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Published: December 19th 2010
Ratings explained: 1* - worth a look
2* - Good Times
3* - Unmissable
+ - emphasis on the rating
We flew into Madrid, boy were our arms tired!
Arriving in Spain so late in the year meant our average temp was about 9C, and we had a lot of overcast skies. Our overall six month trip plan of 'chasing the sun' had been successful pretty much all the way into October but November seems to be a 'bridge too far'.
In Madrid we had a little apartment for a week and our neighborhood nearby reminded us a great deal of South Kensington in London; it's clean, reasonably prosperous looking and well lit and on arrival there were suitably English grey overcast skies and cold!
Our first sight in Madrid was the Thyssen Bornemisza art gallery (1*+) the gallery lost points from us for Madonna & Childs and Impressionists works, but gained some back with it's broad and decent range. It didn't have enough good or great works in painting or sculpture to really stand out though.
We walked the pleasant Madrid city centre.... we couldn't help remarking on how Madrid reminds us of
London, although some of it's beautiful architecture and buidling facades seem Parisian there's a feel of London in the streets, and certainly the feel of Autumn. The street decorations and modern feel of the city centre area in particular reminded us of the Regent Street area of London... odd.
We were dumfounded by the ham (Jamon) shops which have thousands of hanging hams and seemingly endless combinations of meat purchasing to be had, we know the air-cured ham in Spain is supposed to be second to none but we are too intimidated to order it just yet!
Hoping to take in the outdoor sights we walked up to Piazza Cibeles with a triumphal arch and gateway area, there's also many beautiful buildings in the area with impressive facades and small dome topped roofs with statues and other decoration. We passed a nice charioteer fountain and entered the major city park; Park del Retiro. In the park we enjoyed a lengthy walk by the small lake which had a pretty monument on the opposite bank and row boats for hire, then by a 'crystal palace' (glassed in opulent building) past a pond with beautifully coloured autumn trees and through further
Alicia and the Palace
Alicia in the palace gardensparks enjoying the Autumn colours. The park had some good concrete vistas for skaters and we saw plenty of joggers too. A nice place to be and we feel positive about being in Madrid.
The next day after a major subway catching debacle (you need to be wary how many stops are between you and your destination each one slows you down!!) we decided to go the 'Real Palace' (2*+) in the city, since the weather was good.
The palace Armoury (3*) housed mainly medieval armour and weapons, they had a very impressive display of knights on horseback models all with fine armour on the men and horses and great long lances. The armour & weapons around the room were excellent quality; the armoury is probably the single
best display of medieval arms we've seen anywhere and I was very happy. Some highlights included very ornate helmets in the shapes of Gryphon or Eagle faces and some incredibly ornate patterned gold shields and breastplates that were stunning, sadly 'no photos' rule was strictly enforced.
The 'Royal Pharmacy' was an oddity for palace for us as we've never seen another; it consisted of shelves lined with jars meant
Real Palace in Madrid
Gorgeous ceilings lit with some natural light through the interesting skylights to host various ingredients for healing; the most interesting room was one full of stills, mortars, and presses to process the natural ingredients like roots.
We found our way into the Royal Palace (no photos rule) and entered via a stunning large staircase with fine ceiling paintings edged with golden gilt and nice round skylights, the well decorated huge greeting hall stairwell was very impressive indeed and I was pleased to find the security to be lax and understaffed so I was able to take the first of many photos (hahaha).
The rooms in the palace were high roofed and the first several all had nice skylights high in the walls that added light and charm. The ceilings were beautifully painted with typical 'gods of ancient greece' theme and punctuated with beautiful golden decoration and impressive chandeliers.
The throne room was very impressive with Lion statues prowling on either side of the dais, and other rooms continued to stun with their gorgeous painted ceilings, golden decoration, chandeliers, mirrors and pretty furniture. We were pleased to find some new and subtle differences in the decoration of this palace compared to the dozens we've seen elsewhere in Europe.
Our last highlight
Palace Rooms
Delightfully decorated rooms was a room housing two Stradivari violins, a Viola, and a Cello, it was surprising to find such wealth in musical instruments in one room. Overall we left the palace interiors very impressed, and very pleased the lazy and sparse guards hadn't restricted our ability to take a few decent photos too!
In the evening we headed to a Flamenco dance theatre , we found to our frustration the box office was closed until later so we stopped off at a hot chocolate shop and got Nick a nice traditional hot chocolate (with the Italian/Spanish style thick liquid chocolate) and Alicia some Churros which are like fried strips of donut.
