Sculpture and paintings. Irma Álvarez_Laviada. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. Madrid.

Reflexiones. Madrid.

Woman with a Mandolin. Georges Braque, 1910 (L).

Man with a Clarinet. Pablo Picasso, 1911 (R).

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.

Portrait of Baron Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza (L). Lucian Freud, 1981.

Detail: Portrait of Max Schmidt (R). Oskar Kokoschka, 1914.

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.

Christ as Saviour. Domenikos Theotokopoulos 'El Greco'. 1612. Museo del Greco. Toledo.

The river Tagus at Toledo, with the ruins of an early Roman bridge.

The Spring Collection.

He wears an item of clothing ordinarily referred to as 'shorts'. Inspired, no doubt, after a visit to the Kerala Police Museum.

Oxford Bags are making a comeback: the younger set, especially fashionable women, flap about in these with appropriately large sunglasses to match.

Daydream—The Working Virgin. Vicente Cutanda y Toraya, 1897. Museo de Santa Cruz, Toledo.

Artesonado ceiling. Monastery of San Juan de los Reyes, Toledo.

Detail: The Burial of the Count of Orgaz. El Greco, 1586. Iglesia de Santo Tomé. Toledo.

Views in Toledo.

The toldos are already in place given the unseasonably warm April. Toledo.

The famous Bell Beaker. 2500 B.C. Museo de Santa Cruz, Toledo.

Medieval citadel at Ávila. 11th century.

Views in Ávila.

Basilica of St. Teresa. Ávila.

Snow on the Sierra de Guadarrama!

Rio Manzanares that flows through Madrid rises from these mountains. But it isn't much more than a creek within the city: there is just not enough snowpack in its catchment area. The riverfront was recently renaturalized so a white stork may be spotted on the wing.

Last light. Ávila.

I practiced the saludo montera en mano, holding a (heavier than expected) matador's cap with the precise bend of arm and doing a half-twirl with a grace that won the approbation of the sombrerera, but I could hear the derisive hoots of the zenana all the way across the Atlantic, so had to return it.

Thus the intelligence of urban design in these Mediterranean climes, from Madrid to Nice: the streets like gorges, steep in shadow except at high noon, buildings rising like cliffs on either side. But summer is just one season: therefore plazas that shield a cutting wind while offering the full sun.

Solo el sol. Sin sombra.

"Lo demás era muerte, y sólo muerte,
a las cinco de la tarde."

Death in the afternoon.

Reflexiones. Madrid.

At the flea market. El Rastro, Madrid.

Reflexiones. Madrid.

Woodcuts from Dali’s series on The Divine Comedy. These from the Paradise canticle. The Joy of the Blessed (L), Soul Dust (R). Museo Salvador Dali, Madrid.

This installation was mistaken for a work by Marcel Duchamp before the curator gently reminded your correspondent that a fire hose is sometimes just a fire hose, despite what Monsieur Magritte might claim. The Museo Salvador Dali, she declared, was entirely dedicated to Maestro Dali's life and work.

When I grow up, I want to dress like him. Museo Salvador Dali. Madrid.

Streets of Madrid.