In the morning, while going out to the cafe at the end of the block to pick up some breakfast, I put a few euros in a slot machine, and ended up winning 31 euros! A nice way to start the day.
In addition to Salvi, Terry also corresponds with Alba, who lives in Valencia, on the eastern coast of Spain. When we decided to come to Spain, Terry made plans to meet up with Alba while we were there. So we drove to the train station:
On the way in, I took a picture of the building across the street, because I thought the scupltures on the top were interesting. It turned out to be the Ministry of Agriculture building:
Here's a closeup of the sculptures, courtesy of Wikipedia:
We met up with Alba and her husband, Miguel Angel, and their foster daughter, Naima, and we all went to a nearby restaurant for tapas:
As we sat there, I noticed many people walking by, toting backpacks and suitcases, and I was wondering why... then I realized we were right across the street from a train station! (Sound of hand slapping forehead.)
The restaurant was right next to a plaza:
...and we were serenaded by a saxophone player:
Wandering around the plaza, I came upon this sculpture:
...at the base of which was this plaque:
After lunch, we went around the corner to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía ("Queen Sofía National Museum Art Centre") (w), a modern art museum named for Queen Sofia, the wife of Spain's previous king, Juan Carlos I. While Terry, Alba, Miguel Angel and Salvi had drinks in the courtyard cafe, Juan Carlos (Salvi's husband, not the king) took me to see the museum. There was this interesting sculpture in the courtyard:
I found out later that this is "Brushstroke," by Roy Lichtenstein.
The most interesting thing at this museum was Picasso' famous anti-war painting, Guernica (w), inspired by, to quote Wikipedia, "the 26 April 1937 bombing of Guernica, a Basque Country town in northern Spain which was bombed by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy at the request of the Spanish Nationalists." I didn't get a picture of it, but I found this picture on the Internet:
It's a very striking work of art. And yet I have to admit that if I hadn't already known in advance what it was about, I wouldn't have had any idea what it was about.
But there was another painting, also arising out of the Spanish Civil War, that caught my attention. I tried to take a picture of it, but a guard told me not to, so I made a note of the title and artist, and also found it on the Internet. It's by Horario Ferrer, and it's called Madrid 1937, Aviones Negros (Black Airplanes):
I was particularly struck by the expression on the face of the little boy in the lower right corner - although I must admit the woman in the center shaking her fist also held a certain attraction.
When we were on the top floor, I looked over a railing to the courtyard below, and saw Terry and the others sitting at their table:
Hello down there!
We took Alba, Miguel Angel and Naima back to the train station to catch their train back to Valencia, and then drove out in the country, to a place where they like to take Salvi's dog (Goleta, remember?) to run. If you look at a map of Madrid, you'll see a large green area to the northwest:
...which was where we went. Unfortunately, the place where they take the dog was closed that day. But while we were there, we saw the Palacio Real de El Pardo (Royal Palace of El Pardo) (w):
...although this was the way we actually saw it:
This used to be where the King of Spain lived, and Francisco Franco also used it as his residence after the Spanish Civil War. Today, the King has another residence, and this building is used as a state guest house.
On the drive back, I spotted a couple of interesting items. First, there was this tower:
...and a little later, this triumphal arch:
I later found out that the tower was the Faro de Moncloa, a communications tower with an observation deck at the top. The arch is the Arco de la Victoria, which Wikipedia informed me was "constructed at the behest of Francisco Franco to commemorate the victory of Francoist troops in the 1936 Battle of Ciudad Universitaria, part of the Spanish Civil War."