Station to Station

We were planning to go to Toledo today but buying tickets at Artocha station for what is no more than about a 30 minutes journey proved not at all straightforward. We didn't get anywhere with the ticket machine as it wanted our passport numbers and we didn't have our passports with us. There was a numbered queuing system to buy tickets in person. Happily an Englishman who lives in Madrid (and works at the British Embassy) heard us and helped us negotiate two return tickets for tomorrow whilst waiting for his own number to come up (he was buying an over-60 discount travel card for the next year). He persuaded the ticket lady to accept our driving licences, which we did have with us , in lieu of passport numbers. Not that I think she took down the actual driving licence numbers but it seemed that any number would suffice. This for a journey equivalent to Waterloo to Woking. The Queen Sofia modern art centre was nearby so we were able to tick that off our list. The main photo is of the two glass external lifts flanking the entrance to the gallery. Its most famous work is pictured in one of the extras - this is Picasso's Guernica, painted in the aftermath of the bombing of the Basque village by the Nazis, both aligning themselves with Franco and the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War and giving their 'blitzkrieg' bombing of civilian populations a trial run. There is a lot of work at the Gallery relating to the Spanish Civil War and the struggle of the Republicans and International Brigade, a subject I shall return to in weeks to come when I go to see The Young'uns perform their work on the life of Johnny Longstaff and a dramatisation in words and music of the life of Laurie Lee. The other extra is a view of one of the avenues in the Retiro Park. Another interesting day but I'm now pleased to be giving my legs a rest in my hotel room and, to my delight, find I can watch the Last Night of the Proms on the TV. A welcome show of EU flags accompanying the jingoistic choralling in the Royal Albert Hall.