Madrid

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It was at Madrid airport that we encountered our first taste of language barrier. I’ve always got by with the destinations that I’ve travelled to before with English being understood to some degree but whilst asking the customs guard how to get to the metro, sign language took over and a direction given.

Upon making it to the metro and negotiating the automatic ticket machine to get a 5 day tourist travel pass (great budget saver) we then were greeted with 12 multi coloured lines of spaghetti to make our way to Sol De Porto. The central hub of Madrid,

As with all our travels so far, Puerto de Sol is under construction so we were unable to see it in all its glory but we could still appreciate how pretty it would have been minus the barriers. Puerto de Sol is considered the centre point for Madrid City. Where we were located was so central we were spoilt for options. Walking a lot of the city as per the norm for us we found everything was so close.

On our first full day we wondered around the city amongst “Calles” and Porto’s prefixing all the street names and there are so many monuments you’d run out of space on your memory card before you realise just how many photos you’ve taken. Madrid is a very clean city that is dynamic yet very laid back with no one looking stressed at all. It merges the modern lifestyle amongst all the old historic buildings and the people seem so happy and proud of their heritage and I think this gives the people of Spain a sense of belonging as they all participate in the traditional dances. At several of the public celebrations we saw the young kids were tapping their feet along side their “grandparents” it was so nice to see.

There are public parks that are immaculately maintained and the plazas are a hive for socialising. I must say one thing as I’ve been surrounded by such historic pieces of architecture for the past 3 months that although I appreciate the historic value of what I am looking at and the “wow” factor is always there however because it’s everywhere here in Spain so far and I’ve become a little bit immune/blasé about it. We walked past one building that would have to be one of the most spectacular Postal Offices I’ve seen in my life!
Early afternoon we visited the Museo El Prado and spent 4 hours looking at some fantastic paintings and watched several artists copy the originals wishing we’d had lunch before entering. There are some inspiring pieces of work in here and lots of piece depicting Christianity as well, but that is to be expected in Spain.

Later in the afternoon we headed towards the Opera House that has the facade of an old 1850’s building that has been revived combining both old and new architecture. The opera house faces the Palacio Real (Royal Palace) that has something like 3,000 rooms... Glad I’m not on cleaning duty! There is a beautiful park, Plaza de Oriente, which again has more monuments within it.

Whilst in Madrid we were lucky enough to be there at the time of one of their bigger celebration of the Provence. At this Plaza there was a big procession that went thru the city streets with people dressed up and big theatrical oversized characters depicting different provinces (I am only guessing here) followed by a band of wind instruments and drums playing what sounded like traditional music, it was awesome, this parade went thru the city streets ending at Plaza Mayor.

Plaza Mayor is yet another hive of activity, at the time of our visit it was being set up for a free concert for the people of Madrid and we were lucky to catch some of the rehearsal. The buildings are beautiful with one having murals painted over it giving the Plaza some character.

A visit to the Reina Sofia, museum of modern art & sculpture helped another 4 hours disappear really quickly. With some of the museum closed off for renovations, this included the Picasso display, one of the reasons we were visiting but notwithstanding it was really interesting going through and as with everything we did in Madrid, a must do!

Whilst visiting the Cathedral de la Almudena for some night shots we stumbled onto one of the biggest street parties I’ve seen in my life. Now the people of Madrid put the Aussies to shame when it comes to partying. There were people rocking up with bags of beer and Vino with food as well with their family/friends and at midnight they looked like they were only getting started, this on a Thursday night as well. The thing that struck me was there was no agro you’d expect to find with so many people drinking in one place, everyone was enjoying the free entertainment and getting along. As we continued walking through the area more people we converging on the park we’d just come from, we were fascinated and made a decision to join the locals on Friday night and have a drink and picnic and absorb the atmosphere.

Friday we visited the same park, pristine as usual, and on stage there were groups dressed up in traditional clothing and performing short routines of their traditional dace from their Provence within the region. It was so good to see and I’ve gotta say that the oldies kept up the pace!

We covered a lot more in Madrid and we only really had 4 days to cover it. Another 3 days would have been nice but we had booked ourselves to go north to San Sebastian. So hopefully I’ve not bored the daylights out of you with my rambling and salute for now!

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