We got to the Flamenco performance later which was very good; strangely they had no main female lead though and they let the sixty-something lady choreographer dance a main role which was a shame as she was an ugly bag (Alicia agreed). The lead male was a crazy, intense looking chap who had some amazing speed on his tap dancing feet and managed to get his feet tapping so fast together it appeared he had terrible shivers! Some of the frenetic points of the dance got the crowd warmed
up and there were a few shouts of 'Ole' from the audience which I appreciated as uniquely Spanish!
I contemplated how in Spain I find all men “look” Spanish to me and I appreciate it, whereas many women don't look as I think they should, about 10%!o(MISSING)f women “look” Spanish to me, the rest could pass as Aussies or something else, it's very confusing... damn people not conforming to my mental stereotypes!
The next day we found the Spanish rail system thwarting us, you couldn't buy the fast (AV) train tickets from a machine and some of the ticket people refused to sell them to us too, we asked a ticket info guy who said, pick another line (they were all long). Time was running short due to all this BS, luckily (and strangely) the ticket desk operated a dedicated desk to sell tickets to the pending trains so we managed to get tickets. On the platform they lined us up and scanned each ticket and made us put bags through a security scanner;
we strongly felt Spain has lost the plot on the joys of rail travel in that by making it hard to get tickets
and get aboard rapidly they are hurting one of the best things about rail travel in Europe i.e. that it usually takes MINIMAL messing around.
We arrived in Segovia (an easy and worthy daytrip from Madrid) to very grim grey overcast skies (damn it!) Once arrived in Segovia (2*) one can't miss the 1st century AD Roman aqueduct which is 28 metres high and splits the square in half. The skies and light were very ugly but we still took a few photos and marveled at the aqueduct; it's certainly in good shape and makes one in awe of the ancient Romans as always.
Alicia declared herself a bit cold and I quite fancied a hot chocolate so we wandered into a convenient cafe for a sit down and had some delicious proper liquid hot chocolate; one of the best I've ever had. Next we headed to the 'Alcazar' (2*); a castle perched out on a narrowing rocky ledge with small drops around on all sides down to the valleys and plains of the township. We enjoyed the views of the castle in it's Autumn setting which is in a bit of a Disney style. The castle interiors
Nick & Armour
I'll never stop loving armour were thankfully tour-optional, and photos were allowed.
The interiors (despite lacking furnishings and carpets for the most part) were very lovely. There were some beautiful ceilings carved with elaborate roof decorations; one was in the shape of pine cones for example, we also saw some decent armour and a couple of knights on horseback models. Next we headed outside to walk around the valley below the castles and had some nice views down there.
In the Segovia centre we found restaurants there serving the city specialty 'Roast Suckling Pig'. After a little 'umming and ahhing' we settled on one place... looking at pictures of the pig Alicia decided it looked too fatty and went for lamb instead. Alicia received a joint of lamb a foot long, with about ¼ of the meat you'd expect on a good 'Leg of Lamb', it was a vast plate of meat and made us laugh. Nick's suckling pig was a cut from the ribs with a thick layer of fat and crackling on top; sadly the crackling wasn't all crisp and with all the rib bones and fat there was very little actual pork meat! It was a decent lunch after all with
plenty of lamb to go around.
We stepped out after lunch to find to our dread and dismay the town had entered 'Siesta' time and most shops were closed; this thwarted Alicia's plan to shop for some badly needed hiking shoes; a bitter blow as we'd spotted a decent store or two as well.
Damn these siestas! With 40 mins until our bus to the train we decided to step out of the cold and enjoy a hot chocolate. We found a specialist chocolate cafe that had a vast and tempting range; Nick ended up having a taster dish of four 'shots' of different hot chocolate: white, cool milk, regular Spanish, and 52%!C(MISSING)ocoa, it was good to try them all! Alicia had a moorish chocolate cake and a cup of tea. Thus ended our very indulgent time in Segovia and we got back to Madrid fine.
Next day we decided to make a day trip to Toledo (2*), we once again experienced the pain of Spain's high speed train process:
the trains in spain are a tremendous pain as the well known saying goes. As I've said Spain has taken all of the speed and joy out
Lots of Lamb in Segovia
Alicia receiving a stupendously vast meat dish for lunch. Lucky girl. of boarding trains and made it a more painful and unpleasant 'airport like' process.
On arrival in Toledo we took a sight seeing bus; the city of Toledo is ringed by a river and largely sits on a hill. The bus drove a ring road outside the river and hill which offered many decent views back over the city all the way around. We learned a little through the commentary and the bus thoughtfully stopped at a very scenic lookout where we could get proper photos
In Toledo, an historically famous sword making city, all the shops had heaps of swords and knives. We looked in the first large shop we found and Nick contemplated the fine range of swords whilst Alicia found likely baby clothes for her niece in Spanish style. It's quite strange being in a city with SO MANY sword and knife shops.
