The rain in Spain falls mainly in Madrid

We have been extremely fortunate on this trip to have had reasonably good weather almost all of the time. The one exception has been Madrid where it has rained each day for a significant time. However, this has not prevented us from seeing the sights and particularly the galleries.

Now I know this must sound like heresy, but I am a bit over the old masters and far prefer to see contemporary artwork. As a consequence, we are not going to visit the Museo del Prado (quelle horreur!!) So on our first day here we visited the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia which, among other things, houses Picasso's Guernica. This is a very poorly laid out and sign-posted gallery and, while there are some Picassos and Dalis, I was expecting more. Guernica was good although, given its iconic and idealised status in Spain, it is not easy to get to see as it is surrounded by many onlookers for most of the time. All in all we were both quite underwhelmed by this art gallery.

Day two saw us visiting the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. This museum is made up of art works collected by two generations of the Thyssen-Bornemisza family which have subsequently been donated to Spain. It is a breathtaking collection which includes at least one painting (and often more) of almost every significant European painter and a number of American artists from the 20th century. At the same time they are running a blockbuster exhibition of the works of Marc Chagall. We both saw the Chagall exhibition and were very pleased we did. He has never loomed large on my art radar but seeing his paintings together has given me a real appreciation for his work.

Anyway, the T-BM was a highlight for us both.

We have been out and about in many of Spain's plazas, streets and malls now, and one dominant feature of all of them are the buskers. Many of these buskers, however, are the sort that wear elaborate costumes or makeup and generally stand stationary (apart from the occasional gesture and posing with individuals for a photo shoot - and a donation for the privilege). Some of these look impressive and others just look pathetic or bazarre.

I guess it's a living in a depressed economy.

We were going to take a day trip to Toledo on our last day in Madrid, but we have decided to return to Australia immediately as Judith's 92 year old father is ill and has been hospitalised.

We will have to save a visit to the Guggenheim in Bilbao and a week in Paris for another trip. C'est la vie.