Madrid, 23 May

I had an early morning swim in the pool on the 13^th floor, in my knickers and a T-shirt. The other occupants of the pool were 2 Russian guys in their underpants. I didn’t join them in the sauna!

A sumptuous €22 breakfast followed: the buffet had everything you could possibly desire, including lovely pink grapefruit slices nicely prepared and a bottle of champagne hidden in an icebucket with bottles of water, just right for making Bucks Fizz. I also had bacon and eggs, with a churro and choc to follow!

After all this, I took a taxi to the Museo Reina Sofia to see Picasso’s Guernica (unable to face the complications of the Metro, not to mention the steps, with my gammy foot). The traffic going into the town centre was again horrendous, but I was thrilled to see Guernica!

Notes on Guernica made in the museum:

It was painted by Picasso at the request of the Republican Government for the Spanish Pavilion at the 1937 Paris International Exhibition. It was a condemnation of the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica by the Luftwaffe,who were allied to the rebels, on April 26, 1937. It remains a universal symbol of the fight against aggression.

Some foreign press who were in Bilbao were immediately moved to Guernica to gather images and testimonies, which reached the international press next day and affected the entire world. News of the attack on a non-military enclave with a population of mainly women and children spread throughout Europe.

The same day, Picasso made first sketchesfor a great mural (3.50 m. x 7.87 m.). The choice of black and white diminished any anecdotic or hedonistic intention. Picasso portrayed the terrible consequences of war in the light of an electric light bulb. The stillness of the composition, a frozen image. In the form of women, the bull and the horse, we see the most extreme impression of pain in the history of art. It is expressed through open mouths, tongues like fists, eyes transformed into needles, ships or fountains which overflowwith tears. (Taken from information leaflet at the museum).

Postscript: since returning home, I have read the novel "Guernica" by Dave Boling.  This is a moving account of the destruction of Guernica, seen through the eyes of two Basque families.  It reminds us of the horrors of war in the same way as Picasso's painting does.