Madrid

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My arrival in Madrid was somewhat routine. I left the bus station and walked through the streets I had preselected to get to the hostel, which was not too far away. Yet the whole walk I felt it sink in that this was my final destination. This is the last time that I would be finding a new hostel, meeting new people, and discovering a new city. I checked into my hostel and went to my room where I met Rodrigo, my roommate. Rodrigo was a Mexican who had family in San Diego, and had spent a lot of time there. He was a big Chargers fan, and so we talked about football for a while. I quickly realized that he knew a lot more about football than I did, but I enjoyed talking about the rivalry of the division.

The hostel room did not have any windows except for a small window into the hallway. There was practically no sunlight coming into the room, but I managed to wake in time to catch the walking tour around the center of Madrid. We started the tour at the Plaza del Sol, where a statue of the symbol of Madrid stood. The symbol is a bear standing to eat from a Madroño tree. The tour guide offered his personal explanation, which was mindful of the fact that the berries from the tree, which are like strawberries, ferment while still on the tree. He said the action of the bear represents the lifestyle here in Madrid. We ventured from there to the Royal Palace, where the tour guide explained some Spanish history. The was a large Moorish military building that was used as the palace until the Royal Family changed from the Austrias to the Bourbons. The first Bourbon King, to gain acceptance, invited all the nobles in town to a feast with lots of wine. After the party, he promptly burned the palace down and everything inside. Of course he made it look like an accident, but it became clear to everyone in time that he was looking for a reason to build a new palace. The palace that stands today is the same that he built, which is enormous. We also discussed Francisco Franco’s role in Spanish history, which I was already familiar with, but learned something new. I knew that Franco had help from Hitler and Mussolini in conquering Catalonia, but I didn’t know that Hitler and Franco had a meeting shortly after the Spanish Civil War, and shortly before WWII. Hitler left the meeting a little upset, saying, “I don’t like , he’s a bad person.”

The Royal Palace was on the side of the center of Madrid, and from there we walked back toward the center, and stopped by the Plaza de la Villa. Here you found some very modest looking apartment buildings that were owned by the nobles. The tour guide explained that pride was one of the seven deadly sins, and no one wanted to show off from the exterior for fear of persecution. The interior of these apartments, however, was very richly decorated. A small sample was pointed out in the ceiling of the entrance. This was also why the opera house and cathedral had modest exteriors. He also explained that the old capital was in Toledo, until a King, who had no other claim to fame, decided to move the capital to Madrid, basically so as to have a place in history. Without any preparation he gathered the whole royal family and moved to Madrid, but no one else had a place to live. To save himself from certain death by a revolting people, he issued a heavy tax to any local who did not make room in their house for a noble family. This tax was assessed by rooms, and rooms were assessed by windows. He pointed out a house which had windows in all different places. I mean no two windows were parallel, and some windows were actually right in between two floors. This became the style right after the tax was issued to confuse the assessor of how many floors actually existed inside the building.

I knew that the Spanish Inquisition sent many non-Catholics to other parts of Europe. In fact, I recall many cities I visited as having an influx of either Jews or Muslims or both from the Inquisition. What I didn’t know was that before the Inquisition, Spain had decreed a tolerance for the practice of other religions. After the Catholics took most of Spain back from the Moors, the population was still mostly Moorish, and Moors were mostly Muslim. Rather than drive them out, and leave the cities empty, the King allowed them to stay and worship how they pleased. When word of this got out, many people migrated to Spain, for they were becoming an economic and commercial power. People from Northern Africa, Israel, and even as far as India, migrated to Spain, bringing their cultural influence to the country. Art, architecture, music, and many other aspects of the culture flourished in what is known as the Golden Era of Spain. For example, Flamenco was started by the Gypsies who combined the instruments of Spain with the singing style of the Muslims and Jews with an Indian style of dance. In general, the people were able to combine the best of their abilities to achieve new heights in academia. However, this all came to a sudden and bitter halt during the Inquisition.

