Early Mornings and Late Nights in Madrid

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Ola,

I joined the queues of fellow race fans on the first train out of Valencia to Madrid the morning after the race. The train ride wasn’t that long, and they played 3:10 to Yuma, so I watched it in Spanish and was quite entertained. It’s a great movie if anyone hasn’t seen it. I didn’t see anyone tilting, but I did see some windmills as I was crossing the plain en route to Madrid.

I arrived in Madrid, and I immediately fell in love with Way Hostel, the place I was staying. It’s in a great location with free breakfast, internet, an awesome lounge, clean everything, great air-conditioning and the most helpful staff of any hostel I’ve ever been in.

I dropped off my stuff and then went wandering. I walked to Sol, which is supposed to be the heart of Madrid where everyone goes to hang out and enjoy themselves. However, when I was there, it was a colossal traffic jam and construction site so it lost some of it’s lustre. I walked to the Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales, which is an old monastery in the centre of town, but it was closed for siesta so I walked over to the Palacio Reial instead. The walk to the Palacio was through a nice neighbourhood with pretty old buildings and a large park. I arrived at the Palacio, which is situated on a hill, and it was enormous. It was probably one of the larger ones that I have seen. I didn’t go into it, because I was going to do that later in the week. I walked past the Catedral de Nuestra Señora de Almudena, which looks old but was finished in 1992. I didn’t bother going in because Monica, one of my roomies in Brussels had told me that is was not worth it as the building was never truly embraced by the Madrileños. I continued through the pretty neighbourhood to the Iglesia de San Nicholas, but I wrecked my knee on a parking bollard so I spent the rest of the day hobbling around. Next up was the Basilica de San Francisco, which was a beautiful hue of yellow with a massive dome and spectacular views over the valley. I continued to Plaza Mayor, which is one of the main squares in the city. It is composed of several buildings that have all had their facades attached as one to form a large square. It was pretty, but it could not match the atmosphere of Grand Place in Brussels.

I continued my walking tour of Madrid, this time to the other side of the city. I booked my train ticket to Toledo for the next morning at Atocha station and then I headed to the Museo d’Arte Reina Sofia. On the steps, an artist was painting a scene from the Sierra Madre Mountains north of Madrid on a tile and it was very pretty so I ended up buying it. I then went into the museum, which was contemporary art and not really my thing except the Picasso’s “Guernica” is housed inside. The painting is absolutely massive and very cool to look at. I then followed Cris’s advice and headed to El Retiro, a massive park in Madrid, via La Iglesia de los Jeronimos. The park is very beautiful with fountains and palaces as well as meticulously manicured gardens. I walked from one end of the park to the other and then walked along one of the main streets in Madrid, past many beautiful art nouveau and art deco façades back to Sol from where I headed back to the hostel.

I went on the internet that night, and I heard a couple of people speaking English in the kitchen which was adjacent to the internet area. After I had finished surfing, I went and started a conversation with one of them. Amy was from the Seattle area and had been doing schooling in Salamanca before spending some time in Madrid before she went home. We ended up talking for a few hours and made plans to do stuff after I got back from Toledo the next day.

I woke up early and headed to the hilltop city of Toledo, about 30 minutes south of Madrid (see other post for information). When I arrived back in the city, I met Amy at the Museo d’Arte Reina Sofia form where we walked to the Estadio Vicente Calderon which is where Atletico Madrid play. We arrived at the stadium and we bought tickets for the match that night which was a Champions League match between Atletico and Panathanaikos. We then walked to Sol, where Amy and I bought our tickets to La Tomatina (more on that in another post) and then we headed to El Prado, which is one of the foremost art museums in the world. The museum is located in a small building, but the collection is expansive. It is mostly Spanish art, but there is also a collection of Dutch, French and Italian artists among others. Both Monica and James had given me tips on which paintings to see specifically and the map of the museum included an outline of the masterpieces present in the gallery, so I was set. I marvelled at the Goya’s, El Greco’s and Velazquez’s, and my favourite were probably “Saturn Devouring his Children” by Goya and “Las Meninas” by Velazquez. Amy and I spent a couple of hours there, and it didn’t feel that long at all.

