Madrid to Priego

Saying good-bye at the airport was strange because usually I'm the one getting on the plane. I don't think I've ever dropped my mother off at an airport. In Rome we were both getting onto planes and I got off the bus first (she had to continue to her terminal). Here, she went through security and I had to walk away and go get on the metro. It was strange.

I took the metro to the Reina Sofia and went to see Guernica. I was somewhat underwhelmed by the museum, which may be due to the fact that I was really tired. Guernica was interesting to see. It's by itself in a room with two guards on either side of it. They don't let you within six feet of the painting, pictures are strictly forbidden and you are not allowed to sit on the floor and look at the painting. In addition to this room, there are two rooms which house Picasso's studies and smaller works he used to create Guernica and there's another room dedicated to other artist's works in response to Guernica. In this room, I found a mobile and a stabile by Alexander Calder, one of my faves. The rest of the museum had tons of modern Spanish art. There were a few Dalí paintings, but I'd seen better ones in the US.

I left the museum, got another Starbucks cappuccino and crossed the street to Atocha (the main train station in Madrid). I got on my train and two hours later was in sunny, warm Cordoba. I had two hours to wander around Cordoba during which I went to Corte Ingles and got some salad for dinner, bought bus tickets to go back to Madrid for a long weekend and recharged my cell phone (I was out of money). Then Ana picked me up and drove me to Priego. Along the way, we watched the temperature go down five degrees (almost ten degrees in Fahrenheit), which was so depressing. It's also been rainy and gross here.....coming back is so hard.