Espana 3

So Nora is now taking her apple every where. She decided to photograph her new best friend HoneyCrisp sitting on a statue of Velasquez, and asked me to hold it, or as she said, "her". I plopped "her" down and walked away. "She" decided to escape and landed on the sidewalk, rolling ten feet away. Of course this was my fault, and I now was responsible for making Nora's HoneyCrisp just some "applesauce in a skin". Boy am I in trouble. To make up for this, I agreed to let HC see the real Royal Palace, as seen here.

Now that we know where King Carlos and Queen Sofie live, what, we wondered, do they do all day? Turns out they are pretty busy, and we went to see one of the great cultural works the city of Madrid enjoys courtesy of the good works of Queen Sofia. I know that usually someone of this type would do something like open a hospital for the poor. But no, our Reina Sofia took a hospital for the poor and turned it into arguably one of the worlds finest museums of modern art. If you like Picasso, Miro, Salvador Dali, Magritte, and a multitude of like minded artists, this place is for you. The space is great, now that they have cleaned out all of those messy hospital beds and operating rooms.

The museum houses Guernica, the massive painting by Picasso which was commisioned for the 1937 Paris World Fair, during the Spanish civil war, and some consider the prelude to WW2. It depicts his view of the straffing and bombing of Guernica by the Fascists, who were supported by the Nazi party. They used the small basque village as target practice, just to target in their skills. Nora started worrying that the maids would throw out HoneyCrisp, so we came back to check on the bad apple...jah

So Jennifer was in hog-heaven today as MNCARS (Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia) had a large collection of two of Jenn's three favorite artists. We spent a very pleasant morning in the large, light-filled galleries. Then we lunched at a little place nearby that was recommended on Mirabel's website.

Jennifer keeps telling me that I need to do a better job of restaurant review, so here goes. . .yesterday we lunched at a "chic" (that was, in fact, the name) cafe near our hotel. Many restaurants have a "menu del dia" or set lunch menu with primero (1st), secundo (2nd) and postre (dessert) for a set price. We tried this yesterday, much to our disappointment. In fact, I can say the food was nasty. Last night we walked around the corner to a little taberna and were greeted warmly by a woman who was delighted at the chance to use her English, talk politics and show off her native cuisine. We weren't even given the chance to order, really. She recommended a lovely wine from the Duero, insisted that we try several versions of Iberico Pork (for those of you who don't know, this is a local free-range pig that eats only acorns), brought us lovely acetunas (olives), and generally kept us relaxed and entertained - a lovely experience. It was called Taberna la Jerezana and,oh yes, for dessert she brought us a housemade anise-infused sherry. Yum!

My only complaint is that we're eating at 9 or 10 at night. That means bed after midnight, rising late (the hotel offers a breakfast buffet, but J doesn't like the coffee, so she dragged me out to elbow my way to a crowded counter where people were shouting at me for my oder over the heads of dozens of other coffee-drinkers - very unsettling), a late start, a late lunch and so on and so forth. I guess we're in step with the Madrilenos, but my biorhythms are way off. Oh well. When in Rome. . .

So, having said all that - its 8:30 and I have to get dressed so we can go out and try yet another recommended tapas bar. Buen Provecho! . . .nll