Olé: DAY 4: REINA SOFIA

Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía

We met at school at 9:00 a.m. for a day at MUSEO NACIONAL CENTRO DE ARTE REINA SOFÍA. Desireé was back with us! We all talked about how enriching is to experience being sick and away from home… away from mom (especially now, when college time seems so close). Anyhow, her Spanish mom took great care of her and she was fine now… (but I made sure that she had plenty of water during the day ☺.)

Our guide for the day was another English teacher at Gonzaga (there are MANY!). Her name is Sofía, just like the queen's name. She teaches kids from 6th and 7th grade. We all took the train to Atocha and walked three blocks to the museum. Emily didn’t like looking down through the glass while going up in the elevator but we saw many of the cafés from there.

The highlight of this museum of 20th century art is Picasso’s “Guernica.” There are, however, other major works by influential artists, including Miró. The collection is housed in Madrid’s former General Hospital, built in the late 18th century. That’s why “some of the rooms look like a bathroom,” as Will mentioned.

The permanent collection traces art chronologically, starting on the second floor. The third floor displays works from mid-1930s to 1960s and the fourth floor continues through to present day works. Individual rooms are allocated to significant artist such as Dalí, Miró and Picasso.

Emily had a lot of fun writing down the names of the artists that moved her. She was very impressed with Miró’s and Juan Gris’ work; not too much with Picasso. Kathleen searched for Rothko (her favorite artist) for a long time, but we never found him. In any case, she literally "lost herself" in admiring the art. Desireé and Will enjoyed everything, except the lack of "enough" benches. After a while, we decided to take it easy (for Des and the whole group’s legs). We went to the gift shop and then grabbed a table at one of the closest cafes for lunch.

Some of us had a delicious “vegetable paella.” Others had burgers that weren’t too good (that's God's way of suggesting to order a typical plate). Later, we went back to Atocha but now through a different gate: we went through the older part of the station, built of glass and wrought iron, which now houses an indoor palm garden. It was interesting to see a tropical ambience in the midst of an urban temperature and setting.

And that was it! We were at Gonzaga at 4:00 p.m.
Few pictures but here they are... !
TOMORROW: A DAY AT SLG (San Luis Gonzaga) SCHOOL