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Published: November 26th 2005
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Plaza Mayor Madrid
Quite early in the morning. Delivery vans delivering stuff to tourist restaurants. Okay it´s has been a bit of while, so here is a summary of what I have seen and done of the last couple of weeks ...
Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor, Palacio Real Went to some of the main tourist places in Madrid. Pretty easy to walk between them.
Puerta del Sol. Supposedly the centre of Madrid. It has a clock tower from which I think distances to other places from Madrid are calculated.
Plaza Mayor. The main square. I have to say that I was a little bit unimpressed. Lots of tourist restaurants. Managed to hide the truck delivering Heineken in the photos. Was more impressed with the main squares in cities in Lima.
Palacio Real. Not really a fan of royalty, so was not willing to part with 9 Euros to see the palace. Took a few photos through the fence though.
Prado Spent an afternoon in the Prado Art Museum, and well worth the 6 Euro entrance fee. Raphael, Titian, Verones, Tintoretto, Rembrandt, Rubens, plus heaps of others ... as well as the heaps from Spanish Artists Goya, Velazquez, El Greco. Some of the Goya´s black paintings pretty bleak.
Heaps to see in the Museum, will probably go back and have another look on Sunday when it is free.
Segovia Went for a Saturday excursion out of Madrid to Segovia, which is about 2 hours to the north of Madrid on the train. Had to get up early to catch the 8am train from Atocha. Amazed that when I was walking to the station that the bars were still open and packed.
Day was quite cold. And the train carriage had the temperature outside the train at about 10 degrees Celcius when it arrived in Segovia.
The first thing that I found was a Roman Aqueduct. Pretty Impressive.
Then walked up to the old walled town, heaps of narrow streets, plazas, churches, a cathedral, mandatory Plaza Mayor, and finally the Alcazar which is a castle. Not really a fan of castles, but it was pretty good.
As the day went on it got warmer and more and more people were in the town. Underneath the aqueduct they had a couple of really fantastic merry go round going. Kids delight. Really crowded on the narrow strees, but it was really sunny so who could
blame them. It was a good day out.
Reina Sofia Went to the Reina Sofia Art Gallery. Mainly contemporary Spanish Artists, Miro, Dali Picasso, and others arty people will know, and I do not. It was Sunday so it was free. I think that you have to be interested in contemporary art to be interested. I know it has heaps of work by Picasso, but found it hard to be interested. Perhaps if I spent more time studying each painting ... Didn´t pay anything so can´t really complain.
Retiro Park The Retiro Park not far from the Prado is big, with quite a structured lay out. Paths, fountains, large lake, statues etc. Heaps of people enjoying sunny Sunday afternoon. Bars, cafes, street vendors, street performers, sun bathers, roller bladers, dog walkers ... really crowded. The green area allows Madridlenos to get away from their city streets and apartments, also a substitute for not having a beach I suppose.
More Retiro Park Been back to the Retiro Park heaps of times, and there is always something different to see each time. Giant crystal palace. Heaps of fountains. Rose Gardens. Also at the moment there is
an annual book fair that is going on, seemed like thousands of people were there.
Chocolate con Churros I had seen Churros in Mexico and Peru, but seemed too hot to try them. It was a cold morning here in Madrid so it seemed like a good opportunity to try them. Chocolate con churros are not a good idea if you want to lose weight.
The chocolate comes in a cup but is thick like a sauce. Churros are cylindrical strips of batter fried in oil.
You dip the churros in the chocolate and eat the chocolate coated end in repeat.
You probably have your daily calorie requirements in one serving.
Thyssen Bornemisza Museum Went to the Thyssen Bornemisza Museum a couple of times. Both times I went close to the opening time on a week day so not that busy. Good mix of different types of paintings ranging from Pre Renaissance Italian Painting to some modern stuff eg. Piet Mondrian that I do not get at all. (I am such a philistine.)
Para protegar la calidad del café le rogamos no fumar To protect the quality of the coffee we
request that you do not smoke, or something like that. Normally not the interested in supporting American Capitalist Imperialisim and buying stuff from American chains like Starbucks, but it seems to me the only food place that I have managed to find so far that doesn´t allow smoking inside. The little independent bars and cafés seem to come standard with a smoky haze. I have even seen some Spanish Fast Food chains with ashtrays on the tables, same goes for McDonalds.
Perhaps it is because in NZ we don´t allow smoking in a lot of places that I notice smoking a lot more here. People seem to smoke more in the streets, and it is not uncommon to get a cloud of second hand smoke in your face as you walk down the street. I thought that it is because Madrid is a much bigger city with more people than where I come from, but I didn´t seem to notice smoking as much in Mexico City which is a massively crowded place.
Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida A little church with some frecos by Goya. Nice compared to his Black Paintings in the Prado, and
free to get into.
Spanish Classes Took a few Spanish Classes in a language school, just around 3 hours a day over the last two weeks. Don´t know if I have learnt that much, but it has been fun to hear a Spanish accent from Spain, a bit different from what I heard in Peru, Mexico & Cuba. The lessons were conducted in Spanish - the teacher is skilled enough to be able to explain Spanish words and gramatical concepts to people who don´t understand the language in Spanish.
Traffic Have noticed that traffic is extremely patient here. Some residential streets are very narrow and so there is no room for over taking. Most of the time people seem to wait without honking their horns too much. Have not seen any road rage, but perhaps they exercise more self control than I might have previously thought. Also there seems to be heaps of time for pedestrians to cross streets. Drivers don´t seem to be in a rush to go through intersections, and don´t edge forward while people are still crossing.
Want to see more photos? Have a look at my website here:
http://www.firemanonasailingship.com/photos/ Aqueduct in Segovia
Later on in the day, when more people were about.
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anonymous
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Round south america in 80 days ha...
Hey Paolo howz it going? Glad to hear your ok and still enjoying yourself. Wow the Plaza Mayor looks huge, was trying the locate the beer truck in the photo..hehe New Zealand weather is pretty crap at the moment, it seems the bubble of population surrounding Auckland cannot withstand or protect us from the mass amounts of rain and hail we've been having. I guess you've heard by now about the freak floods in the Bay of Plenty? Well dude better go and do some work as i'am due to start work.....look forward to hearing from you again and take care. Peace Out - Priya