After lunch we took a taxi back toward the hotel, stopping at the Museo Reina Sofia. While Madrid isn't a standout architecturally, it is overly endowed with art museums. This museum is Madrid's modern art museum, housed in an old hospital that's been appropriately glammed up with elevators in huge glass towers outside the staid exterior. The museum's standout painting is of course Picasso's Guernica, which used to hang at the United Nations in New York until Franco finally bit the dust. Picasso hated the old dictator so much that he wouldn't allow the painting to be exhibited in Spain while he was alive, but his death allowed the painting to return home. In fact, this museum was largely built around this painting, since Madrid wasn't particularly strong in modern art, mirroring the fact that Spain was until recently a very unmodern country. But it's an attractive museum and a fun collection.