SPAIN 26 JUNE

Started the day with coffee at the local cafe in what we now feel is "our" Plaza de Santa Cruz. One could spend all day just sitting watching the world go by here - or just wandering from place to place along the variety of streets and lanes. Everywhere a view, everywhere something to see. We moved off eventually heading more or less towards the Prado and museos. We stopped to admire the Edifico Espana and the Don Quixote statue nearby, fully appreciating the shady park and the magnificent magnolia trees and gnarly olive trees. We had a look at the Sabatini Gardens adjacent to the Palazio Real and decided that the queue in the sun was just too long for us. There was to be a "religious observation" of some magnitude in the Cathedral Almuneda but we had time to have a good wander round. Rob found the opulence a "bit scary" but I thought it quite wonderful. I couldn't find out what the observations was but from our observation point across the road at another cafe in the shade we saw some very smartly dressed people arriving to attend. Down more streets, this time a little bit down market filled with wholesalers of cheap imports towards the Centro de Artes Reina Sofia. We decided to go to the Estacion de Atocha on the way to buy our ticket to Barcelona and to organise a gold card for the senior in our midst (which gives him quite a saving on the ticket price). The system is to take a ticket and wait your turn, and when we arrived ticket number 273 was being served. We took ticket number 640 and waited. We waited outside the ticket sales area sitting on a stone wall under some wonderful palm trees and ferns which are planted in the centre of the biggest rail hall I think I have been in. Fantastico! This is where the pictured turtles live. Going in search of an icecream for us Rob found a huge shopping mall at the other end so we went off and bought local sim cards at the phone shop. Not wanting to miss our turn, which came along a bit over an hour after we arrived we decided against a shopping spree. The wait was really quite a pleasant one after all and the service good when we got to the counter. We now have the said gold card and the tickets on our train. We are also now able to book future trains online. Off to Reina Sofia - and Guernica. Admission is free on Saturday afternoons, and quite a few people were taking advantage of that, but not so many that it was really overcrowded. couple of school groups, and plenty tourists. The temporary exhibitions were all exhibited in a huge open space, not quite jumbled up but an weirdly esoteric mixture. But we were on a bit of a mission - Guernica called. Off we went making our way through the collection which is sorted primarily chronologically. That makes for an interesting look at the works of various artists at the same time and seeing their progression through the years. But Guernica - you approach it through an arched doorway from where they allow photographs to be taken (no flash) which we found extraordinary. I can only suppose that they expect all the photographs to include the people standing in front of the painting and so to avoid any misuse in the future. All I can say is it lived up to expectations and is very moving and impressive. There is a series of photographs which officially record the progress of the painting during its creation and they are particularly interesting as they give an insight into the way Picasso approached the project. More walking to a cafe in the shade, a cold beer and then a walk home for siesta - only to be followed by more walking and more cafes .. we walked around the back of our hostal this time into Plaza Mayor which is obviously where it's at on a Saturday night. We found the Mercado San Miguel which is fascinating. It is open all day past midnight and contains bars and food stalls of all sorts. Customers wander around with a glass in hand tasting at the various stalls or find a space to at least put your plate and glass down for a minute to eat. It is rather like a huge party, or perhaps more like one of those opening night parties where people don't really know each other but are all there together anyway. We meandered off and then finally made our way back to Plaza Mayor via Puerta del Sol (another place to be on a Saturday night) for a final galss of wine. When we got there Rob decided on an ice cream instead. That meant that he couldn't bring his icecream to my table and I couldn't order a drink from his table - damned incosderate I say. Unfortunately he go t the icecream first so I decided to forgo the wine and off to bed. The whole of Madrid seemed to be on parade last night, and perhaps we will find it like that again tonight .. hope so as it is a great feeling to be out amongst it all on our eternal quest for good food. We have had a couple of dissapointments to date, but there will always be the mercado ...