Its Own Garden Of Earthly Delights

Madrid Has Much to Lap Up, From Great European Artworks and Raging Bullfights to Passionate Flamenco Performances and a Dazzling Nightlife

- Bhavya Dore

Before leaving for Madrid I had only one thing on my mind: Picasso’s “Guernica”, and no matter what else happened, I intended to see it. The first question I asked the tour guide when I managed to cut into her monologue for a minute on a balmy autumn day was: “It’s the Reina Sofia museum which has the “Guernica”, right?” She looked baffled. 

“Sorry, what?”

“The Gherrnica?”

“I don’t know.”

“The Guwarrnica?”

“I don’t follow.”

No amount of stressing and stretching different sounds seemed to help. I wrote her off as a philistine. The Reina Sofia did indeed host “Guernica”, Picasso’s dramatic, colourless depiction of the Spanish Civil War. It is to the Reina Sofia what the “Mona Lisa” is to the Louvre: the marquee item. I had to work my way through a series of other rooms, filled with other wonders, before reaching the climactic point and triumphantly staring at the canvas of dismembered bodies and lifeless limbs Picasso painted in 1937. Very much worth the price of entry (€10/`760). That is, if there had been one at all. A visit on a Monday evening allowed people to walk in for free. Likewise, there were free slots at the other big two museums too: The Prado and the Thyssen-Bornemisza.