Madrid and surrounds - how interesting and how little we know about it

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We are all so glad we invested a week in Madrid. How come we know so little about Spain, and how often its history has interacted with our Anglo Saxon heritage? No wonder Henry VIII's daughter Mary liked that Philip of Spain so much - he was pretty good looking! And of course, Catherine of Aragon was an infanta (princess of Spain).

Yesterday was a day of 'leisure' i.e. no organised bus tour. So it was up in the morning and down to the lovely breakfast (why can't we have salmon every morning at home??). This spread has the usual melons, pineapple, apple and a variety of lovely citrus. Cold cuts includes Spanish jamon or ham, goat cheese, salmon and a variety of cold cuts. The hot food has yummy chorizo sausage, tortilla, which is a sort of solid (and v. nice) potato omelette, eggs, and the usual bacon and accompaniments. The bread is fresh and varied, and we have discovered churras - some sort of deep fried sweet dough. Hmmmn, crunchy on the lips, a lifetime on the hips.... And they have good coffee, a rarity in a hotel.

It was cooler than expected yesterday (but a hell of a lot warmer than it was today). We managed to walk 23,000 steps according to the pedometer yesterday.

In Madrid, we wandered up to see a convent, and wasted quite a while until we realised that we were either going to wait another hour or so or give up the visit. Pity, it apparently has the dowries of hundreds of Spanish lasses who either failed to find a suitable husband or who decided to enter the convent. The treasures are supposedly well worth seeing. We missed them in the end.

So, it was off up the Arenal at a smart pace in the sunshine. Our plan was the Dali Exhibition and the Prado Museum. Well, the queue outside the Dali was intimidating, so we walked up to the Prada. Must say, this is NOT a city that looks under siege from depression. The gardens are quite extravagant, lots of public parks and greenery (or course it is spring so all the trees are simply lovely) and everything, apart from the graffiti, is clean. There are some liquidation sales and closed shops, but there is no air of recession or real need.

The Prado was as magnificent as we imagined. And; we were handed a guide to all the masterpieces. Oh boy, was that just marvellous. And, can you believe, unlike what we are used to, enormous paintings, that if we wanted to lean out and touch - we could have. Fantastic, how trusting and how wonderful.

The Prado underscored the view we already held that we could spend weeks here, learning and being fascinated. There is so much on offer, and so little time to see it all, despite us having a whole week here. So yes, we saw Rembrandt, Titian, Rubens, Goya, Velazquez, Tintoretto and a whole lot more from El Greco. We had so much enjoyed his Burial of the Count masterpiece in Toledo, and enjoyed him again peeking out of his shepherds adoring the baby Jesus. Rubens' collosal canvases were within touching distance, and were just so lovely. Poor old Goya goes from the sublime to the scary for me. However, you all know all these so much better than me, so I am just registering that Davie and I had such a good time and much pleasure. We both felt it is incredible that ordinary people like us can see exhibitions such as this - it would never have done for the Duke, as my Dad used to say.

One of the best things about travel is the unexpected. And this happened yesterday. As we walked to the Prado we noted the bearded irises through the fence of the Royal Botanical Gardens. On our walk back, we wandered in. Having discovered the power of senior discounts, we were ready flashing the old gold card, drivers licences and Pete's UK passport. After lining up for a while, we were let in for free. Why? No idea. Maybe we are just gorgeous and they like us?

But, we had a magic hour. Oh boy, the irises in particular, along with the peonies (yup cold country here) were getting close to their peak. And wow, how gorgeous they are. Gardens here are much more in the 'green' European mode. Lots of box hedges, green trees and wrought iron edged lawns. But this was magnificent with large edged gardens with spring flowers, as simple as marigolds, and as complex as peonies. Wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Our experiences, as a group, of the very extensive Dali exhibition were mixed. We lost Davie, or he lost me, which was a problem that thankfully was resolved with the help of our friends. Some of the Group loved his work, others were disgusted, others thought it was the work of a deranged madman. I guess this is the art thing - it has to provoke reactions and passions. I am glad we went, and that we saw what he was about.

At this point we had done our 10,000 steps (by pedometer), and we were a long way from the hotel. Pip and I decided that the words ' liquidation sale' were too attractive to pass by. So a pretty cotton top for five euro was quickly in the bag. Boys were sent home, and the serious shopping began. Pip has a wedding, and had seen an outfit and some shoes as we had walked by earlier. Hmn, I got two great jackets for around $100NZ, and the wedding 'costume' as my Ma used to say, was not quite right. And, heck, it was nearly tea time, so we raced back sans shoes.

Today was on the bus, and hey, we had wifi! (this is always a treat when travelling. Our hotel has free wifi, but it is the infuriating variety that disengages from the iPhone and the meaningless, long series of letters and numbers that comprise the passwords have to be re-entered every session, grrrrr, but at least it is free.)

Today was cold. Not just cold, but blimmin freezing. We had SLEET in Sergovia, and the snow line was only a few meters above the road. I will not post photos of me, or my friends, in our collective efforts to keep warm. Let some word pictures suffice - Davie, in his parka, with the hood up and his Croc Dundee hat on top, Vicki with her lovely bright blue parka hood and all, me with a scarf over my head and my black golf jacket etc. Oh boy, it was cold, 7 degrees, after the 20+ we had enjoyed just days ago.

Avila was cold too. This is pretty typical hilltop castle stuff - gorgeous enormous walls protecting the town within. This was so clean and the walls were so golden we thought they had been rebuilt, but no, they are regularly cleaned. Most unusual. We wandered through churches and a town with an interesting guide ending up with St Theresa and viewing her (unrotted) finger relic!! Gorgeous architecture, lovely carvings and statues and clearly a very beloved town.

Lunch in Sergovia was, I suspect, a bit more traditional. It started with bread and a bean, sausage, tomato and pork sort of soup. Definitely very nice and quite spicy, perhaps with paprika. Second helpings were offered along with 10 euro bottles of very pleasant wine (2 for all of us, we are not yet getting greedy). Then came the main course of some sort of extremely yummy unidentified red meat casserole, with lots of green veges (yay!!).

Then, underneath the arches of a Roman aquaduct we stood in the pouring rain before viewing an interesting cathedral with grills protecting both the choir and the altar and a Knights' Templar Alcazar or castle full of jousting armour and tools. Magic workmanship and very interesting.

Home we headed and we managed to find time to inspect and purchase shoes.

Yesterday it was 23,000 steps and it was a modest (hehehe) 20,000 today. So we don't feel bad about the ice cream, vino or the breakfast salmon.

Tomorrow, it is off to Morocco and more adventures.

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Photos

Pip amongst the irises in Milan
Hey - how gorgeous are these flowers? Spring was lovely before we discovered the chill off the snow.

Iris
How lovely...

Dali Exhibition
Oooh, we all had different reactions to this.

Avila - round towers built by Christians, angular towers by Moors
How clean is this? How new does this look? it is 900 years old!

Knights' Templar Alcazar in Sergovia
Castle full of treasure, including wonderful models showing jousting armour, not just for men, but for horses too.

This is supposed to be late Spring
Snow (blowing chill wind) in Sergovia