Madrid. June 16

Today we met another free walking tour in the Plaza Mayor in the centre of town. The tour was great, as usual, and our guide was pretty fun. He was super into history and Madrid, but also very into human rights and equality, made evident in the huge rants he would go on, although we loved these and always agreed with him anyway. Madrid’s architecture is very mismatched and he pointed out the buildings from different eras of rulers. The Habsburgs those Flanders royals with the big jaws, were super into the pointed roofs from home so there were a few grand buildings around in this style. Then after a ‘mysterious’ fire, a new Royal palace was built by a French king, so it now looks a bit like a mini Versailles.
Another interesting thing in terms of history and architecture is that Madrid is technically referred to as a town rather than a city, due to the fact that Madrid never had a Cathedral, or at least, not until 1993. The cathedral was so many years in planning, that every face, or even two parts of a face, looks different to another, as the style changed and no one wanted to continue in the previous architects style. It’s pretty good and silly. The façade of the cathedral that faces the palace is full of holes and repairs, due to gunfire during the Spanish inquisition.
At the end of the tour we were given a full-blown royal history run though from our guide, who used all the men in the group as props. It was as interesting as it was hard to follow, but we got the general gist of how incest pretty much killed the monarchy. Super gross. Also please look up the Habsburgs and mostly poor Charles II.

Multifaced cathedral

The Palace

We left the group in the gardens by the palace and then found lunch in a café, where we stayed and chatted out of the sun for a bit. We split ways here and Elise went off to see Prado Museum of Art, while Ash went to explore the sights of Madrid. We will write how our respective afternoons went below.

Elise:
After walking to Prado, rushing past as many of the school groups heading the same way as I could. I arrived at the museum to find the main entrance ‘Velasquez’ closed, and covered for repairs, which was a bit of a shame. I got lost trying to find the entrance, and once inside I got lost/ overwhelmed for another 20 minutes before actually entering the gallery I wanted to start in. My plan of attack was to find the key works I had always wanted to see first, and then fill in the gaps after, a rule I followed for the most part, although in a building so big, sometimes I chose to finish the wing I had started. I was able to see a huge collection of Goya’s paintings, including the ‘The Second of May, 1808’ and ‘The Third Of May, 1808’. I also saw Velasquez’s ‘Les Meninas’ which was pretty cool to see in person after spending so long studying it in school. There were lots of other amazing paintings to see, that I won’t bore you all with naming.  After I finally found my way through the entire museum, checking the rooms I was in off as I finished them (tactic is key), I headed out of the museum to meet Ash at the city gardens behind the gallery. I passed through a great entrance gate and up some grand stairs to the lake in the middle.

Ash:
After leaving Elise I attempted to head back to the Palace as a starting point and walk up from there to other sights, before crossing the city. I was firstly distracted by an apple store, I desperately needed new earphones so I grabbed those on the way. Then I was distracted by many other shops. New rule, Elise can't leave me alone for long periods of time because I'll just end up shopping, oops. So a new top later I got to the Palace and found these lovely manicured gardens above it. I then wandered from here to a park which features these Egyptian monuments, called Temple of Dabod. These were originally built just south of Aswan early in the 2nd century BC, and now reside in Madrid after the help Spain provided when these monuments were at risk after the Aswan High Dam construction in the 1960's. The park was very tranquil compared to the city and I spent some time here relaxing and reading. From this point at the top of the city I walked towards the other Park to meet Elise, via the main shopping street Gran Via. I know, I know, more shopping. But you don't understand how much cheaper Zara is in Spain! I bought things, which I will not disclose, let's just say my bag only just shuts now. Finally I made it to the park and sat watching tourists trying to row boats on a small lake in the middle of the park until Elise arrived to meet me.

Temple Debod

Plaza de Cibeles

We sat at a while at the monument watching the leisure rowers in the middle. We had our classic romantics, clumsy school girls, boys who thought they were gentlemen rowing boats full of laughing girls around, tourist families and go-proers. Eventually when we had taken in as much as we could of the spectacle and headed for the south of the gardens. We passed a man passionately singing/miming for a music video, lots of dogs, two girls failing at tandem biking up a hill and many skateboarders, all while eating our cornettos.  We stopped at the Crystal Palace, an empty glasshouse now used as an exhibition space, which today contained a huge tent made of colourful fabrics. Inside people were lying down and relaxing, while a man made Moroccan tea! Amazing! We refrained however.

Watching the many fails

"Is he for reals in a music video?"

Much enjoyment, many wows

The tent inside the Crystal Palace

V crystal, much transparency 

"How get out of giant park?"

We continued our walk through the gardens and then around the streets, and ended up at the Mercado San Miguel. The Mercado is a large, glassed in marketplace full of food sellers and mini bars. We wandered around all the stores and chose to start with a shared plate of chorizo paella. It was obviously super yum, but we wanted everything, and next shared two pinchos, one with whipped buffalo mozzarella, fig and honey on bread, and the other was a rolls of mozzarella, pesto and tomato, also on bread. These were both super tasty, and we were satisfied, but we obviously couldn’t go without dessert. Or maybe even double dessert? First we shared some churros with dipping chocolate, which is a must in Spain, duh. And then we decided that with all the frozen yogurt stalls around, we had better try some, and each got a bowl of frozen yogurt and delishioso toppings. Ash had brownie sauce and oreo and Elise had thick hot caramel and oreo. So pretty good. Also we are bursting full by now.

We walked, or maybe waddled, back to the central square and the evening light was amazing, so we took a few detours to have a look around one last time. Eventually we made it back to the apartment, struggling our way up the many stairs to our room and as soon as we could, into bed.

Madrid constellation

Elise letting us into our place

Love A&E