the bar for tea and cake. 
We decided it was time to get out into the fresh air, so we left the museum and walked to Plaza de Espagna where Madrid's first skyscraper was built. It looks a bit like Stalin's 'wedding cakes' in Moscow with its broad base and central tower. In front of it is the plaza with its ornamental lake and memorial to Cervantes with Don Quixote and Sancho Panza at its base. This is a popular place to get one's photo taken as the two are easily reachable and there was a constant stream of people climbing up to stand by Rocinante, with DQ towering over them.
We now walked back in the direction of Plaza de la Independencia, taking a quick look at the Royal Palace and finding some of the tiled shop fronts we saw in the dark on our tapas tour. We needed some energy to get all the way back, and we found the Chocolateria San Gines where everyone goes to finish off a night out to eat churros dipped in thick warm chocolate. It is amazing stuff, and reminded us of our trip to Andalucia where we had eaten the same on the banks of the river in Seville, just before we went off to catch the plane home. Today's were absolutely delicious and we used the time to get a few PCs written.
We were so tired when we got back to the hotel, we just managed a couple of tapas plates with some summer wine and beer. The summer wine, that we also tried on the tapas tour is called Tinto de Verano and is a refreshing mix of red wine, some slices of citrus fruit and ice topped up with lemonade. Only in the hotel they add some vermouth. It is very refreshing and very popular. In fact it is better to order this than Sangria, which no Spanish person drinks in a bar! Sangria is a party drink and in Spain they make it a day or too in advance so the fruit absorbs the wine and wine dissolves the fruit! We didn't even manage dessert before it was time to retire to bed.

Hospes Hotels

The Design Hotel Book

Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza

Centro de Arte Reina Sofia