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Published: August 8th 2007
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Real Madrid v Sparta Prague
Champions League at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu DAY FOUR The old part of Atocha Station is a neat classical, Victorian style building, huge with a glassed roof, full of tropical plants and misters. We had plenty of time to look round before our train to Toledo this morning.
Toledo was a fascinating city. We spent our time wandering around the old town, entering through the main gate in the wall. We went to the Alcazar first, the old fort / palace, a neat building but the museum inside was mainly military with little on the history of the building and what it had been used for. Next was the Taller del Moro where we could look round three rooms of a 14th century Mudejar palace (Mudejar refers to architecture etc. built by Moorish craftsmen under Christian rule). There was some excellent carvings in stone and wood, objects as well as doorways, walls and ceilings.
Next up was the Casa del Greco, not the artists actual house but a museum housing many of El Grecos paintings, including 'View and Map of Toledo' and one set of the Twelve Apostles. Despite this being an old wooden building full of valuable works of art, the guards stood around
inside smoking! We saw another El Greco, 'The Burial of the Count of Orgaz' in the church of Santo Tomé.
Other stops included the cathedral (grossly overflowing with Catholic wealth) and the Synagogue Santa Maria La Blanca.
In the evening, back in Madrid, we went to the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu to see Real Madrid v Sparta Prague in the Champions League. The stadium was awesomely huge, the first half of the game was OK but improved greatly in the second half. Real Madrid won 3-0.
DAY FIVE A damp start to the day saw us go Egyptian - the Debod Temple - then Royal - Spanish Royal Palace. The Debod temple was moved when the Aswan Dam was built, and is a gift from the Egyptian government. It was small but has some good inscriptions and carvings. The Royal Palace, free for EU citizens on Wednesdays, was very impressive in an opulent kind of way.
Another museum free on Wednesdays was the Municipal Museum. The pre-historic section was closed unfortunately so all we could see were more paintings of people and scenes from more recent history.
After lunch, the rain had cleared so we
went up the Mirador del Faro, a 92m tower with a viewing area at the top. The rain earlier had cleared the haze from the city so we had a nice view out over to the surrounding hills.
More Champions League action tonight, but we had to watch it on tv in 'our local' tapas bar. Barcelona v Liverpool (0-0), if only we had gone to Barcelona instead of Madrid. Oh well.
DAY SIX A bit of a rest day, kind of, in the sense that we had a lie-in and only went to one place. However, we must have walked for miles looking at all the stuff in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. What an awesome place! Before lunch, we looked round the main, permanent exhibits. There were examples of most styles of paintings. By 2pm we were foot-sore and hungry, so left for lunch. After lunch we went back to the museum and looked round the temporary exhibition, paintings by one artist showing how their style changed over time as they progressed through their career.
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