Day: 51-56 Location: Madrid, Spain Weather: Sunny, 15C-18C
November 6-11, 2017
With November being well under way, it was time to hop on an overnight bus and make my way to Spain. First stop: Madrid! I was so excited to explore this city in particular, as for me, Madrid meant two things: art and food (tapas = yum!)! Really, at the end of the day, what else is there??
I arrived very early in the morning, just before 8am and by some travel miracle, my hotel room was actually ready! Sleeping on an overnight bus is not the most restful thing in the world, so I took full advantage of a cushy bed and caught up on some Z’s before hitting the ground running.
Madrid is Spain’s capital and its largest city, with a population of 6.5 million. My first impression of Madrid, after walking around the “downtown” core was that it was very, well, white. The buildings I mean. Everything was clean and crisp, building seemingly freshly painted white and gleaming. Most importantly, it was clean and orderly!
While travelling in Europe, I often use the “Rick Steves Audio Europe Travel ” app, which is a free audio guide app for most major European cities. This time around, it brought me to all the major tourist sites and one pretty delicious surprise: La Mallorquina, a wonderfully scrumptious local bakery. The audio guide provided me with helpful ordering instructions, such as ‘be forecful but polite’, ‘ know what you want before ordering’ and ‘have your money ready’, all of which I found curious until I walked in. The place was packed. Like, sardines in a can, packed.
I wound my way to counter and adoringly gazed at all the deliciousness on display. I immediately settled on Rick’s suggestion: the napolitana, but savoury instead of sweet. It took a good 20 minutes of me politely trying to make eye contact with the man behind the counter but he consistantly served those who were confidently shouting their orders in Spanish, por favor. I was finally able to acquire my tasty treat and I headed outside to enjoy. Warm ham with some type of creamy cheese mixture envelopped by flaky croissant dough. OMG. So this is what heaven taste like. I had no sooner finished it that I promptly turned around, headed back in and bought three more, “for later”. I will not confirm nor deny that I ate those other pastries within the next few hours…hey, I walked a lot that day, so it evens out, right??
Continuing on my food journey, no trip to Madrid would be complete without a stop at a local food market. Mercado de San Miguel, located in the heart of the city, receives more than 10million visitors every year. Both days I visited, at least 1 million of those tourists were there. Ok, slight exaggeration, but there were a lot of people!
It was the perfect place to enjoy some tapas, a staple of Spanish cuisine. Tapas are small food portions, or “appetizers” as we North Americans like to call them. To me, it’s the perfect opportunity to sample a whole wide variety of different delicious foods.
A Spanish staple that I was excited to try is the “fried squid cone” – basically, fried calamari. Squid or cod pieces are kept warm and simply scopped up into a paper cone for an easy, portable treat!
It reminded me of a grown up version of my childhood “cone fries”. Now, I know that for some of you this does not look at all appetizing, but trust me, it is! The tentacles were especially crunchy and savoury!
Another well know Spanish delicacy I couldn’t pass up was the churro. A deep fried pastry served warm with a hot, melted pot of deep, dark chocolate for dipping…. yes, it is as good as it looks / sounds!
The Royal Palace
Palacio Real de Madrid is the official residence of the Spanish royal family. However, it is now used solely for ceremonial purposes, as the King prefers to live outside of Madrid. Whie the palace was originally built in 880, it was heavily renovated by the King in the 1700’s. Having grown up with his cousin in the Palace of Versaille, he modeled his new home after the golden palace, albeit in a significantly more astere style.
Almudena Cathedral
Next door to the palace is Madrid’s cathedral, Almudena. While construction began on this church in 1879, it was soon put on hold due to the Spanish Civil War. Construction was restarted in the 1950’s and the cathedral was finally consecrated in 1993 by Pope John Paul II. By European church standards, Almudena’s interior was quite simple and, well, nothing to write home about.
The Golden Triangle of Art
I was truly blessed with the opportunity to visit some world class museum and to revel for a few days in some exquisite masterpieces.
Located along the Paseo del Prado (Madrid’s main boulevard), the so called ‘golden triangle of art’ is comprised of 3 museums: Prado Museum, the Reina Sofía Museum and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum.
The Prada Museum (right) was my first stop. Filled to the brim with national art – thanks to the former Spanish Royal collection it is the single best collection of Spanish art – it is also considered to have one of the world’s finest collections of European art, dating from the 12th century to the early 20th century. The Velazquez collection was impressive and breathtaking – 3 entire rooms dedicated to this Spanish painter! The collection includes works from the likes of Rapahel , Titian, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Rubens, Goya, etc, etc, etc.
Valazquez’s Las Meninas
Museo Reina Sofía
This is a modern art mecca. Overflowing with works by 2 of Spain’s most famous 20th-century masters, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí, it is one of the world’s largest mseums for modern art.
The most famous masterpiece in the museum is Picasso’s painting Guernica, a massive painting, depicting over 11×25 feet the horros of the Spanish Civil War. Sadly, to preserve this national treasure, photos are not allowed!
Paintings by (left to right): Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali
The Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum
The museum’s principle purpose is the “fill in the gaps” left by the other two museum. It features works by Europeen artistic schools, such as those by the Italians, the English, the Dutch and the German.
Amongst the pieces by Cezanne, Rubens, Caravaggio and Rembrandt, I stumbled upon one work that immediatly caught my eye: Woman in Bath.
The artist, Lichtenstein, took the basic colors of red, blue and yellow to create this comic-strip inspired work using his famous ‘dot’ technique. Literally, upon closer examination, one can see the the piece is made up entirely of dots, instead of more traditional brush works. Amazing!
Even the street performers in Madrid are top notch: they must audition before a board and be granted a seasonal permit to perform. Only the best of the best make the cut, like this wonderfully entertaining group below.