Finally!

We finally did something we've been meaning to do, and saying we were going to do, ever since we moved to Madrid - we went to the Prado.

The most visited museum in the world - or so I read somewhere - is right in the very heart of Madrid, backing onto the Retiro and housed in a sumptuous neo-Georgian building. It's free in the evenings, including Sundays from 5 til 8pm, so we wandered over on what was another pleasant Spanish afternoon. (The weather has since turned rather April-ish - lots of mizzle)

It's huge. Naturally we only looked at a fraction of the permanent collection, the rather ghostly, noir Goyas - his black phase - and the utterly mental flights of religious fancy by Mr H Bosch. There was also a temporary exhibit of Pre-Raphaelites on loan from, of all places, the MAP institute in Puerto Rico. I can't really imagine what resonance the people of that American colony find in 12ft by 40 ft paintings of the sleep of King Arthur or Leighton's marvelously sensuous "Flaming June". But anyway, we're pleased they came to Madrid.

We must go back.