Madrid

Madrid has some of the best art gallerys in the world and yesterday we went to 2 of them.

The Cetro de arte Sofia where Picasso´s Guernica is on display after it was returned to it´s rightful place after Franco died.The whole floor where it is displayed is dedicated to anti-fascist art of the Spanish Civil War...very moving....and then of course there were rooms of Dali, Miro,Gris,Leger etc
Then to The Museo del Prado ..certainly the best art gallery I have ever been in and all those pictures that you recognise from the art textbooks we had at school....to see them in the flesh is just wonderful.

Madrid is a very elegant city with lots of parks and plaza and apartment buldings with wrought iron balconies and large and very grand public buildings and palaces (built in large part with Inca gold I suspect)...
Still very expensive to eat and the food is not great either...we are so lucky at home to eat so well for about half the price.
Still no government at home I hear!

Barcelona

Gaudi's Casa Baillo

Very very hot and busy is Barcelona......but Gaudi is everywhere and truely amazing. Having been gazing at his work for decades in books it was no substitute for the real thing...he was a genius.

Barri Gotic laneway

Marion arrived safely by train from France and we stayed 3 nights in Barri Gotic..the oldest part of Barcelona but also the part with the most tourists and there was an awful lot of them...getting some summer heat I suspect because you sure don´t get it in the U.K. It was a maze of medieval alleyways and squares (placas) and of course a Catholic church every 100 metres it seemed. Fantastic
Note Tom that we saw the hotel that George Orwell stayed in for the duration of the Civil War.
Spain is not that easy as very little English is spoken and most signs are on in Spanish or Catalan..
.....no photos as yet as this computer in the hotel does not have that facility.
We arrived in Madrid about an hour ago on the very fast train ...at times we reached 300kms ....less than 3 hours to travel 600 or so kms from Barcelona. Very smooth and comfortable.