Hola Madrid!
On Tuesday morning we walked across the river to the Renfe station to catch the 8.58 train to Madrid. In Spain they have airport-style security for long-distance trains, and we had to put our bags through a scanner before we boarded. The train was to Madrid was slow and took about five hours to chug down to Madrid. The countryside was quite dull, lots of low hills, brown fields and small pine trees. We passed through no pretty towns at all, no wonder Don Quixote got bored and chased after windmills.
We arrived at Charmartin station and got the Metro (which is extensive and very good) to Tribunal station and walked to our next AirBnB at 17 Calle Fuencarral. Our hostess Julia had a big flat on the fifth floor above a very trendy shopping street, it was like living above Kingston High Street. Julia was a slightly scruffy and bohemian and worked in a theatre. Her English was poor and my Spanish is non-existent, so we didn’t talk much, but she was kind and helpful.
After settling in, we walked to the Gran Via, which is Madrid’s equivalent of Oxford Street. The weather was about twenty-five degrees when we arrived and got hotter during the day, which is what happens in a city in the middle of Spain. We walked about a mile from the flat to the Prado art gallery, which (according to the guidebooks) one of the best in the world. In the evenings it is free to get in, so we joined a long queue and waited for the 6pm opening. It’s like London’s National Gallery, very big and very full of old masters. If you like picture of Jesus, Mary and men in frilly collars, then it’s the place for you. The pictures are very good, but the subject matter is limited, mostly religious, mystical or dead aristocracy and their dogs.
I saw the Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymous Bosch, it had the biggest group pf people looking at it. That Bosch guy must have been on drugs when he painted it, it’s very surreal.
After a couple of hours of high culture, we needed a drink and found our way to Chueca Plaza and sat in the first cafe with a spare table. I ordered Ham Hock, which was large and filling, but tasted a bit unusual like it had been in the fridge too long before they cooked it. But like most food, if you wash it down with enough beer it’s fine.
Whenever we visit a new city we are disoriented for the first day or two, and then get our bearings and understand where one part of town is in relation to another. The centre of Madrid is not so big, and most of the main sites are with a half hour walk of the flat. It turned out we were staying in quite a cool part of town, like being in Soho.
timharnesstravels 