The weather has forsaken us.....

After an almost blemish-free honeymoon, Madrid has brought the fine weather to a grinding halt. It has rained non-stop since we arrived. Fortunately though, Madrid's main attractions are indoors, in the form of three art museums.

Today's turn was to visit the Museo Nacional Del Prado which is considered to have one of the finest collections in the world.

To be honest though, I found the place quite boring compared to the previous day with most paintings either being about Jesus or of biblical origin and of kings. Carolyn disagreed with me though saying that this was much more interesting and that the paintings were "real" paintings. While I can appreciate the workmanship behind the paintings, Picasso's and Dali's work is much more intriguing, in my mind at least!

Following on from Museo del Prado, we ended up at another museum of sorts, Museo del Jamon or Museum of Ham! This was possibly the most amusing lunch I have ever had, for 8 euros ($16 AUD) we had a 3 course lunch with bread and a glass of wine. What made it amusing I guess was that the unassuming frontage had a restaurant that seated about 150 people upstairs which was packed with elderly locals, it was like eating in 1959. This was a good sign of sorts, if the locals are here, then it must be OK mustn't it?

After some very dodgy meals in Seville, I was a bit dubious, but fortunately the food was surprisingly good with a nice Paella entree which was a meal in itself, followed by roast chicken with the only vegetable seemingly available in Spain, potatoes, chipped and fried of course. The decoration of the place was pink neon with ham hanging over almost ever free inch of wall space. Traveling through Spain, we have seen a very diverse country of different lifestyles and even languages, but there is one thing that seems to unite them, their love of pig.

The meal was enough to fill us through for the rest of the day, a brisk walk down the Gran Via. The rain didn't make for great photographic opportunities, but i did get one in looking back up Gran Via.

Guernica

Traveling through San Sebastian and the Basque region of Spain I came across the Tragedy of Guernica.

What happened in Guernica was an absolute disgrace, and the event was subject matter to a number of prominent Spanish artists at the time, in particular Picasso. While not being the worlds foremost connoisseur of fine art, I was quite interested, almost compelled to see his work on the event which is highlighted by his painting simply titled Guernica which hangs in the Madrid Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía.

The piece of work has courted almost as much controversy as the event itself including the fact that the work is in the Sofia museum rather than Del Prado in accordance with Picasso's wishes.

The work itself is quite makes a strong impression, the large colourless work seems to capture the twisted event and feelings of the townspeople. Any trip to Madrid should include a trip to see Guernica. The museum also has a number of other very impressive works and collections from the likes of Salvador Dali, but nothing seems to match Picasso's collection in this museum.

Our trip to see Guernica wasn't without it's own complications, the museum closed suddenly and everyone evacuated for over an hour for no apparent reason but police were called in and the securety staff seemed quite uptight. Apart from this incident though, Madrid seems quite good on first impressions.

The Real Alcazar & Flamenco

Our final day in Seville was greeted with more great weather. The 1st of November in Spain is a Bank Holiday so we were also greeted with a very crowded Real Alcazar.

The Real Alcazar is still in use by todays Spanish Royal Family and we were lucky enough to sneak in the second last tour of the Upper Palace which is furnished and in use for things like Royal Dinners and other functions


The Real Alcazar was reminiscent of Alhambra, but not quite as impressive which isn't surprising. The architecture had the plasterwork similar to Alhambra, but by the time it was used in the Real Alcazar, it was fully worked by christian Spaniards rather than muslims. The palace was impressive enough though for Ridley Scott to borrow for his movie King of Jerusalem.

Our final night was rounded off with more Tapas, Spanish wine and Flamenco. This time we went to see a more professional Flamenco act which was very good and we were lucky enough to get front row seats. The singer and dancer both earned their money, Flamenco dancers certainly work hard!