We relaxed on the benches outside, and then headed off to the Stadium to catch the match. When we were about three blocks away from the stadium, the crowds started to get thick. It became a sea of white and red (Atletico’s colours) as people emptied out of the bars, clogged up the streets and headed to the stadium. Our seats were in the upper deck, but they were pretty much at the centre line so we could see everything happening during the match. The atmosphere was electric. The ultras were at one end, banging drums, waving flags and jumping up and down and they were the beating heart of the stadium. Energy seemed to flow off them and throughout the rest of the building. I was even pretending to sing along with the songs at one point, even though I had no idea what the words were! The match ended in a 2-0 win for Atletico, and the atmosphere stayed positive throughout the whole match and afterwards the party didn’t stop as we left the stadium.

I woke up early the next morning to catch a bus with Amy and Shirley to La Tomatina (see other post). When I got back to town, my feet were pretty much wrecked so I didn’t do much except Amy, Shirley, Sean, Sarah, Megan and Sami all went to a place called Cerveceria 100 Montaditos. Shirley had discovered it and I’m glad she did. What they do is making little sandwiches that are filled with over 100 different fillings. For every order you make, you get a half litre beer for a euro. It’s an incredible deal and you can have a good meal and a few drinks for under 10 euros. We spent much of the night there before heading back to the hostel. Amy was heading back to the US the next day, so we said goodbye to her before heading off to be ourselves.

The next morning I woke up early to catch the bus to Segovia (see other posting once again). When I got back to town, I took the metro up to Chamartin so I could see some of the massive skyscrapers that had been built in the city. I then walked down to the Santiago Bernabeu stadium where Real Madrid play before taking the metro back to the hostel.

At the hostel, I met up with Steffen (of Zaragoza fame), Sean and Shirley and we went to
Cerveceria 100 Montaditos once again. Once there, we saw a guy sitting at another table who had one of the coolest shirts I had seen in a while. It had a picture of a tank on it with the Swiss cross, and then a gun barrel, knife, corkscrew and saw sticking out of the tank. It was a Swiss Army Tank! After a few orders, we went on a pub crawl. It was a pretty good deal because 10 euros got a person entry into three bars, with a free drink in each bar. I was only planning on going to the first bar, but Sean was able to reproduce the stamp on my wrist and I was able to come out to each bar as a result. The first two bars played great music and the drinks were strong, but the last one was crappy and way to crowded and I was exhausted by this time so I said goodbye to everyone, most of the people were leaving the next day, and I went back to the hostel.

I woke up early on my last day in the city…kidding! I slept in. Finally. I had a leisurely breakfast where I met two very drunk Dutch people who had stayed up all night and had a flight to catch shortly. I then went back to the room and packed and I met Marco, who was a teacher from Hamilton. I checked out of the hostel, knowing that they would let me back in to shower, eat, use the internet and hang out in the lounge later on in the day.

Marco and I went to Sol before heading to the Palacio Reial where we went on a guided tour. We visited many of the Palacio’s sumptuous rooms, including the Gasparini rooms and saw many of the art treasures that the Spanish royals had collected over the years. The palace was almost entirely made of town, much of it marble, and was quite enjoyable to wander around. After the palace I introduced Cerveceria 100 Montaditos to Marco and he enjoyed it quite a bit.

We wandered up to Plaza Mayor afterwards before heading to the Caixa Madrid building that Shirley had told me about. One side of the building is cantilevered while the other side is covered in greenery. It was all free, which was awesome! The first floor comprised a collection of the Aga Khan’s collection of Muslim art. There were magnificent archways, carvings, paintings and Qur’an’s. The next floor was dedicated to the architectural works of Richards Rollins. There were descriptions, pictures and models of most of his works, including Terminal 4 at Barajas Airport in Madrid, something that I had marvelled at when I flew into the country. Marco and I wandered around for a while and then headed back to the hostel to chill for a bit.

Just to change it up a bit, we headed to Cerveceria 100 Montaditos for dinner and then grabbed a couple of beers and wandered through Plaza Mayor. We found a Flamenco display, and we just sat entranced and watched it for an hour or so. It was amazing to sit so close to it and watch the passion of the dance. We then went back to the hostel and I stayed up all night, because I did not have a place to sleep. I caught an airport shuttle at 330am and arrived at the airport at 4am. I fell asleep while waiting for the plane, and I woke up after 30 minutes but I had never been so disoriented in all of my life. I had no idea where I was and it took me 30 seconds to figure everything out. When I sorted things out, I got in the line up and got on the plane back to Brussels. When I arrived, it was 13 degrees in Belgium. To put this in perspective, it was 40 degrees in Madrid the day before I left so I was a little chilly to say the least.

Adios,
Pedro

Things I learned in Madrid:
-No, two meals a day at the same place is not excessive
-It is actually possible to walk around in 40 degree weather and find it comfortable
-Madrid is amazing!

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