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Published: July 22nd 2006
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For my birthday, Barry took me on a secret trip. I didn't have a clue where we were going until we were at the airport check-in counter - very exciting! Despite temperatures exceeding 40 degrees celsius, we had a great long weekend in Madrid and Toledo. The high temperatures obviously meant that we had to take it easy sometimes - taking siestas for an hour or two in the middle of the day. I must admit though that I have always been a fan of the siesta and found this a very enjoyable part of the trip!
There are plenty of things to see and do in Madrid. I will start with the more cultural aspects of any visit. We enjoyed a number of the museums on offer, including two of the 'big ones'. We went to the Reina Sofia museum, which houses plenty of excellent paintings. The most famous one is 'Guernica' by Picasso. This massive canvas is filed with disturbing pictures depicting the bombing of the town of Guernica by the Germans during the Spanish Civil War. The museum covers 4 floors but, as with most museums, we couldn't face covering the whole thing in one go. It
St Jerome
by Caravaggio. At the Prado museum. was free to visit on saturday evening and so we didn't feel too bad about limiting our visit!
On the sunday morning we were able to see the Prado museum for free as well. This is the most famous museum in Madrid and hosts an excellent collection, including some Caravaggios. One of the best but least known art galleries in Madrid is that in the Sorolla Museum. This is housed in the building where the Spanish artist Sorolla lived and worked. His art is mostly impressionist and apparently he is considered by some to be Spain's best artist (although I am not sure I had ever heard of him). The house and gardens are lovely and the art was excellent - highly recommended. We were also able to see the 'Museum of America'. This contains a vast collection of statues, art, maps, etc from Latin America. Despite there being a power cut in the middle of our visit, we enjoyed seeing all of the cute statues and finding out a bit more about a continent I am very eager to visit.
We also enjoyed just wandering around Madrid's old streets of course. There are plenty of large squares
Sorolla museum
In Sorolla's studio where you can sit and watch the world go by, lots of churches to wander into and enough parks to go to and take the weight off your feet. There is even an original Egyptian temple in one park - transported in its entirety from Egypt as a present from the Egyptian Government! You can also head north of the Grand Via to the gay / red light district if you want. We did, but didn't find it particularly interesting..!
Madrid is of course about far more than just culture and wandering. It is known as being the nightlife capital of Spain. In Madrid, people eat lunch at about 2pm and don't even think about having dinner until 10pm. This is then often followed by a long night out on the tiles, enjoying the local beers or riojas and munching on tapas if needed. They might finish all of this by about 5 or 6am before heading for some 'Chocolate y churros' (hot chocolate and long deep-fried doughnut type things) before a couple of hours sleep and heading to work. They might be able to enjoy a siesta in the afternoon before heading back to work and then out
to start all over again. Well.... we tried.... and failed to keep up with anywhere near this kind of pace. We were able to do the late lunches (mainly because we took some time deciding where to go), and the tapas, the wine and the beer, and we even ate relatively late in the evening (well 8:30 or so!) but there was no way we could stay out all night. The heat and walking around all day really tired us out and I don't think we could have handled being out later than about midnight! Oh well. I was still able to sample lots of Chocolate y Churros though, and have definitely found a new favourite drink/food combination. As for tapas, we were particularly taken with the 'Musee del Jamon' (the Museum of Ham). This is actually just a local chain of restaurants/tapas bars, and for a few euros we were able to get some lovely plates of Spanish ham, Manchego cheese and a couple of glasses of rioja. Highly recommended!
As part of our trip we also took a day trip to Toledo. It is only a half hour train ride from Madrid but definitely has a different
Chicken and cider
at the excellent Casa Mingo - go there! feel to it. Situated on a hill, it has lots of windy steep streets to wander around and get lost in. We saw a number of small churches, including one with a lovely El Greco painting, as well as the Cathedral and Mezquita. We also visited a Synagogue which had at various times also been a church and mosque (they seem to like doing this in Spain!). We were also lucky enough to have time to go walking outisde the city walls, to get views back up to the town.
Despite the fact that this blog is not as long as some of my others I think Madrid is a great place to go for a long weekend. Plenty to see and do and a great night life. Just watch out for that heat!
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Stephen Paul
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Great Trip!
Looks like a great trip! The food especially. Im sure for me the weather would have been perfect, hot and dry just like home. Its funny, I see we are both putting travelling on hold for a year or two, travelling locally meanwhile. For you, that means Spain, Prague and even Morocco- for me it means Yosemite, Las Vegas and Mt. Shasta- I think you have access to more exotic places!! :)