Madrid

Friday

                Friday was test day in my first class; however I think it went better than my first one two weeks ago. Our train to Madrid was scheduled for 2:45pm so we had to skip our last class of the day but our professor was okay with it. Once back at the apartment, I did some last minute packing before heading out to meet up with Paige. Things seemed to be going according to schedule until Concepción  lost her keys so after some fruitless searching I gave her mine since I didn’t have time to wait in order to catch the train. After meeting up with Paige we set out to find the train station. We ended up cutting it close getting to the station only about fifteen minutes before departure time. I was just glad we made it there at all considering the station isn’t on my maps because of how far out it is and we had never walked in that direction before so it was a little bit of guesswork, but it all turned out fine.

                The train ride to Madrid was relaxing and the movie shown was Captain America, so the two and a half hour trip passed quickly. Once in Madrid we met up with Paige’s friend Julie who is studying in Madrid for the semester. She helped us find our hotel, which was really awesome and this time all the lights worked. Then we walked outside for a little bit looking for a good (and cheap) place to find supper. We settled on a pizza place and got a medium pizza with ham that was really good and not a bad price for size. Once back at the hotel, we ended the night by watching Disney channel in Spanish. Good times.

Saturday

                Saturday morning the first thing on our agenda was to go to the famous Prado Museum. I love being a student because it enables us to get in free to the majority of museums or at least get discounts. The Prado was no exception and we were admitted for free. What we thought would only take two to three hours at most was more like five hours. There were rooms and rooms and even more rooms filled with paintings and sculptures. It was impressive but also a little exhausting. Some of the more famous painters that have works there were Goya, Raphael, Titian, El Greco, Rembrandt and Velázquez.

Prado Museum

                By the time we left the Prado, it was almost four in the afternoon, so we decided we should probably eat something since we hadn’t even had breakfast. The first place we came to was Burger King, I know it’s not a very good way to get immersed in the culture, but it was affordable and we were starving and that’s what counts. Then we went on to the Reina Sofía Art Museum which was more of a modern art museum. It was neat and had a lot of Dali and Picasso surrealist art as well as the famous Guernica painting by Picasso. I didn’t realize how huge Guernica was until we entered the room and it basically takes up the whole wall. So that was pretty cool, however I think of the two museums I preferred the Prado which was more along the lines of realism and romanticism.

Reina Sofia Museum (with cool glass elevators)

                Then we wandered up to Puerta del Sol which is a big plaza area that is super busy and full of musicians and people in costume. It is also full of pickpockets as I’ve been told by several people and in my travel guide books, however I made sure I kept a good grip on my purse at all times. In the plaza was also a stature of a bear and a tree that is supposedly pretty significant since in most of the shops there are statues and magnets of the bear. After wandering around for a while and browsing around in the surrounding shops, we ate supper at a pizza place that charged a euro per slice and was very good. Then we wandered around some more and by around nine started to head back towards the hotel. We didn’t get far before we spotted a shop that had yummy looking pastries in the window so we of course stopped and bought pastries that had a chocolate and cream center and were delicious. Then we found a shop right next door that sold sweatshirts so Paige got an “I love Madrid” sweatshirt and as we were about to leave Julie called. She wanted to come out and join us at Puerta del Sol so we went back to the plaza to wait for her to arrive. Since it was really cold out, as usual, we went into el Cortes Inglés to warm up since it was right next to the plaza. About forty-five minutes to an hour later, Julie arrived and then we wandered around some more and ended up going to the Plaza Mayor which was basically kind of like a large courtyard. From there we walked to the Cathedral of Madrid and then to the Opera house. Finally at some time after 10:30 we headed back towards the hotel and didn’t reach it until 11:30 because we were on the other side of the city and it was quite a walk.

Sunday

                We took the metro to the Cathedral for Mass at 10:30am and since we arrived early I walked around and took some pictures before Mass started. After Mass, which was the longest one I’d been to yet and lasted for about forty-five minutes, we walked around some more taking pictures. It had some really beautiful statues; however the stained glass and main alter area of the Cathedral made it appear more modern than the other cathedrals I’ve seen so far in Spain.

                Our next stop was right next door at the Royal Palace. Once we paid and passed through the security system area and gift shop we ended up in the courtyard area that provided a good view of the Palace and the Cathedral. We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the palace which was a bummer because there were definitely some picture-worthy sights. It reminded me a little of my tour of the White House because there was a fancy dining hall and rooms with specific color or decoration schemes like one that was called the yellow room. However, this was much older than the White House and was very impressive and ornate. My favorite room was the Throne Room which thanks to eavesdropping on a tour guide I found out that with each new king and queen a new throne is built and it has their portrait on it. After seeing a bunch of rooms mainly from Carlos III’s reign including his study and bedroom where he died, we saw some rooms filled with medals and decorative glassware. At the end of the palace visit we saw the Royal Chapel which had a special throne for the king and queen. Then we visited the Royal Armory which was filled with knight armor from the 16^th, 17^th and 18^th centuries including statues of horses and knights wearing the armor. There were also a ton of swords and pistols from those centuries as well as some other weapons including knives and small-looking cannons. Overall it was quite fascinating to see so much armor each with a unique design from so long ago. I really wish photos were allowed because I wanted so badly to take a picture. We ended our visit with the Royal Pharmacy, which were basically a few rooms filled with jars and glasses of herbs and such and an office place.

                From the palace we walked to Madrid’s genuine Egyptian monument which was given to them from Egypt for some political reason or other but I can’t remember now. It was pretty cool to see and it was located at a nice viewing spot of the city so it was worth visiting. We didn’t make it in time to go inside though, which was a disappointment since they practically closed it in our faces but it looked cool from the outside anyway. Then we walked to the Plaza de España which wasn’t nearly as cool as Sevilla’s Plaza de España but it did have large statues of Don Quixote and his sidekick Sancho. We took the metro back to the area near our hotel and from there went to see Retiro Park. Retiro Park is basically a large nature walk area in the city and has some nice trees and little bridges and such. It would have been a nicer place to visit in warmer weather but it was still pretty to see.

                Before heading back to the hotel to get our bags, we had lunch at McDonalds. Again not the Spanish place to eat, but we found a one euro menu and Spain McDonalds has onion rings on their one euro menu, unlike in the US. Also it was the fastest service I’ve ever received, because they had these kiosks that you could opt to place your order yourself at and as soon as I printed my receipt and went to the counter my food was already there. I was impressed.

                Then it was time to bid adios to Madrid and take the train back to Sevilla. Once we sat down in our seats on the train, we were surprised to discover that the travelers in the two seats next to us were fellow CLIC students. I knew there were going to be other students from CLIC in Madrid over the weekend, however what are the odds of ending up on the same train (there are at least several a day in between the cities) and in the same row on the same car.

                Once back in Sevilla, it took us about a half hour to walk back to familiar territory and then when I got back to the apartment I had to ring the bell and hope Concepción was in since I’d left my keys with her.  Fortunately she was there and let me in and I was glad to hear she had found her keys finally so that I could have mine back. All in all it has been a busy but enjoyable weekend. I don’t think I liked it better than Granada, because the views in Granada were absolutely gorgeous, but it was definitely worth visiting Madrid.