So yesterday David had to spend it revising which allowed me and Ruth to have our own little adventure in Madrid. Before then we hadn’t really seen the city but that would change today.
We caught the train in and arrived about 11. The lady at the station gave us a map and circled some buildings and told us where certain ones are we had our eye on. The only thing we had to go see was the Reina Sofia as they had an exhibition on surrealism, cubism and this building held the masterpiece that is the Goernica.
But before all that we had to see the rest of the cty and we decided to at first head to Plaza Mayor.
In comparison to Prague – Madrid is huge, like ginormous, its expanse is ridiculous. So when me and Ruth started walking we figured it would take a while but we forgot that Prague – is tiny.
Where it would take you ten minutes to get anywhere in Prague this walk was about half an hour, which, as it turns out, is not that long.
We walked through the archway past Plaza Santa Cruz and this huge area opened up to us.
The sun had caused a beautiful shadow over half the square so coffee houses in the sunny area were all buzzing – not busy though. El Casa Mayor had some beautiful murials painted in to the architecture and there was a lone state on horseback sitting right in the centre. There was a single saxaphone player, playing music that filled this massive enclosed square so we decided to indulge in a little Spanish breakfast, chocolate and churros.
The most important thing about Spain is no the rush, because no one else is. We waited for half an hour for the churros to come and then relaxed for another 20 minutes after we finished. When we did decide to make a move the next stop was going to be the Royal Palace. To tour the palace itself cost about 8€ so we decided against that andwent to check out the cathedral while we were there. Once you’ve seen one Catholic Cathedral in Europe you’ve seen them all. Catedral de Ntra. Sra. De la Almundena was different though. This seemed to be more modern than usual, as if it had been re-done by some 20th Cneture artist, and this may have been the case.
The entire building seemed to form the shape of a cross with most of it looking very traditional at first glance but when taking a closer inspection, we see that the stained glass windows are almost cubist in their design and the celing looks like a tasteful 60’s acid trip, adding flare to a building that in most cities are in danger of boring their followers. It was clearly still active though as we saw a live confession taking place.
We decided to see the Royal Gardens or Jardin de Sabitini. The patterns in the bushes were shaped like mazes and each fountain we saw was as impreseive (if not moreso) than the one before.
We meandered our way through the mazes and briefly saw Parque del Oeste, before realising we’d been going for nearly 3 hours. It was coffee time and we decided to go to the café in the Royal Palace for an overpriced we even managed to sneak in the main courtyard to see what was around after that. The Royal Café was to expensive to get food in as well so we decided to have a makeshift picnic.
We stopped at a 24 hour shop to get some bread, cheese, chorizo, fruit and crisps. Top it all off with a little Sangria and we have a meal fit for Kings. We decided to eat to eat in Prague del Retiro in front of the lake on the steps of Monumento a Algonso XII.
The sky was blue, not a cloud in the sky just the warmth of the sun beaming down on our faces. This day was turning out to be the best ever. We also managed to find an English paper and enjoyed a good hour’s R+R.
That reluctant feeling to move from your bed in the morning usually means you have to get up. This feeling had dawned upon us but we decided to head over to the other side of the lake and ease our terribly hectic day back into action by bobbing along the lake on a boat for a bit.
The time had now reached half five and we needed to start make a move to complete our only set task for the day of heading to the art museum.
We began to mosey our way out of the park and head back to where we first started. We’d managed to do a complete circle walk as the museum was just next door to the train station. Along the way we noticed several book stalls exiting the park. Similar to ones you find in Paris. They were all second hand books and magazines with the majority of them in Spanish but Ruth found an old French art magazine that she loved and insisted on buying as well as a ‘history of flying’ book that her Dad would have loved – had it been in English.
Finally it was time to make our way to the museum, just after a quick coffee – you’d be a fool to head into a museum without one in your system. So we grabbed a quick espresso and at 7 made it across the street to Centro de Arte Reina Sofia.
After 7 it was free and this worked well for us so we began walking through the main exhibitions. I saw a wonderful video of Buster Keaton and Patsy Cline called ‘Another Perfect Day’. I also spent time reading letters and notes from Pablo Picasso as well as plenty of his work. I made my way to the Salvador Dali exhibition where I encountered a new found respect for him and learned to really appreciate his work but it was time to join Ruth in the main Picasso showcase.
It’s prefix was called ‘Europe at War’ and it took you through the Spanish Civil Wars, the World Wars and expanded your mind into what you were about to see. The exhibit also began showing you slives of the final piece in it’s original drafts – seceral heads of mothers crying, horses dying, severed arms until you turned into the final room to experience the Goernica.
The piece covered most of the wall and potrayed the horror of war in Picasso’s popular Cubist style. Ruth had already been showing at it for 15 minutes but I joined for another ten and I had to consciously close my jaw at least twice. To try and describe this work would do it a disservice, just believe me when I say, it has to be seen.
We slowly began being ushered out and proceeded as we knew the day had barely begun, not in Spain at least. We brought a quick Burger King and caught the train back to David’s by about 22.15. We had barely walked through the door when we were being pushed back out because tonight was a fiesta.
While walking back to the train station David’s friend saw us and stopped, he was driving so took us back into Madrid.
Me and Ruth had one final tourist moment when we stopped to have a few drunks outside the Bernabeu, Real Madrid’s football stadium. As massive building and very impressive but it was no Millennium Stadium.
We then proceeded to the club known as ‘Lemon’ and after 20 mins of waiting in line to enter and a further 45 wasted in failing to get a drink, myself and Ruth left feeling that we had wasted 10€.
We went next door to a bar that may as well be British and felt much more at home. After a few beers, and games of pool, we decided to try ‘Lemon’ again.
It was a bit more successful then our previous attempt and the night got back on track. Ruth and I were both taught to dance-Latin style and we kept going til gone six. Which of course meant we got back to David’s at 8. We went straight to bed and didn’t wake up until 5.
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