Day 1 -- 22nd May
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| 10:50 |
After an 8-hour red eye flight, we touched down at Madrid,
the capital of Spain.
The airport was huge (Terminal 4, where we landed, was one of the largest airport terminal
building in the world), and it took us quite a while to ride up and down all the escalators
and go through the immigration and customs.
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| 11:25 |
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| Train approaching the platform... |
The first thing to do after going through the customs was to get some Euros from the ATM.
You don't get anywhere without local currency!
Since we did not have a hotel reservation for the night,
we visited the information counter to get a room near the city center.
Then we took the Metro (underground rail) to the hotel.
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| 12:40 |
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| Gran Via. |
We arrived at Gran Via (Great Road), the thoroughfare across the heart of Madrid.
Quickly we found Hostal Besaya,
just off Gran Via at a busy intersection.
The hostel was on the 8th floor;
it is common in Spain to have a hostel in the upper storeys of a residential building,
and there may be other hostels in other storeys of the same building.
We put our bags in the room, asked for some advice from the friendly innkeeper,
and then quickly headed out to begin our adventure.
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| 13:00 |
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| Teatro Real. |
Speed was essential, as our first stop, Teatro Real
(Royal Theater) would be closing at 1pm.
Fortunately, it was only a few blocks from the hostel, and made the very last guided tour.
The mid-19th Opera house was closed for more than 70 years until 1997,
after an ultra-expensive refurbishment funded by the Royal House.
(Note the word "Real" in the name.)
These days the interior was expectedly luxurious, with numerous portraits of
the Spanish royalties, and an enormous royal box for the King Juan Carlos and Queen Sophia
when they had time for Opera.
(We noticed that Placido Domingo will be performing; that should be good enough for the royals.)
Unfortunately, photography was not allowed inside the theater.
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| 13:45 |
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| Emily at the Plaza. |
Plaza de Oriente, with the Palace at the background. |
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Outside Teatro Real was Plaza de Oriente,
a refreshing open space with flowers, fountains and statues.
General Franco used to address his followers here.
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| 14:05 |
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| Palacio Real. |
On the other side of Plaza de Oriente was Palacio Real (Royal Palace).
Many Guardia Civil (Civil Guard) with the plastic triangular hats patrolled the place;
we could not even get near the main door to take a picture.
Instead, the entrance was through a side gate, which led into the spacious courtyard.
The mid-18th century building was used only for state occasions;
the King and Queen usually lived at a smaller palace outside the city,
allowing more rooms of the palace to be open to be public (again, no photography).
In fact, this palace was supposed to have more rooms than any other European Palaces,
and as far as we could tell,
every room was decorated with giant portraits and massive chandeliers.
The most famous one was probably Salon del Trono (Throne Room),
where the Thrones of the King and Queen sat.
The Throne Room was quite small (no long approach to the throne like in the movies),
reflecting the ceremonial nature of the monarchy.
Also open to the public was Armeria Real (Royal Armory),
with beautiful antique armors and weapons, as well as a small museum of paintings.
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| 15:40 |
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| Jardines Sabatini. |
Immediately to the north of the Palace was the small garden
Jardines Sabatini.
With insufficient sleep on the plane,
we were both quite tired and decided to take a siesta on a park bench.
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| 16:50 |
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| Campo del Moro. |
Fat pheasants. |
After a refreshing nap, we continued our adventure to the royal gardens of
Campo del Moro, the north gate of which was only 5 minutes away.
However, a Guardia Civil was guarding the open gate, and we had to make a detour to enter
through the west gate, which was a further 10 minutes down the road.
The garden itself was very enjoyable, not only for its great views of the Palace,
but also for its shady, quiet paths, so cool under the warm summer sky.
We found some fat pheasants dancing in the grass,
and many fluffy ducklings sleeping near a flowery pond.
Then we exited by the south gate, only to find the open gate again guarded.
We were told only royalties could exit by this gate,
and we had to walk 10 minutes back to the west gate to leave.
This is ridiculous.
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| 18:30 |
On the south side of the Palace was the Catedral (Cathedral, of course).
When we first entered the Cathedral, we were surprised by its simplicity;
absent were all the glittering gold which we had come to expect from Cathedrals
after our trip in Latin America.
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| Inside the Catedral. |
Instead we found a quiet, modest, dimly lit church,
with flowers marking the resting places of the departed.
Only after we exited we found a different entrance which led to the real Catedral;
we were only visiting the crypt!
Bright and colorful (it was opened only in 1993), the Catedral was much closer to our image
of the center of worship in such a Catholic nation.
Many of its decoration show clear influence from the modern art movements.
Instead of baroque and neo-classical, we found the bold colors and dynamic lines of the Latins.
While it was not as atmospheric as the crypt downstairs,
it definitely came with a distinct, vibrant personality.
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| 20:00 |
Dinner time!
Spaniards are nightowls: dinner never starts before 8pm and lasts until midnight,
when the real nightlife begins. (No wonder they need siestas.)
We were at Plaza de Moros, a local dining hotspot.
Following the example of the locals, we hopped from one tapa bar to another,
ordering a small fish tapa at one, a dish of fried pig ears at the next.
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| White fish. |
Pig ears. |
Jamon! Embudito! |
At the third place, El Tempranillo, we met a British couple,
who advised us to order the famous Spanish jamon (ham) and embutido (sausage).
Indeed, huge legs of jamon and coils of sausages were hanging on the wall;
we watched the bartender shaved slices from four of them onto our platter.
This was an eye-opener; both embutidoes (Chorizo and Sal Chichon) and
jamons (Cecina and Jamon de Bellota) were delicious in their own different ways.
Our favorite was the Cecina, which was juicy and distinctively aromatic.
And the wonderful taste was enhanced by the beautiful red wine from the Rioja region
which our British friends recommended.
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| 21:20 |
After the enjoyable meal, we strolled along the streets of Madrid,
which were much more crowded and lively than in daylight.
It looked like the whole city was out and having a good time.
The most crowded were the tapa places, with most diners packed around the bars,
busily ordering, eating, drinking, and then ordering more.
If Madrid was so festive on an ordinary Thursday evening, how would it be on a weekend?
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| 21:40 |
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| Plaza Major. |
This was Plaza Major, the historic main square of Madrid,
surrounded by a continuous wall of red buildings with hundreds of windows.
The endless parade of restaurants around the Plaza was tempting;
unfortunately we were too stuffed to eat any more.
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| 22:00 |
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| Puerta del Sol. |
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Crowds near Sol. |
Puerta del Sol (Sun Gate) was the official center of Madrid and whole Spain:
all the highway distances were measured from here.
At night, it was a crowded intersection, like Times Square in New York.
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| 22:20 |
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| Gran Via at night. |
We followed the bright lights of Gran Via and returned to the hostel.
The jubiliant laughters and excited noises from the Avenue rose through the 8 storeys
to our windows and provided the soundtrack for our first night in Spain.
Madrid was young and lively; it did not need to sleep;
but we were old and exhausted: we fell asleep quickly,
only to be awakened multiple times by the rowdy crowd downstairs.
But this was their city, and they had the right to enjoy their lives.
next day
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Created on 21st Jun 2008. Last updated on 8th Nov 2008.
ckchow.mbox@gmail.com
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