Day 1

After a tedious, though somewhat pleasant day of traveling, we arrived in Madrid at 9:00 in the morning. Only speaking our hesitant, broken Spanish, we managed to get on the right bus to take us downtown. The weather was beautiful: cool and sunny with lush, white clouds, perfect for a long walk. We strolled through a significant portion of the city before finding our hotel, observing along the way not only the magnificent architecture, but the people as well. We found ourselves in the midst of a whole new culture, one which pronounces certain letters with a lisp; which takes a midday siesta; which eats a huge meal around 14:00 (2 p.m.) and small snacks and drinks around 21:00 (9 p.m.); and where men ride motorcycles in suits--we even saw two priests sharing a moped!
Nevertheless, we were not deterred from following suit. After our own revitalizing siesta, we ate a multiple course meal around 14:30 at a restaurante called La Taparía. We ordered in Spanish, throwing in the occasional ceceo (the lisp mentioned above) with words like gracias and cerveza (pronounced in Castilian GRAH-thee-ahs and thair-VAY-thuh). For only 23 euros, this delicious meal was una ganga, because we each had salad, bread, an entree, desert, beer and coffee. We then went to Madrid's modern art museum, el Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, where Picasso's masterpiece Guérnica is displayed. Although this work demands more thought and interpretation, we feel comfortable saying now that it undoubtedly captures the horror of war, but in a unique and deeply moving way. Accompanying this were dozens of sketches and drafts Picasso made in preparation for this work, as well as photographs of the havoc wreaked by the civil war.
We also saw paintings and sculptures by other Spanish artists with whom we were not familiar prior to our arrival. It was particularly interesting to see some of Dalí's earlier, pre-surrealist works. Finally, we were able to take a few breaks to contemplate the art we had just seen in a lovely garden circumscribed by the museum.
For "supper", around 9 pm, we had some ice cream, because we were so full from our afternoon meal. Not yet having yet recovered from our overnight flight, we decided to skip on the customary tapas and bar scene in order to get some rest for tomorrow.

¡Buenas Noches!