Well, it has taken me a little bit to get this out. I think that last week, almost killed me, we just have to survive this week and then we are on Fall Break, I am already doing a “Peanut’s” dance just thinking about it!

There is just so much I want to share with you and what I will be sharing, won’t even be the half of it, but here goes:

On our first morning, we took a meandering stroll through the streets of Madrid, before the city really woke and these were some of my finds:


Our first day was spent at the Reina Sofia Museum. I got to see Guernica in person, there were things that I had not noticed before. A slide or an image in a book can only go so far in bringing something to life for your eyes. The details are not always captured. 

I also got to see Picasso’s Woman in Blue (1902) and was very excited about that. Her lips were so red, redder than I had ever imagined, redder than any image had ever shown. But not just red, they were scarlet, they were strawberry, they were peachy, they were a blazing orange. She sat gazing out on the room and all who entered it.

There were so many other things I enjoyed seeing in this museum, here are just two:

After lunch we spent the late afternoon in the Buen Retiro Park, boating around the lake, visiting the Crystal Palace, drawing, photographing and just being.

We walked the students to the Forest of the Departed. It was built to commemorate the 192 victims of the 2004 Atocha Train Station bombings. A tree had been planted for each person who had been killed. It is composed of cyprus and olive trees and it was refined, peaceful and reflective.

It is surrounded by water and the garden winds around in a spiral, swirling around a mini mountain. At the top, very happily eating and obviously very used to people was the most exquisite rabbit. He let me photograph him and even came out from his little thicket to sniff my camera lens.

More to come tomorrow, so stay tuned…