Wednesday – November 25, 2015
Our time in Madrid seemed to pass quickly. There were two sights we didn’t want to miss so we got an early start and went to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte – Reina Sofia. This is a modern/contemporary art museum and houses Spain’s national collection of 20th century art among other more recent treasures.
Visitors are greeted by the work of the American artist, Roy Lichtenstein:
The Reina Sofia is huge; much bigger than we expected or had time to explore in its entirety. There were two sections: an older more traditional building and a new modern addition.
We rode the elevator up to the terrace for a magnificent view of the city and a chance to appreciate the wonderful architecture of the building.
The older part of the building had been a 16th century hospital and was built in a traditional square around a central courtyard. The permanent collection was extensive and complimented by the temporary exhibits of contemporary artists.
The museum is the permanent home of Picasso’s famous painting, Guernica. Today, a huge crowd formed a semi-circle in front of the painting while a museum guide explained the work to a group of students who sat on the floor. Because of last week’s bombings in Paris, two guards stood on both sides of the painting and watched the crowd. The museum has an excellent website: museoreinasofia.es
We rested in the modern cafe and reluctantly left the Reina Sofia. Unfortunately, at our advancing age, we don’t have the energy to do everything we would like to do. Madrid has an excellent public transportation system which is well marked, very clean, and punctual. After a coffee break in the modern cafe, we took a bus to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum.
This is another wonderful museum which deserves more time to explore. We did a quick visit to see a few of our favorite artists and continued back to our hotel to pack for our trip home tomorrow. Check out the virtual tour on their website: museothyssen.org It’s excellent.
On this trip we used a cell phone app called Here which didn’t need wifi or a data connection. We downloaded the city maps at home and the app gave us clear directions to any destination including choices of transportation: walking, driving, or detailed public transportation routes. It worked really well for us!
Two weeks flew by! We discovered that Spain is a wonderful country to visit: great food, friendly people, relatively safe, very clean, many good hotels, and excellent public transportation. Hopefully, we will be able to return someday to see more of the Iberian peninsula.