We headed to the town cathedral where Alicia expressed scepticism at the giant entry fee, Nick insisted we go after seeing photos in a tourist shop and was vindicated; it turned out the Toledo Cathedral (3*) had stunning interiors with a big range of interesting chapels , a museum area with a
huge golden artifact that they carry around the city on religious holidays, a chapel with a vast and beautifully painted ceiling, and the best decorative altar we've ever seen.
The 'no photos' rule was strictly in force and they announced on the P.A. Every 2 mins that photos were banned, thankfully they were lightly staffed and many decent photos could be taken.....
After lunch and wandering Toledo centre we headed into the Alcazar, the large 'upside-down table shaped castle' that houses a military museum (1*) covering the history of the army in Spain. The museum lost the plot on it's information delivery and we didn't rate it much.
Finishing up Toledo waiting for a train we went into a little 'working class' cafe bar and ordered a beer and diet coke, the hostess seemed tickled to have tourists in her place and gave us some tapas and then again when we re-ordered, the second time we didn't realise she was going to give us a tapas so we had her calling out to us to come back and get it in Spanish which caused some wry smiles of confusion.
In Madrid for dinner we got to a
Toledo
Yes they make all the swords and blades in this little hilltop ciy! According to me at least. Tapas place we'd researched and ordered Sangrias and a bunch of Tapas, our waiter spoke almost no English but seemed helpful, we ended up with 4-5 dishes; a Spanish Omelette, Chorizo sausages, fried squid, meatballs, and croquettes. The Chorizo sausages were served whole as sausages and were to die for, the best Chorizo we've ever had, they were hot, oily, and delicious, the squid was also a success.
Our next Madrid day we went on the 'New Europe' free walking tour company tour we always patronise. We found ourselves on Madrid tour with a Scotsman for our guide.
In the town centre area at a place our guide recommended; a stunningly cheap 2 euros could get you a ham or chorizo salami roll, an apple and a drink!
The highlight was that the name of one of the squares nowadays in modern Spanish language translates to 'Square of the Wank' our guide suggested he spent all his time there.... hahahaha. Our guide also told a good story about the end of the lengthy dictatorship in Spain in the 20th century and the difficult transition to democracy; Spain's history (previously unknown to us) sounds fascinating.
After our walking tour
Toledo Stunning Cathedral Interior
No photos rule was in place so hard to get shots, I found this on google of the Chapel. we hit the next major art gallery in town the Reina Sofia (2*). It had a decent collection of modern art both Picasso, Dali, and their contemporaries. In spite of our hatred of most modern art we did find one or two pieces to appreciate. We came away with more of an appreciation for Dali; but no love for Picasso. Alicia just keeps getting more and more contempt for most modern art.
Going out to dinner to a choice restaurant on a Saturday night and arriving about 8:30pm we were stunned to find it closed ?! Had they finished service for the day?! We didn't know.
In great confusion we walked a few blocks across town to another place we'd researched and found that too was closed; BUT with a sign saying it opened at 9pm. After listening to Nick rant and rage about the stupidity of not being open at 8:30pm on a Saturday night we decided to head back to the first place which had a better looking menu up outside and stopped at a nice looking and lightly patronised cafe bar to kill time to get us to 9pm. We had a couple of drinks in
Toledo Cathedral Ceilings
No photos rule was in place so hard to get shots, I found this on google of the amazing ceilings. the bar which had live Spanish football on and we enjoyed the mystery of what free Tapas they would serve us with each round of drinks. The night ended up with the restaurant we wanted being fully booked so we booked for Sunday night and ate at a compromise place.
Our last days in Madrid we made it to the famous Prado museum to knuckle down to a few more hours of art sight-seeing. The Prado (2*) in a nutshell was an obviously major gallery but lacking in a real “big ticket” work or two that would have elevated it's status. We did however enjoy a large and quality exhibition of our favourite artist Rubens.
Alicia is now jaded and over art galleries by this point so she'll probably need a couple of weeks to refresh herself before our assault on the galleries of New York and Washington!
We finished up Madrid with a delicious meal at 'Nina' restaurant, Nick had the best chocolate cake EVER for dessert.
The next entry covers the remainder of our time in Spain.
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Ruben
non-member comment
Greetings
hope you've enjoyed in Spain. Madrid, Segovia and Toledo are amazing cities where you can also eat well. Everyone who comes to Spain repeats! I recommend it to everyone. By the way, congratulations for the outstanding blog you have written. Greetings. Visita la guía de Madrid