Spain! (Madrid)

---

I’m writing this on the train on our way from Madrid to Cordoba – I’ve been slacking bigtime with the travel blogging. Guess we’re just having too much fun! I try to do this blog mostly for myself so that I can look back and remember the best parts of our trips and what I liked and didn’t like, so I am going to try to do my Madrid/Toledo/Cordoba recap all in two blog posts if I can! Here it goes the first which will be mainly Madrid…

Saturday around noon, we arrived in Madrid and made it to our hotel – Hotel Ritz Madrid. I assumed that it was part of the Ritz Carleton chain, but apparently there are several Hotel Ritz’s around Europe. I believe that the Ritz of the Ritz Carleton chain is the same person, but it’s not the same hotel. This hotel was created in the early 1900’s and had the charm of a hotel from back then – very nice old-timey, back from an earlier day kind of feel to it. A funny little note – on our way back to our hotel after our last dinner in Madrid in a cab, we had a hell of a time trying to explain to our Spanish-speaking cab driver the name of our hotel. Even Drew’s very good Spanish didn’t seem to suffice and it was only when we wrote it down that he understood. We were saying “Ritz” the way Americans would, and he was saying “Ritz” the way that a Spaniard would – it sounded like the word “wreath.” Unlike Mexican Spanish (which is what we are used to) where they pronounce your Z’s like we would, Spaniard Spanish pronounces their Z’s like “th.” Glad we made it home that cab ride…

After settling down in the hotel, we were pretty much right back out on our way an hour later on a walking/driving tour of Madrid with a guide for a few hours. We learned that our hotel was in the southern part of Madrid and that the more north you go, the more modern the city becomes. We started out by walking around our hotel, which was the more historical part, and in my opinion, the cuter part. It had that old European city feel that I love so much. We learned that we were near to the area where four famous Spanish 17^th century writers lived and worked. The neighborhood was nicknamed something in Spanish (I don’t remember, sorry) that meant something that literally meant neighborhood of the writers. As far as the writers, I only recall two of them – Cervantes and Lope de Vega. You can still see Lope de Vega’s house and we went into his courtyard, which is one of the few remaining courtyards in that area. We ventured into a square called Plaza de Santa Ana which was very cute and apparently where locals go out. There is a hotel in the square where you can get a good view of the city and a drink, which looked really nice. We didn’t get a chance to go there, but I’m sure it’s great. A car picked us up there and we started a driving tour of the city. Highlights included the Real Madrid (soccer) football stadium – quite the monstrosity, the Plaza de Toro – where they still do real bull fights, the train station – very beautiful and reminiscent of the Orsay Museum in Paris, and the San Miguel Market – an open market with all kinds of tapas and delicious (and scary looking – have you ever seen a real Monkfish???) things to eat. After a few hours out and about, we were dropped off back at our hotel.

A few things we saw a lot of on our little tour of Madrid – 1. Spanish Flags. 2. Trees. The Spanish Flags – the day we arrived, Saturday, was the day before the Catalonian referendum was set to vote. Catalan wants to be its own country and the rest of Spain does not want that at all. There were protesters all over carrying Spanish flags and all of the apartment buildings in the city has flags hanging of balconies or windows here and there. It will be interesting once we go to Barcelona to see how people feel – the vote on Sunday (which people in Madrid will tell you was illegal and doesn’t matter anyway) was 90% in favor of leaving Spain. Very interesting time to be in Spain! Trees – there are trees all over Madrid which was wonderful! Having studied abroad in Florence where there are NO trees, it was such a nice contrast and made the city feel really nice. Apparently, there are over two million trees in Madrid – you can find them in two forests, many parks and lining many of the streets. I just really was impressed by the tree coverage for such an urban city – so much so that I felt the need to mention it!

Being that we were jet-lagged, we wanted to get an early dinner that night. This basically is not an option in Spain as restaurants to not open before 8pm. Most Spaniards don’t eat dinner until 10pm (which in the summer is when it starts to get dark), so the ONLY option was tapas. Most of the tapas places are open earlier (as I’m sure most Spaniards see this as a before-dinner snack), so we walked to one called “Cervantes” at the suggestion of the hotel. This was a cute, very local-feeling spot, and we enjoyed Sangria, Spanish-wine, and several tasty tapas. The olives, potatoes with garlic aioli, small green peppers, and garlic shrimp were among my favorites. It was an early night for us and we were asleep by 10pm – before half of Spain had started dinner.