We came to Plaza Mayor, a square surrounded by uniform building save for the center of one side. This section was tiled in a rainbow of colors depicting people engaged in different activities from the era. The story of this plaza takes place during the reign of the Austrias, who were good at military tactics, but not management. At the time, people noticed that if they drank the water in Madrid, they would certainly get sick. Thus, no one drank the water, and instead, everyone drank wine. Apparently even the children were drinking wine, and nothing but wine. This made the wind industry very rich, and the King decided to put a heavy tax on the wine: about 75%. Thus, the King diverted the riches to himself, and started two wars with it. One war versus France and one war versus Portugal. I believe I’ve already said something about countries only seeming to start wars with their neighbors. This act of Spain declaring war on their only two neighboring countries is just the epitome. Anyway, the King still had money to spare, and gladly obliged when the people asked for a nice square. In order to build the square 5 stories high, they needed to use wood instead of stone. The wooden square was built, but when winter came was promptly burned to the ground from a fire within the building. The building was home to nobles who needed to keep warm, and building fires was common. However, the King agreed to rebuild the square the next summer, out of wood again. This process repeated itself 5 times before the King finally said this time let’s build a stone square. At that time, he also developed the first fire department, which was maybe a little too late.

The tour ended by a park near the Prado Museum, the most famous art gallery in Madrid. The tour guide gave a speech about tolerance as he concluded, and reasoned that tolerance was the reason for the greatest period in Spain, and that intolerance was ultimately its downfall. He offered to lead us to a good restaurant for lunch, and I followed him along with a small group of people there. I ended up sitting with 3 guys from Cincinnati, who were traveling through Spain together. It was nice to talk to some fellow Midwesterners over a meal. Afterward, I set out to explore more of Madrid on my own. My first stop was the Parque del Retiro just east of the city center. This park was full of nice landscaping, trees, and had a man-made pond. I saw canoes and paddle boats for rent, and many were using them to float around in the pond. At the far side of the pond was a large memorial featuring a statue of Alfonso XII on horseback. I continued walking through to the east side of the park where I found a strip that seemed more manicured than the rest. It had fountains in the middle and sides, and had greenery woven around white pillars holding up shades for the benches beneath. Flamingoes wondered freely around this area, a sight had all but gotten used to. There were other patches of manicured garden throughout the park. One of them featured green bushes lining patches of bright yellow flowers. This was a nice drift from the normal multicolored arrangements.

From the park I set out to explore Gran Via, a main street of buildings constructed during the early 20th century. The building faces held all kinds of detailed decoration, and were much taller than buildings in other major cities. For a while, I felt as if I were walking down a boulevard in Manhattan. The other large metropolis such as Amsterdam, Paris, and Rome had all the density of population, but no buildings higher than 5 floors. Paris, for instance, has taller buildings, but doesn’t allow them but for far outside the center of the city in the business district. Eventually I came to España Square. Yes, every city in Spain has one. This one was mostly grassy park, and held a large tower of a monument in the middle, with a fountain and reflecting pool around it. From there I took a short walk to the Templo de Debod. This temple was built along the Nile in the 4th century, but was given to Spain in the 20th Century. A stage for a concert was being setup as I arrived, and people were enjoying the park next to it. Off of the backside was a great view of the city. Unfortunately, it was not a view of the center of the city, but I could see a lot of Madrid, and there were faint outlines of mountain peaks in the distance.

The next day I awoke early to see the Museum Reina Sofia, a gallery of modern art featuring work by Picasso and Dali. I started at the bottom floor where the most modern of sculptures were displayed. Many of them were simply collections of random everyday items arranged in patterns. Some were extremely simple and abstract creations, such as a monochrome canvas, and a line drawn on a paper. Perhaps it’s the engineer in me, but I did enjoy the hunk of steel barrels crushed into a cube. I’m not sure what others see, but I see the immense power of the machine able to create this when I look at it. The next floor up had the most interesting artwork. This is where some of the masterpieces of Picasso and Dali were on display. Picasso’s work was very interesting, but did not contain much detail. I enjoyed the Dali paintings the most. His use of objects to create more than one element had me looking all around his paintings, up close and from a distance. His work was by far my favorite in the gallery, and perhaps of all the artwork I had seen in Europe. In fact, this gallery was definitely my favorite in Europe.

