Breakfast was ok but no scrambled egg or Spanish Omelette. Just sad-looking fried eggs. We left at 0930 in the bus for a tour round the centre, stopping first at the gross Cervantes memorial & then, near the Plaza Major, which was very nice, being architecturally harmonious. We also got ethnic dolls for the girls: very good ones on offer at E5 each!

Cervantes

Don Quixote & Sancho Panza

Madrid's Plaza Major

Then, the bus stopped at the Prado & everyone got out. No takers for back to the hotel in its crummy suburban setting of high rise flats above the motorway. We walked down to the Reina Sofia Museum, which is the modern art collection. I had to check in my bag & they would not accept my bus pass but it was E6 each. Although the current material on the 1st floor was almost uniformly mediocre: either outright rubbish or rip-offs, the permanent collection on the second floor was something else, with a lot of Picassos, including Gernika & a lot of skecches for it, some of which he did not use. There were also Dora Maar's photos of progress on it, so one could see how he built it up. More Picabias than I have seen collectively before. Miros, Albert Gleizes, lots of people & Schwitters' Sonata playing in one gallery with a couple of his works. There was a little show of Oskar Schwemmers Bauhaus work, Dalis we avoided & a footsore delight altogether.

I just liked this

Prado

Velasquez

Reina Sofia Museum

Lunch was not. A very inferior bar with baguettes, E13. We walked up towards the Sol & found the bus stand, more or less by accident. The bus was ready to leave & there were two colleagues on it as well, E1 each standard fare. Somehow, Madrid did not impress, as Sol is a very small centre & the other edifices (like the palace) seemed crowded in. We did not get a chance to walk in their Hyde Park equivalent because of time & getting hot. At the hotel, we sat by the unusable swimming pool with the sisters, the excuse for keeping it closed apparently being awaiting municipal inspection, which they should surely have arranged some time ago. I had a beer & Avis, ice cream (E2 & E4). Back in our room for diary & photo update, & snooze. Dinner was pork or salmon, except I had both & the usual exotic cakes for pud. We stayed up as long as possible to get a good night's sleep.