Fast-forward 14 hours… Drew and I slept 14 hours, literally… and it’s Sunday afternoon. We met up with a guide who took us to see the Royal Palace of Madrid. This is not where the king and queen live currently, but it was occupied by the royal family until 1931. This was definitely a must-see for sure, as it was a very ornate and very grand space. We were not allowed to take pictures inside but you are able to walk through the king’s different spaces including where he ate lunch, where he ate dinner, where he ate breakfast and was dressed (three different rooms for three different meals – why not?) as well as the grand dining room which can fit a table that can fit up to 150 guests and many other areas and rooms. I was most impressed by the different materials used to decorate the various rooms – some had silk and deeply decorative embroidery on the walls, others had marble and porcelain, some had alabaster and gold. I also loved his clock collection! The palace apparently has one of the best collection of clocks in the world because Carlos IV was a collector of clocks. There was always at least one very unique clock per room, if not more. Some were very scientific, some were very ornate, some incorporated the constellations – very cool. Overall, definitely a stop worth spending some time.

After the palace, we went to the Prado, which is an art museum famous for European Art (16-20^th century or so). I was excited to go because I could recall several art history classes learning that some piece of art here are there was in the Prado, so I was looking forward to it. Turns out, I don’t actually remember a whole lot because I only really recognized a handful of paintings. The three artists that I recognized the most/were highlighted by our guide the most were Velasquez, Goya and El Greco – all known as Spanish artists (although El Greco was from Greece). The Prado has an extensive collection of art from these artists, amongst others, but these three are definitely highlighted well by the museum. Overall, I was a little bit let down by the Prado. I do have to say that we only spent a few hours in the museum and there are over 8,000 pieces AND it really is only one very small era of art – 400 years or so in the same general region – Europe. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if I were 20 again studying art history.

That evening, we met up with a different guide who took us out for tapas. We had gone the night before, but it was fun to go with a local who knew what to get at each place. Unfortunately, I do not remember the names of where we went, but it didn’t really seem to matter. We got the vibe that almost any place would do in the area we went, which was by the Plaza de Santa Ana (where we had gone the first day on a walking tour). The first spot we had ceviche and another soup similar to ceviche that was creamier, more of those potatoes with garlic aioli, bull’s tail which is a dish that tastes like brisket and meatballs. All of it was really good. I also tried “Tinto de Verano” which is red wine and lemon soda. I had had it when I went to visit Kathleen in Sevilla back in college (nine years ago – yikes!) and despite how it sounds, it is very good and very refreshing. Dad actually stole mine because he didn’t like his Sangria, so I drank his Sangria while he had my Tinto de Verano… The next place we sat outside and got Papas Bravas (potatoes with a pepper sauce), octopus and those green little peppers that are so good – I think they were actually called pimentos. (Not sure if there is a connection to pimento cheese…?) Again, all good! We ended the tour in the Plaza de Santa Ana on the roof of a special club/bar where you need to be a member. Our guide was a member so she brought us up to the roof. We were the only ones there and the view was awesome. We even saw some distant fireworks! Very cool spot – it was called Argo, but again, a member’s only club, so not sure that we’d ever be able to get back. Drew and I finished the night by finding another little restaurant with some outdoor seating where we drank some regular old “Tinto Vino” which is just red wine. The weather has been wonderful in Madrid so it was the perfect temperature to sit outside at night.



I am going to end this blog post here and hopefully get the one up about Toledo and Cordoba up soon!

---

Photos

Lope de Vega's Courtyard
Courtyard of 17th century Spanish writer near our hotel

Plaza de Santa Ana
Beautiful little square around where we had tapas

Plaza de Toros
Bull fighting ring of Madrid

Train Station
Beautiful Madrid train station

Royal Palace of Madrid
Family photo outside the palace!

Outside of the Prado
Prado is the building to the right, beautiful church to its left

Plaza de Santa Ana at Night
View from where our guide took us for drinks after tapas!