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Las Ventas
Madrids world reknowned bullring My day of travel from Barcelona to Madrid was a long one, but not by any means a waste. I arrived at the train station around 10am hoping to grab a direct train, but sadly every single direct train for the day was fully reserved, ugh. Luckily the girl at the tickets booth managed to work out a route for me to get to my destination. The 1500 train from Barcelona to Valencia, and the 1845 train from Valencia to Madrid. It worked very smoothly actually, but cost me about 5 hours of time. The train rides were, however, extremely scenic, and I enjoyed this a lot. From Barcelona to Valencia it was right along the meditaranian sea, very pretty beaches and coastal towns. From Valenica to Madrid it was uphill most of the way and I got to see what must be a large source of electric power here in Spain, Windmills. Hundreds and hundreds of them, interesting.
I arrived in Madrid around 2215 and since the streets were busy and the temperature was a balmy 31c, I decided to walk to my hostel, which was only about 2km away. This allowed me to see Madrid by night, which
Palacio de Comunicaciones
Madrids Communications Palace, an exquisite building. You should also take a look at my night picture of it. was interesting. My night impression of Madrid is that it is a lot seedier than Barcelona, and on my walk to the hostel I counted about 200 prostitutes; I picked a hostel in a great area, didnt I? haha. No harm befell me though, and I found the hostel rather easily, despite its street not being on my map. I checked in, and the place wasnt that bad, it would do nicely. Great for 15€ a night anyway.
The next morning, which was Saturday, I woke up and headed out. what a difference! Barcelona was nicer at night than in day, and Madrid is the exact opposite. It seemed seedy and dirty the previous night but now in the daylight, it looked fantastic. Perhaps it was just my choice of streets though, like the fact that I didnt walk the dodgy streets his time. Anyway, I felt like a walk, so I walked all the way up to the Plaza de Las Ventas, Madrids famed bullring with a world topping capacity of almost 25000. I bought a ticket for the show at 1900 that night, then tried out the metro, which was very cool. For just under 6€ I
Museo del Prado
The fantastic Prado museum. Home to most of Spains masterpieces. got a pass that allows for 10 trips in the metro, more than I would need, so I was all set for my time in Madrid.
I took the metro from Las Ventas to Retiro, which is a HUGE park in the city centre; during this trip a guy came onto the train and started playing his guitar and singing, he was actually very good too, nice entertainment, haha. I walked through the park and down to Museu del Prado, the world famous museum, to enjoy some paintings. The Prado didnt disappoint, and while I wasnt too familiar with Spanish art, I quickly found myself falling in love with some of the artists works. Giuseppe Ribera and Diego Velázquez were both exceptional, and stood out from the crowd. After a few hours in the museum, I noticed that the time was quickly nearing 1700, and I had to eat, go back to the hostel, then metro to the Bullring for 1900, so I headed out. What a fantastic museum though, I enjoyed it!
After freshening myself, applying the all too necessary sunscreen (my seats were in the sun, and it was sunny and 34c.), and getting everything else
Inside Las Ventas
Just to give you all an idea how big Bullfighting is in Madrid. This is a large arena! ready, I was off to see my first bullfight! I got there just in the nick of time, and had surprisingly little effort finding my seat. The Bullring was pretty much like an old Coleseum, and it was packed to capacity, a nice big crowd. The bullfight itself? I actually enjoyed it a lot. I know it is rather brutal, but watching the Matadors, and the abundant audacity they all displayed...it was awe inspiring at times. At times they would walk right up to the bulls, literally inches from their heads (heads with some seriously dangerous horns), and tease them into attacking. The smooth and graceful movement of the red cape, the manuevering of the body behind the cape, and the precise killing blow from the sword. The matador is always the one to deliver the killing blow, and his title literally means "killer". Regardless of its brutality, bullfighting IS impressive to view. And lets face it, whats going on in many slaughterhouses is much more brutal than this. At least these bulls get the chance to fight back a little, and the last bull to fight did just that, he tossed the Matador about 10 feet into the air,
Me and two old friends
Yup, thats right, Don Quijote and Sancho Panza! and almost speared him. What blew my mind though, was that even despite almost being gored, the Matador simply got back up and continued fighting, he had a job to finish. During the night 2 bulls were lucky enough to be spared, and granted their life in recognition of their performance, they got a great applause too, good for them!
After the fight I walked back ot the hostel, which was about a 5Km walk. The walk took me along one of the main streets of Madrid, Calle de Alcala, and it was nice because everything was lit up beautifully at night. I got a great picture of the large archway at Plaza Independencia.
On Sunday I wanted to go see another of the famous museums here in Madrid, Reina Sofia. This museum concentrates on Spains 20th century art, something that really didnt gripe me too much. Modern art is something I never have managed to appreciate, it just doesnt float my boat. But there was one exception, and this one piece was the reason I wanted to visit the museum in the first place. And the exception was.......Picassos famous painting, Guernica. What made this painting different for
Afonso XII Mausoleum
In Retiro Park. That lake is artificially constructed, and as you can see, people can rent roboats paddle around it. me? Simple answer, it has an interesting history behind it, and there is a lot of feeling in it. In 1937 the Germans bombed the basque town of Guernica at the request of Franco, during Spains civil war. Needless to say the town was devastated, and so moved and outraged by this atrocity Picasso was, that he painted this masterpiece to its memory. An incredible painting.
After the museum I decided to further explore Retiro Park, since there was a Velázquez Museum there, and another building called the Crystal Palace there. Both turned out to be a waste of time, since one was closed and the other was basically a large greenhouse with nothing inside, great! But Retiro park was a nice place to see again, and I enjoyed my walk there. It was now time for lunch, so I found a spanish eatery of sort, a tapas bar if you will, and ordered myself bocadillo frite chorizo, a fried chorizo sausage in a bun. Very tasty!
Next up was some sightseeing over near Puerta del Sol. I saw the Plaza Mayor, the Palacio Real (Impressive!), The Oriente garden which holds many statues originally intended to sit on
The Crystal Palace
Once again, in Retiro Park. top of the Palacio Real, and finally Plaza de Espana, the last of which held a monument to Cervantes, the author of Don Quijote. For those wondering, the statues in the Oriente garden arent on top of the Palacio Real, because they were very heavy and the Queen staying there at the time had a nightmare of the roof collapsing. So instead we have a nice garden area outside the Palacio.
The rest of the night was spent on planning, I leave Madrid in the morning and will be on trains a lot over the next few days, trying to reach my next destination. It should be an interesting experience living at train stations for a few days, but worthwhile, and cheap I am sure. Wish me luck, and stay tuned to hear more from where I next land!
Note: I have added a gallery of full scale versions of the pictures from my journals. It is available through the journal index. If you have any requests, just shoot me a message. Cheers!
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