My next goal was to tour the inside of the Royal Palace. I arrived just in time to see it, too. For it was Sunday and the palace closed early. Only about 20 rooms were on display, but they were immaculately decorated, from floor to ceiling. The most detailed and intense decoration that I have seen since the Parliament Building in Bucharest, and perhaps a bit more. I only saw a couple rooms with plain white ceilings, and most of them had murals covering almost the entirety. The walls were decorated with tapestries, the carpeting featured many detailed patterns, and every room had a different theme. I enjoyed seeing the billiard room, which was near the smoking room, a place for boys to hang out I guess. From the main building I went to the flanking buildings with a pharmacy full of old jars and medicine manufacturing equipment, and my personal favorite, the armory. The armory held a large collection of medieval armaments. Mannequins dressed in many different types of full body armor were on display. Some of them were mounted on horseback, the horses wearing dull body armor themselves. Skirts underneath the body armor decorated the horses with the Spanish colors. All kinds of weapons including swords, lances, halberds, bows, crossbows, and early guns lined the walls. One particularly interesting feature was a child-sized suit of body armor. This was the kind of display I had expected to see more of throughout Europe, but I guess it’s fitting that I should run into it during my last day.

From there I went to the Prado Museum, which I wasn’t too interested in, but felt like I should go anyway because of the fame surrounding it, and the fact that it was free after 5 pm on Sundays. As I walked around I saw exactly what I expected to see. A bunch of oil paintings and statues depicting the same biblical scenes over and over again. However, I did see a few things that made the visit worthwhile. One particular artist had painted a couple scenes in Rome from the 17th century. These scenes included the forum and the Coliseum from viewpoints that I was familiar with. Though the surrounding scenery was a bit different, the forum and the Coliseum looked just as they did when I saw them a few weeks ago. I took a moment to let sink in the centuries that Rome has transcended. On the ground floor I found artwork unlike other pieces. It seemed to be a mosaic of different rock. The image was flat and very colorful. However, it was clear that this was not made of melted glass. The texture of the blue sky made it clear that this had come from a single piece of baby blue rock, perhaps crystal. Maybe some of the smaller details were filled in with melted glass, but the overall piece was pretty amazing. On the top floor was work of an artist named Goya. His artwork suggested he was a fan of hunting. Many of his paintings depicted men wielding rifles alone in nature, many including man’s best friend. This was delightfully different than any other type of scenery I’ve seen in paintings around Europe.

Madrid is a large city, but has a nice center to it. At least all the major attractions are pretty well centered. Gran Via is a beautiful street full of great architecture, but it is definitely not the only place you can see great architecture in Madrid, for it is everywhere. It has my favorite art gallery of all that I have seen in Europe, the Reina Sofia, but my favorite part was the armory of the Royal Palace.

After traveling for 109 days, through 31 cities in 19 different countries and 3 continents, I have finally finished my tour of Europe. I didn’t get to see everything, but I think I did a pretty good job for my first time out of the country, and I hope it is the first of many. As I sit here on my long plane ride back to America, I have only begun to feel the magnitude of my journey. It feels like I have collected a lifetime of experiences in the last 3.5 months. I have seen so many things, met so many people, and heard so many stories. However, there are things that I definitely miss about home, and will be very glad once I am there. See you soon America!

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Photos

Madrid Symbol
Bear eating from a Madroño tree

Tax Evasion House
Guess how many floors there are

Monumento Alfonso XII
In Pargue del Retiro

Torre de Madrid
In España Square

Madrid
View from Templo de Debod

Comments

[Sam]

i rlly like ur page I actually used it to get information on a Spanish time line