Madrid & Segovia in 56 hours

The 56 hour Tour of Madrid
Anyone who tells you that you should take an overnight bus somewhere so you won’t have to find a place to stay for the night, is either a chronic insomniac anyway, or a college student. Either way, it’s highly unlikely that they have your health or well-being in mind, and you should keep that in mind when making plans with them in the future. That being said, I will now proceed to give my advice for how to see all of Madrid and Segovia in only 56 hours, starting from the Plaza de Armas bus station en Seville on a Thursday night at midnight. First, buy your tickets several days in advance because it’s a very popular bus: its departure time allows for a 7am arrival in Madrid. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck on the 10pm bus arriving at 5am. Let me tell you, there is not much to do in Madrid at 5am on a Friday beyond sleeping in the bus terminal while you and your companions wait for the rest of your companions to arrive. A piece of essential advice: ask for the highest number seats on big tour buses as they are usually right behind the big open space for wheelchair riders, and it tends to be left empty. This will provide first-class leg-room or a great place to pile all you bags into a makeshift bed.

After riding the subway to the station for the bus to Segovia, you can sleep for another hour on the beautiful ride (as I found on the return) out to the ancient Roman city that plays host to a spectacular aqueduct which was still in use nearly 2000 years after its construction. This architectural wonder is built completely without mortar, and by its supernatural precision actually makes you wonder if the ancient legend surrounding its construction is true. Apparently, a young servant girl, vexed by the task of carrying water from the distant mountain streams into the village accepted a proposition by the devil to build the aqueduct in just one night in exchange for her soul. Soon repenting of her deed, the servant girl prayed to God all through the night for forgiveness and salvation. Having mercy on her, God made the day begin one hour early, catching the devil off-guard with only one stone remaining, leaving his end of the deal unfulfilled and the people of the city with a new aqueduct.

We headed straight on for the Alcázar (castle) which suppose served as the inspiration for Snow White’s castle (read: not Cinderella’s) to a young Walt Disney who was, apparently, born in Spain. There’s no doubt that it’s medieval Christian storyboard stainglass windows, Rapunzel towers, and armor-filled chambers evoke a surreal sense of a theme park fantasy scene blown into grown-up proportions. One of the last gothic cathedrals in Europe to be completed, the cathedral is a fascinating blend of gothic to Romanesque architecture from bottom to top. After falling asleep in the warm sunlight on the broad stairway towards the aqueduct for a nap, we all headed back to Madrid for the evening.

Madrid proved to be as metropolitan as any other city, albeit with it’s noteworthy Puerta del Sol. The nightlife here reveals a number of independent musical groups from around the world all vying for the attention of the swarming masses of diverse tourists whose linguistic dispositions displayed the variety of a Baskin Robbins ice cream menu. One band appeared to be from Peru, and composed spectacularly original music at a professional level in my opinion. Occupying the prime location near the great fountain of the city center, their tunes blended the traditional sounds of the native Peruvian instruments along with an assortment of guitars, bases, percussion boxes, and even electric violins. The following day our tour of the Prado was another afternoon of “Oh that’s where that painting comes from.” That’s not to say that there weren’t a few surprises to be found, like “The Bearded Woman” which I haven’t included in the pictures only for the health and well-being of my readers. We passed some time in an old bookstore we found on the street as well as taking another nap on the lawns of the massive Royal Palace. Apparently, the king up and died before it could be finished so the final product is about a quarter of the size of the original blueprint; consequently, it only has 2,800 rooms.

We also visited the Modern Art museum where, for the most part, Picasso, with his fantastic masterpiece Guernica, was one of the only artists I really enjoyed viewing. After passing piles and piles of random daily object laying on the floor, and frames filled with such great works of art as “a piece of cardboard from an old box with a balled up and burnt newspaper page glued to it”, we began to play a game where we would walk one of us up to a piece and then they would open their eyes and say the first title that came to mind. It proved pretty entertaining. And the guards busted up laughing when we game across an emergency exit door in the middle of a row of exhibits and begin to rave about its beauty and craftsmanship, proclaiming it the most ingenious piece in the entire exhibit. After that, we visited the Plaza Mayor and watched several artists around its perimeter producing their own works. You could have a photo-realistic portrait sketched full-size for about 30 euros or even have a picture done with one of the old magnesium flash, plate cameras from the 1800s for about 10 euros. After dinner and dessert and Churro Mania (don’t miss that one) we walked back to the bus station and caught the 11pm bus for home, passing through the door of our rooms about 7am and crashing into to bed.

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