Madrid

We’re back on the road for a tour of Spain, and a little Portugal, for the next 6 weeks.

The flight was almost uneventful, but for the chaos at Frankfurt airport. Four booths checking through immigration the thousands of Canadians, Americans and Aussies arriving at the same time. The lining up was OK, but the constant pushing in by others certainly tested the patience. Thankfully we had plenty of time and made it through in time to make the connection to Madrid.

We reached the hotel by around 2pm. Once checked in and freshened up we went to explore the local area, get our bearings, and most importantly stay awake.

We’re staying on the Gran Via, so it wasn’t long until we were seeing the sites.

After a quick exploration we decided it was time to find some Tapas. We headed a bit out of the main tourist area (as suggested by our receptionist) and found some places packed with the lunch time crowd at 4pm in the afternoon.

We found a free corner and Bel ordered a Sangria – she was a bit shocked at how big it was!

For the remainder of the day we enjoyed a few tapas and drinks. Both were great and surprisingly cheap at around 3 euros a drink.

The following morning we started with a walk down to Plaza del Sol, the centre of Madrid, for breakfast.

The plaza is famous for its statue of the bear and tree, and as a celebration point at New Year’s Eve.

Breakfast was an interesting experience, and we’re quickly learning that we need to start learning a lot more Spanish. It was nice, but not what we thought we ordered :)).

We then headed to Plaza Mayor, another famous Plaza that is also infamous for many public inquisition executions.

Next it was time catch the Hop on Hop off bus for a tour of Madrid’s sites, but not before another tasty snack from a hole in the wall chain called Oink. So good.

Spanish Tortilla on a roll, I had the mini Iberico jamon roll.

The City bus tours are always a great way to get a guided tour of the main sites of the city with a little history along the way.

We did the full lap before hopping off at Plaza d’Espana and walking through some of the major attractions.

Templo De Debod, a reconstructed Egyptian temple

The outlook from Templo de Debod over the city and toward the Royal Palace

We arrived just in time for the changing of the guards

The view over the city and mountains from the palace

After plenty of walking we completed a loop back to Plaza Mayor by mid afternoon and stopped for some tapas and drinks. We had noticed along the way a lot of red jerseys with a logo I didn’t recognize so I looked it up and discovered there was a champions league game on between Berlin Union and Real Madrid. Which also explained why there were police everywhere!

Sightseeing done, it was time to have some fun and we did a self guided tapas tour until we eventually found a pub that was playing the Rugby and Football.

And then finished the day with a nightcap at the hotel rooftop bar. It gets dark very late here for the time of year, but sunrise is late also -around 8am, it’s like an extended daylight savings.

For our last day in Madrid we ticked off the remaining two items on our bucket list. A morning walk through Retiro park, followed by an afternoon tour through the Prado museum.

We passed Puerta de Alcala on our walk to the park

The garden was a beautiful place to visit but we were both surprised by the lack of maintenance with many areas overrun with weeds. We weren’t sure why but Bel thought maybe they were waiting for a cooler period before they did the maintenance.

Once we had finished the walk we had some spare time before the tour, so, as you do, we bought some chocolate!

Next was the Prado museum, in which we weren’t able to take any photos! Not great for a blog, so I’ll have to steal from google!

We joined a guided tour through the gallery, as neither Bel or I are art experts, and it made a big difference to our experience. We were taken through all the most famous works, starting with Hieronymus Bosch and his triptych – Garden of Earthly delights .

Next was works from famous Flemish artists depicting religious scenes, and then it was the master Ruben and many of his works.

Velazquez and Goya were the biggest names on show. Both were great but Goyas black series, painted when he had gone mad from lead poisoning, had the biggest impact on me. So dark.